The Arabian Peninsula[1] (/əˈreɪbiən ... /; Arabic: شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَة الْعَرَبِيَّة, shibhu l-jazīra l-ʿarabiyya, "Arabian Peninsula" or جَزِيرَةُ الْعَرَب, jazīratu l-ʿarab, "Island of the Arabs"),[2] or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. At 3,237,500 km2 (1,250,000 sq mi), comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.[3][4][5][6][7]
Arabian Peninsula
ٱلْجَزِيرَة ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة (Arabic)
شِبْه ٱلْجَزِيرَة ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة (Arabic)

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Area3,237,500 km2 (1,250,000 sq mi)Population93,900,000 (2023 estimate )Population density29.0/km2HDI0.788 (2018)
highDemonymArab, ArabianCountries
Bahrain[a]
Iraq[b]
Jordan[b]
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Largest cities
15 largest cities on the Arabian Peninsula
Riyadh
Jeddah
Dubai
Sanaa
Mecca
Sharjah
Muscat
Abu Dhabi
Dammam
Medina
Basra
Aden
Kuwait City
Ta'izz
Ta'if
Satellite view of the Arabian Peninsula
Geographically, the Arabian Peninsula includes Bahrain,[a] Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen, as well as southern Iraq and Jordan.[8] The largest of these is Saudi Arabia.[9] In the classical era, the Sinai Peninsula was also considered a part of Arabia.
The Arabian Peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Red Sea to the west and southwest, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the northeast, the Levant and Mesopotamia to the north and the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. The peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Arab world and globally due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas.
Before the modern era, the region was divided into primarily four distinct regions: the Central Plateau (Najd and Al-Yamama), South Arabia (Yemen, Hadhramaut and Oman), Al-Bahrain (Eastern Arabia or Al-Hassa), and the Hejaz (Tihamah for the western coast), as described by Ibn al-Faqih.[10]
Etymology