Mecca Province

This article is about the province of Mecca. For the city, see Mecca. For other uses, see Mecca (disambiguation).
Mecca Province
منطقة مكة
Province
Makkah Province
Clockwise from top to bottom: The Great Mosque of Mecca, The Jeddah Flagpole, Ta'if, Mecca and Jeddah seen from the ISS at night and the Bab Makkah in Jeddah
Map of Saudi Arabia with the Mecca Region highlighted in red
Map of Saudi Arabia with the Mecca Region
highlighted in red
Coordinates: 21°30′N 41°0′E / 21.500°N 41.000°E / 21.500; 41.000
Country Saudi Arabia
CapitalMecca
Largest cityJeddah
Governorates
List
Government
 • GovernorKhalid bin Faisal Al Saud
 • Deputy GovernorBadr bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz
Area
 • Total
153,148 km2 (59,131 sq mi)
Population
 (2022 census)
 • Total
7,769,994
 • Density51/km2 (130/sq mi)
GDP
 • TotalUS$ 144.1 billion (2022)[1]
ISO 3166 codeSA-02
Websitewww.makkah.gov.sa

The Mecca Province (Arabic: مِنْطَقَة مَكَّة, romanized: Minṭaqat Makka,[a] Arabic pronunciation: [ˈmin.tˤa.qat ˈmak.ka]), officially Makkah Province,[2] is one of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia. It is the third-largest province by area at 153,128 km2 (59,123 sq mi) and the most populous with a population of 8,557,766 as of 2017, of which 4,041,189 were foreign nationals and 4,516,577 were Saudis.[3] It is located in the historic Hejaz region, and has an extended coastline on the Red Sea. Its capital is Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, and its largest city is Jeddah, which is Saudi Arabia's main port city. The province accounts for 26.29% of the population of Saudi Arabia[3] and is named after the Islamic holy city of Mecca.

Historically, the area was inhabited by the Quraysh, the Banu Kinanah and the Thaqif, among other tribes. Part of the Hejaz region, the province has seen several exchanges of power between many Islamic realms within a short period of time. The province gains its significance as it contains the city of Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad, and several other historic Islamic sites, such as the village of Hudaybiyyah, where the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah is said to have been agreed upon. More recently, the province was modernized under the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after the oil boom.[4] Most of the population is concentrated in three cities: Jeddah, Mecca and Ta'if. Jeddah is the largest city in the province and the second-largest in Saudi Arabia with an estimated population of 2,867,446 as of 2020.[5] Mecca is the second-largest city in the province and third-largest in the kingdom at 1,323,624.[5] After the city of Ta'if at third place, Rabigh, Shafa, Turbah and Jumum are other populous cities and towns in the region.[5] The region receives Muslim pilgrims of the Umrah and the Hajj around the year and its population increases by up to 2 million during the Hajj. It has approximately 700 kilometres (430 mi) of coastline on the Red Sea and hosts oil refineries in Rabigh, port and oil export facilities in Jeddah, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the King Abdullah Economic City. The province also hosts part of the Haramain high-speed railway line, which is Saudi Arabia's first and only high-speed railway line.[6]

The province is divided into 11 governorates, of which 5 have been classified Category A and the rest, Category B, with Mecca serving as the administrative headquarters and capital of the province. It is governed by an Emir, translated as Governor from Arabic, who is assisted by the Deputy Governor, both appointed by the King of Saudi Arabia. The current emir is Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud, who has held the position for a second term since 2015.[7]

  1. ^ "Estimating Saudi Arabia's Regional GDP Using Satellite Nighttime Light Images" (PDF), www.kapsarc.org
  2. ^ "Emirate of Makkah Province". www.moi.gov.sa. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Population Characteristics surveys" (PDF). General Authority for Statistics (Saudi Arabia). 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c "Population of Cities in Saudi Arabia (2022)". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  6. ^ 2011-10-26T13:19:00+01:00. "Spanish consortium wins Haramain High Speed Rail contract". Railway Gazette International. Retrieved 2020-08-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Emirate of Makkah Province". Ministry of Interior.


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