Mecca Province

This article is about the Province of Mecca. For the city, see Mecca. For other uses, see Mecca (disambiguation)

The Mecca Province (

Historically, the area was inhabited by the

Ancient Mecca was an oasis on the old caravan trade route that linked the Mediterranean world with South Arabia, East Africa, and South Asia. The town was located about midway between Maʾrib in the south and Petra in the north, and it gradually developed by Roman and Byzantine times into an important trade and religious centre. Ptolemy's inclusion of Macoraba (Μακοράβα),^[8] a city of the Arabian interior, in his Guide to Geography was long held to show that Mecca was known to the Hellenistic world. Since the late 20th century, however, some scholarship has called the identification of Macoraba with Mecca into question.^[4]

According to Islamic tradition, Abraham and Ishmael, his son by Hagar, built the Kaʿbah as the house of God. The central point of pilgrimage in Mecca before the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the cube-shaped stone building has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. During pre-Islamic times the region was ruled by a series of Saudi tribes. Under the Quraysh it became a type of city-state, with strong commercial links to the rest of Arabia, Ethiopia, and Europe. Mecca became a place for trade, for pilgrimage, and for tribal gatherings.^[4] The city of Jeddah is believed to have been a fishing hamlet occupied by early Yemeni tribes. The region has held significant religious importance greatly increased with the expeditions of Muhammad in the early 7th century. As the ancient caravan route fell into decline, Mecca lost its commercial significance and has since lived mainly on the proceeds from the annual pilgrimages and the gifts of Muslim rulers.

The city of Mecca was sacked by the

The region underwent extensive economic development as Saudi Arabia's petroleum resources were exploited after World War II, and the number of yearly pilgrims to Mecca has increased significantly.^[4]

Geography

Most of the central and eastern portions of the province are desert, with the

.

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1992	4,467,670	—
2004	5,797,184	+2.19%
2010	6,927,477	+3.01%
2022	7,769,994	+0.96%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Source: Citypopulation[9]

Population

According to the Population Characteristics Surveys conducted by the General Authority of Statistics, the Mecca Province had a population of 8,557,766 as of December 2017, of which 4,516,577 were Saudis and 4,041,189 were foreign nationals. Divided by gender, 4,864,584 were males and 3,693,182 were females. The Mecca Province is the most populous province of

The official language of Saudi Arabia is Arabic. The main regional dialect of the Mecca Province spoken by Saudis is Hejazi Arabic, with a minority of Najdi Arabic speakers in the eastern parts of the region. Saudi Sign Language is the principal language of the deaf community. The large expatriate communities also speak their own languages, the most numerous of which are some of the Indian languages, Filipino/Tagalog, Bengali and Urdu.

Education

From 1,823,598 Saudi male residents above the age of 10, 87.57%, representing 1,596,946 persons had some form of

Healthcare

Of the province's Saudi residents who were above the age of 15, 1.15% reported some form of disability in 2016, with visual impairment being the most common form of disability, followed by reduced mobility, while 107,770 persons reported severe or extreme disability.

Government

The position of Governor (Emir) of the Makkah Province has been held by the following individuals since 1925:^[10]

Governorates

The Mecca region has 17 governorates, of which 5, Jeddah, Rabigh, Ta'if, Qunfudhah, and Laith, have been classified Category A, while the rest are Category B. The City of Mecca (

• Sarawat Mountains
• Hijaz Mountains
• Tihamah

Notes

References

External links

• Emirate of Mecca Region official website
• A travel through the province of Mecca, Splendid Arabia: A travel site with photos and routes
• Umm Al Qura University in Mecca
• General Authority for Statistics - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia