:''This article is about the
Saudi Arabian city. For the Australian movie, see
Jedda.''
'Jeddah' (also spelled 'Jiddah', 'Jidda', or 'Jedda'; ''Ǧiddah'') is a
Saudi Arabian city located on the coast of the
Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in
Makkah Province, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city,
Riyadh. The population of the city currently stands at over 3.4 million. It is considered the commercial capital of Saudi Arabia
[1] and the wealthiest city in the
Middle East and western
Asia.
[2]
Jeddah is the principal gateway to
Mecca,
Islam's holiest city, which able-bodied
Muslims are required to visit at least once in a lifetime.
Residents of Jeddah are called ''Jeddans''. Jeddah has 24
sister cities, which are selected based on economic, cultural and political criteria.
Etymology and spelling
Jeddah in 1924
There are at least two explanations for the etymology of the name 'Jeddah'. One is that the name means "seashore," since Jeddah is located along the Red Sea coast and served as Mecca's main port. The more common account has it that the name is derived from ''jaddah'', the
Arabic word for "grandmother". According to eastern folk belief, the tomb of
Eve (), considered the grandmother of humanity, is located in Jeddah. The purported "
Grave of Eve" was sealed with concrete by the religious authorities in 1975 as a result of some Muslim pilgrims breaking Islamic tradition by praying at the site.
On official Saudi maps and documents, the city name is transcribed "Jeddah". The
British Foreign Office, however, still insists on using the older spelling of ''Jedda'', contrary to other English-speaking usage -- including other branches of the British government.
The New York Times spells the name as "Jidda."
History
Jeddah in 1938
The city was founded as a fishing hamlet over 2,500 years ago
[3], but first achieved prominence in 647 A.D., when the third Muslim
caliph Uthman Ibn Affan turned it into a
port for Muslim pilgrims making the required
Hajj to Mecca.
Jeddah was for centuries the main city of the historic
Hejaz province and historic port for pilgrims arriving by sea on their pilgrimage or Hajj to Mecca.
Hejaz - including Jeddah - became a part of the
Ayyubid Empire in 1177 during the leadership of
Sharif Ibn Abul-Hashim Al-Thalab.
In 1254, following events in
Cairo, Hejaz became a part of the
Mamluk Sultanate. Sharif Barakat built the first
walls of Jeddah in 1507.
[4]
In 1517, the
Ottoman Turks conquered the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and Syria, during the reign of
Selim I.
[5] As territories of the Mamluk Sultanate, the Hejaz, including the holy city of Mecca and Jeddah, passed into Ottoman possession. The Ottomans rebuilt the weak walls of Jeddah in 1525 following their victory over
Lopo Soares de Albergaria's Armada in the Red Sea.
The new Turkish wall included six
watchtowers and six
city gates. They were constructed to defend against the Portuguese attack. Of the six gates, 'Gate of Mecca' was the eastern gate and 'Gate of
Al-Magharibah' the western one. The 'Gate of Sharif' was south facing. The other gates were 'Gate of Al-Bunt', 'Gate of Al-Sharaf' (also called Gate of Sham) and 'Gate of
Medina' were north facing.
[6] The Turks also built the
The Qishla of Jeddah, a small castle for the city soldjers.
At 1802,
Nejdi forces conquered both Mecca and Jeddah from the Ottomans, when Sharif
Ghalib Efendi informed
Sultan Mahmud II, the sultan ordered his
Egyptian viceroy
Muhammad Ali Pasha to re-take the city. Muhammad Ali successfully regained the city during
Battle of Jeddah in 1813.
During
World War I, Sharif
Hussein bin Ali declared revolt against the
Ottoman Empire seeking independence from the Ottoman Turks and the creation of a single unified
Arab state spanning from
Aleppo in
Syria to
Aden in
Yemen.
A few years later,
Ibn Saud, whose clan originated in the central
Nejd province, conquered Mecca in 1924, Medina, and Jeddah, and deposed the
Sharif of Hejaz,
Ali bin Hussien, who fled to
Cyprus, settling eventually in
Amman,
Jordan, where his descendants became the
Hashemite royal family.
