saudi arabia trivia
last friday, our friend, kawther, was the guest speaker to a seminar about her country, saudi arabia. this was part of the japan-saudi arabia friendship day. it was a very good and informative presentation, especially for me. as you may know, my knowledge on world geography and history is poor.
here are some amazing facts about saudi arabia from her presentation:
- since saudi arabians are 100% muslims, they follow islam laws strictly. their constitution is actually based on the Holy Qur’an, their equivalent to the Christian Holy Bible.
- they pray 5 times a day (as do all muslims). during these times, all shops are closed. shops that are open during this time will have a penalty.
- oil is cheaper than water. this is understandable since saudi arabia is the leading petroleum exporter. each liter of oil cost 15 yen while a liter of water is 62 yen. water is obviously scarce because the country is mainly desert.
- women can not drive nor have driver’s license. however, kawther does not consider this a disadvantage. she says its easier since she has a driver to worry about parking, fuel, maintenance, etc.
- surprisingly, they do have beaches. (well, surprising for me since i have poor geography, remember?). but they don’t have rivers or streams.
- name system: (given name) (father’s name) (grandfather’s name) (great grandfather’s name) etc…. (family name). so, as you can see, each persons name could be very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long (i think you get my point.) :p
- One of the projects of King Abdul Aziz is building the world’s largest clock tower in Mecca. It will rise 380 meters and will be bigger than Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science in Poland, London’s Big Ben and the Rajabai Clock Tower in Mumbai. the project is expected to finish on 2008.
of course these are just some of the facts. there are still a lot more. you can try the following websites for more information. or you can google it. 
http://www.saudiembassy.net/Country/Facts.asp
Categories: extra
saudi arabia, trivia
Hey,
I actually know some non Muslims who live in Saudi Arabia, but they do not live in Makkah or Madinah.
And the only real objection I have to the list of points it that Saudi Arabia’s government is not based on the Quran because if it was, then it would not be a monarchy because that is forbidden in Islam.
But I like the idea of a Japan-saudi arabia friendship day. (or any friendship day, for that matter). Cool blog.