Sa'udi Arabia - Location, size, and extent

Sa'udi Arabia constitutes about four-fifths of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Although Sa'udi Arabia is known to be the third-largest country in Asia, after China and India, its precise area is difficult to specify because several of its borders are incompletely demarcated. According to the UN, the nation has an area of 1,960,582 sq km (756,985 sq mi); it extends 2,295 km (1,426 mi) ESE – WNW and 1,423 km (884 mi) NNE – SSW . Comparatively, the area occupied by Sa'udi Arabia is slightly less than one-fourth the size of the United States. Sa'udi Arabia is bounded on the N by Jordan and Iraq, on the NE by Kuwait, on the E by the Persian Gulf, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on the SE by Oman, on the S and SW by Yemen, and on the W by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, with a total estimated land boundary length of 4,431 km (2,753 mi) and a coastline of 2,640 km (1,640 mi).

An agreement was reached in 1965 whereby the Neutral Zone separating Sa'udi Arabia from Kuwait was divided administratively between the two countries. A dispute between Sa'udi Arabia and the newly formed UAE over control of the Buraymi oasis was settled in 1974, when they reached an accord fixing their common border; however, the details of this treaty had not been made public by late 2002. An agreement dividing the Neutral Zone between Sa'udi Arabia and Iraq was reportedly reached in 1975 and confirmed in 1981, but as of early 1988, no details of the agreement had been filed with the UN. In the Ar-Rub' al-Khali ("Empty Quarter") of the southeast, Sa'udi Arabia's borders with Oman and the PDRY are not yet fully defined.

Sa'udi Arabia's capital city, Riyadh, is located in the east central part of the country.