As a result, Jeddah came under the sway of the
Al-Saud dynasty. In 1926, Ibn Saud added the title King of Hejaz to his position of Sultan of Nejd. Today, Jeddah has lost its historical role in peninsular politics, historic Hejaz province along the west coast having been subdivided into smaller provinces, with Jeddah falling within the new province of Makkah with its provincial capital at Mecca.
Geography
Medina Road
Most of Saudi Arabia is
desert. The central region consists of an eroded
plateau, mostly
arid and hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The western region is
mountainous, except for the
coastal plain bordering the Red Sea such as Jeddah.
Jeddah borders the Red Sea from the west and the
Al-Sarawat Mountains from east. It has no rivers or valleys but it includes
Sharm Ob'hur which connect the Red Sea to the other end of the city.
Climate
Unlike other Saudi Arabian cities, Jeddah retains its warm temperature in winter, which can range from +15
°C (59
°F) at midnight to +25 °C (77 °F) in the afternoon. Summer temperatures are considered very hot and break the +40 °C (104 °F) mark in the afternoon dropping to +30 °C (86 °F) in the evening. Rain usually falls in Jeddah in small amounts in December.
Some unusual events often happen during the year, such as
dust storms in summer, coming from the
Arabian Peninsula's deserts or from
North Africa.
Snow does not fall in Jeddah but
ice pellets occasionally fall in January.
| Climate in Jeddah[7] |
|---|
| Temperature | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record high °C (°F) | 25 (77) | 24 (75) | 25 (77) | 30 (86) | 32 (90) | 38 (100) | 40 (104) | 38 (100) | 38 (100) | 33 (91) | 29 (84) | 27 (81) |
|---|
| Record low °C (°F) | 16 (61) | 15 (59) | 17 (63) | 20 (68) | 23 (73) | 26 (79) | 28 (82) | 30 (86) | 27 (81) | 24 (75) | 22 (72) | 18 (64) |
|---|
Cityscape
An example of the buildings in the
Old city
The Westin Hotel
Hilton Jeddah Hotel
A part of the Beach side (Chorniche)
Old Jeddah
Main articles: AL-Balad, Jeddah
The
Old City with its traditional multistory buildings and merchant houses has lost ground to more modern development. However, the city's recent generations have come to appreciate its traditions more, and have persevered in having many of the older buildings carefully preserved.
Resorts
The city has a lot of popular resorts, including ''
Durrat Al-Arus'', ''Crystal Resort'', ''Al Nakheel Village'', ''Sands'', ''Sheraton Abhur'', and many other splendid resorts. Many are renowned for their preserved Red Sea marine life and offshore coral reefs.
Hotels
The increasing occupancy rates of hotels every year depends on the number of tourists and hajj pilgrims. In the last few years, Jeddah received more than 2.5 millions pilgrims per year.
[8]
Transport
Jeddah is served by
King Abdulaziz International Airport. One of the airport's three passenger terminals is a special outdoor "tents" terminal, which was constructed to handle the more than 2 million pilgrims who pass through the airport during the Hajj season.
Moreover, the
Jeddah Seaport which is the
28th largest seaport in the world (2005) handles the majority of Saudi Arabia's commercial movement.
Jeddah does not have any
rapid transit system but a current plan to connect the city to the capital,
Riyadh, via a
train is under construction.
Modern streets connect the city parts to each other, these streets are often under mercy of
sewage workers or
floods.
Consulates
One of three consulates of the
United States of America in Saudi Arabia is located in Jeddah, along with consulates for 67 other countries such as
United Kingdom,
France,
Germany,
Italy,
Russia and
People's Republic of China as well as countries of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference and the
Arab League states.
Economy
With a thousand years of trading behind it and home to some of the world most successful merchants and business people, it is natural that Jeddah is the commercial capital of Saudi Arabia. In addition, the city's geographical location places it at the heart of the region covered by the
Middle East and North Africa, with all their capitals within two hours flying distance, defining Jeddah as the commercial center of the Middle East.
[9]
Tahlia Street is an important fashion and shopping street in the mid-town of Jeddah. It contains many upscale department shops, and boutiques, such as
Prada,
Gucci, and
Giorgio Armani. As the
Champs-Élysées in
Paris, Tahlia Street is believed to be the heart of Jeddah and Saudi Arabia's wealthiest district.
Jeddah industry is 3rd in Saudi Arabia, after
Jubail and
Yanbu.
Quality of Living
Main articles: List of cities by quality of living,
List of cities by Health and Sanitation
Jeddah, along with Riyadh, has the highest ''Quality of Living'' in Saudi Arabia and is also one of the highest in the world, at 55th position, with an index of 98.3, out of 215 cities.
Jeddah is ranked at 55th in
health and
sanitation with an index of 113.5, tied with Riyadh, and is also one of the best ranked cities in the world.
Major organizations headquartered in Jeddah
Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry
The city has several global major organizations such as:
★
Saudi Geological Survey
★
Saudi Arabian Airlines
★
Organization of the Islamic Conference
★
Islamic Development Bank
★
Jeddah Economic Forum
★ Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Organization
★
Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry
★
Jeddah Marketing Board
★
International Association of Islamic Banks
★ Islamic Shipowners Association
★ Islamic States Broadcasting Organization
Demographics
Popular Saudi opinion regards Jeddah as the most liberal and cosmopolitan of Saudi cities in spite of its historic role as port and gateway to the holy city of Mecca. For over one thousand years, Jeddah has received millions of pilgrims of different
ethnicities and backgrounds, from
Africa,
Central Asia,
Southeast Asia,
Europe and the Middle East, many of whom remained and became citizens of the city. As a result, Jeddah is much more ethnically diverse than most Saudi cities and its culture more eclectic in nature (in contrast with the more geographically isolated,
homogeneous, and religiously strict capital Riyadh). Different nationalities of Muslims often prescribe to different sects of Islam, and the presence of these sects in Hejazi culture has helped make the city relatively more tolerant traditionally. Added to the traditional diversity, the oil-boom of the past 50 years has brought hundreds of thousands of working
immigrants and
foreign workers from non-Muslim countries the majority originating from continents such as North America (Unites States of America), Europe (Western Europe), and Asia (South and South-East Asia).
Culture
Open-air art
During the oil boom in the late 1970s and '80s, there was a focused civic effort at bringing art to Jeddah's
public areas. As a result, Jeddah contains an unusually large number of modern open air sculptures and works of art, typically situated in
roundabouts, which makes it to this day the largest open-air art gallery in the world. Sculptures include works by a variety of artists, ranging from the obscure to international stars such as
Jean/Hans Arp,
César Baldaccini,
Alexander Calder,
Henry Moore,
Joan Miró and
Victor Vasarely and often depict elements of traditional Saudi culture - coffee pots, incense burners, palm trees, etc. The fact that Islamic tradition prohibits the depiction of living creatures, notably the human form, has made for some very creative modern art, ranging from the tasteful to the bizarre and down-right hideous. These include a mounted defunct propeller plane, a giant geometry set, a giant bicycle, and a huge block of marble with several cars protruding out of it at odd angles.
Landmarks
King Fahd Fountain
NCB Tower
Jeddah's
King Fahd's Fountain is a major landmark built in the 1980s and listed in
Guinness World Records as the highest in the world which can reach .
[10], and can be seen from very far distances. The fountain was donated to the City of Jeddah by the late
King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz which is where the name is derived.
NCB Tower
Main articles: National Commercial Bank
Built in 1983 and believed to be the highest tower in Saudi Arabia during the 1980s, with a height over . The
National Commercial Bank is Saudi Arabia's first bank.
IDB Tower
Main articles: Islamic Development Bank
The
Islamic Development Bank is a multilateral development financing institution. It was founded by the first conference of Finance Ministers of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), convened
18 December 1973. The bank officially began its activities on
20 October 1975.
Jeddah Municipality Tower
Jeddah Municipality Tower
Main articles: Jeddah Municipality
This is the headquarters of the metropolitan area of Jeddah, the new building of the Municipality is one of Jeddah's highest towers.
TV Tower
Main articles: Jeddah TV Tower
The Jeddah TV Tower is a high television tower with an observation deck at Jeddah. The tower was built between 2006 and 2007 and it's a part of the new branch of Ministry of Information in Jeddah.
