Jeddah

Jeddah is a port city on the Red Sea coast of western Saudi Arabia. Pilgrims on their way to Mecca have landed at its port and airport for centuries, and it is known as the Gateway to the Two Holy Mosques. King Fahd's Fountain throws a jet of seawater high above the waterfront and is lit at night.

The caliph Uthman ibn Affan made Jeddah the port of Mecca in the 7th century, and the town grew on the trade of the Red Sea. The Ottoman Empire held it from the 16th century, and merchants built tall houses of coral stone with carved wooden balconies inside its walls. Abdulaziz Al Saud entered the city in 1925, and it became part of the kingdom he founded. The walls came down in the 1940s, and foreign embassies stayed in Jeddah until they moved to Riyadh in the 1980s.

Savola makes cooking oil, sugar and pasta and has its headquarters in the city, and Al Baik, the fried chicken chain, began there and sells its broasted chicken across the kingdom. Abdul Latif Jameel, a family company known as the distributor of Toyota cars, is also based in Jeddah. Jeddah Islamic Port on the Red Sea handles containers and goods for the west of the country.

Al-Balad, the historic quarter of coral-stone houses with wooden rawasheen screens, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the 2010s. Nassif House in Al-Balad, once a merchant's home, received King Abdulaziz when he entered the city and is now a museum. The Jeddah Corniche runs along the sea north of the center, with parks, sculptures and beaches. Al-Rahmah Mosque stands on piles over the water and is known as the Floating Mosque.