Jizan () is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and the capital of

Jazan Province The Jazan Province is the second smallest province of Saudi Arabia after Al-Bahah. It stretches along the southern Red Sea coast, just north of Yemen. It covers an area of 13,457 km2 and had a population of 1,404,997 at the 2022 census. ...

, which lies in the southwest corner of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. Jizan is situated on the coast of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

and serves a large agricultural heartland that has a population of 173,919 as of 2022 and over 1.4 million, in the whole Jizan region. As the city is the capital of the region, it has a regional airport as well as the Jizan seaport. The area is noted for its high-quality production of fruits such as

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

es,

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus '' Carica'' of the family Caricaceae, and also the name of its fruit. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within ...

plums A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century. Plums are likely to have been ...

, and

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

. Jizan has one of the largest megaprojects market in the kingdom with significant infrastructure projects worth many billions of dollars.

Saudi Aramco Saudi Aramco ( ') or Aramco (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a majority state-owned petroleum and natural gas company that is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. , it is the fourth- l ...

is building a 400,000 bpd refinery with associated terminal facilities on the

near the city, scheduled for completion in late 2018.

Economy

In the early 20th century, Jizan was a major site for

pearl fishing Pearl hunting, also known as pearl fishing or pearling, is the activity of recovering or attempting to recover pearls from wild molluscs, usually oysters or mussels, in the sea or freshwater. Pearl hunting was prevalent in India and Japan for tho ...

. When World War I began, trade declined, due to ships moving to

Al Hudaydah Hodeidah (), also transliterated as Hodeda, Hodeida, Hudaida or al-Hudaydah, is the fourth-largest city in Yemen and its Hudaydah Port, principal port on the Red Sea and it is the centre of Al Hudaydah Governorate. As of 2023, it had an estimate ...

. Today, ambitious projects in transport, renewable energy, tourism, and agricultural development are taking place in the Jizan region, particularly in

Jazan Economic City Jazan Economic City () is a planned economic city in the Jizan Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with a focus on the energy and manufacturing industries. The primary developers involved in the construction of the city are MMC Corporation ...

, including a US$3 Billion

aluminum smelter Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide, alumina, generally by the Hall-Héroult process. Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery. This is an electrolytic ...

Jazan Refinery

Jazan Refinery is a megaproject under construction and owned by

. The Refinery will process heavy and medium crude oil to create

liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas, also referred to as liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, Butane, ''n''-butane and isobutane. It can also contain some ...

, sulfur, asphalt, benzene, and paraxylene. It is expected to produce 400,000 barrels per day.

Transport

Jazan Port and

Jizan Regional Airport King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Airport , also known as Jizan international Airport, is an airport serving Jizan (also spelled Gizan), the capital city of the Jizan Province in Saudi Arabia. It is named after King Abdullah. Facilitie ...

serve the city of Jizan.

Ethnography

The inhabitants of Jizan are

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

who mainly follow

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

with a small

Zaydi Zaydism () is a branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali's unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. Zaydism is one of the three main branches of Shi'ism, with the other two being Twelverism ...

minority.

Climate

Jizan has a hot

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''BWh'') with a rainfall below 200 mm per year and an average annual temperature above . The weather is very hot all year round and its average annual temperature is one of the hottest in the world, as daily lows average over and highs over even in the mildest month of the year, while unlike a lot of tropical cities the summer is even noticeably warmer. It is very humid but parched in some months, making the weather volatile. Sandstorms are quite common in areas further from the sea. The highest recorded temperature was on 15 September 2006, while the lowest was on 7 February 1993.

References

External links

Official site
{{coord, 16, 53, 21, N, 42, 33, 40, E, type:city, display=title Populated places in Jizan Province Port cities and towns in Saudi Arabia Populated coastal places in Saudi Arabia Provincial capitals of Saudi Arabia Port cities and towns of the Red Sea Cities in Saudi Arabia