Education
The school system in Jeddah has too many public and private schools for both males and females. As of 2005, there were 849
public and
private schools for males and another 1,179 public and private schools for female students.
[11] The medium of instruction in both public and private schools is Arabic with emphasis on English as a
second language, but some private schools which moderated by foreign managements (
International schools) use the English language for medium of instruction, they also allow the mixing between males and females while other schools do not.
For higher education, the city has several universities and colleges. The following list includes some of them :
★
King Abdulaziz University
★
Arab Open University
★
Dar Al-Hekma College
★
Effat College
★
CBA College
★ Teacher's College
★ Jeddah College of Technology
★ Jeddah Private College
★ College of Health Care
★ College of Telecom & Electronics
★ College of Community
★ Private College of Business
★ Ibn Sina National College for Medical Studies
[12]
★ Batterjee Medical College
[13]
★
Prince Sultan Aviation Academy
★
Islamic Fiqh Academy
★ Jeddah Institute for Speech and Hearing
★ Saudi German Institute for Nursing
★ New Horizons Institute
★
Wall Street Institute
★ Jeddah Literature Club
Sport
Sports clubs
KAU soccer Stadium
Jeddah hosts the oldest sport clubs in Saudi Arabia, which were established in 1928.
Soccer is the most popular sport in Jeddah, the following list includes most famous sports or soccer clubs in the city:
★
Al-Ittihad
★
Al-Ahli
★ Al-Rabea
Stadiums
List of public soccer stadiums:
★
Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Stadium
★
Prince Sultan bin Fahd Stadium
★
KAU Stadium
★ Air-Defense Forces Stadium
★ Schools League Stadium
★ King Abdullah Stadium (''Underconstruction'')
Sister cities
Jeddah has 24
sister cities (aka "twin towns"), which are selected based on economic, cultural and political criteria.
★ Adana, Turkey
★ Alexandria, Egypt
★ Almaty, Kazakhstan
★ Amman, Jordan
★ Baku, Azerbaijan
★ Cairo, Egypt
★ Casablanca, Morocco
★ Dubai, United Arab Emirates
★ Istanbul, Turkey
★ Jakarta, Indonesia
★ Johor Bahru, Malaysia
★ Karachi, Pakistan |
★ Kazan, Russia
★ Mary, Turkmenistan
★ Odessa, Ukraine
★ Osh, Kyrgyzstan
★ Plovdiv, Bulgaria
★ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
★ Shimonoseki, Japan
★ St. Petersburg, Russia
★ Strasbourg, France
★ Stuttgart, Germany
★ Taipei, Taiwan[14]
★ Xi'an, People's Republic of China |
Gallery
See also
★
List of cities and towns in Saudi Arabia
★
List of cities with the most billionaires
Notes & References
1. An article in Al-Riyadh Newspaper
2. Middleeasthub.com: About Jeddah - Middle East Hub
3. SaudiCities.com - General Info
4. - Battle of Diu
5. britannica.com
6. Asia Rooms.com - Makkah Gate in Jeddah
7. Average and recorded climate of jeddah at BBC Weather
8. www.expedia.co.uk
9. Saudi Arabian Water & Power Forum, www.ksawpf.com -- Commerce of Jeddah
10. treklens.com King Fahd Fountain - treklens.com
11. Statistical information department of the ministry of education:Statical summary for education in Saudi Arabia (AR)
12. ibnsina.edu.sa
13. bmcmedcollege.net
14. Sister cities of Taipei - including Jeddah
★ Farsi, Hani M.S. (Mohamed Said): ''Jeddah: city of art: the sculptures and monuments.'' London: Stacey International, 1991. ISBN 0-905743-66-0
External links
★
City of Jeddah Official website (in Arabic)
★
King Abdulaziz University
★
Dar Al Hekma College
★
projects and Proposals for Jeddah
★
Jeddah Urban Artists (on deviantART.com)
★
The Consulate of the United States
★
Consulate General of India, Jeddah
★
Jeddah TV
★
The British Business Group (Jeddah)
★
Saudi-Indian Business Network
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