14 ATLASES

History of Saudi Arabia in maps

Saudi Arabia as it appears in 14 interactive history atlases, from 1095 to 2015: Arabia — Mecca, Medina & the Hijaz, Arabia, Saudi Arabia. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

Open this map in the interactive atlas →

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Map of women’s rights in May 1970, showing Saudi Arabia — MAP OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN MAY 1970

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 historical polities · ILO: Equal Remuneration Convention C100 · Natural Earth 1:10m countries and physical geography · Natural Earth 1:10m administrative references (US states and Berlin)

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY 4.0 · Selected source records; component selection, documented unions and date proxies; projected for display.
International Labour Organization. Factual historical evidence; no source prose reproduced
Natural Earth. Public domain · Property selection and semantic ID normalization; full coordinates retained. An upstream Egyptian ring self-intersection is repaired with area change below 1e-9 square degrees; see natural-earth-admin0-review.json.
Natural Earth. Public domain

Modern reference outlines locate the historical thematic data. The underlying rights/protest classifications remain unchanged.

Germany uses dated East/West source extents together with a Berlin reference; Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union use reviewed historical extents. For Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, the 1953–68 references are retained where later Cliopatria records show military occupation rather than treaty-party territory.

reconstruction: 1953–1968 · reconstruction: 1958–1989; 1953–1972 · reconstruction: Cartographic device · vector: 1949–1990 · vector: 1953–1968 · vector: 1963–1975

Layer records and reconstruction methods

What was Saudi Arabia before it was Saudi Arabia? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Arabia (mod. Saudi Arabia) · Ancient Rome

ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Arabia — Mecca, Medina & the Hijaz · Crusades

Mecca and Medina stood in Arabia, and their protection supported the legitimacy of Muslim rulers. In the winter of 1182–83 Reynald of Châtillon sent ships from Oultrejordain onto the Red Sea. His raiders burned pilgrim and merchant vessels along the Hijaz coast and were reported within a day’s march of Medina before an Egyptian squadron hunted them down. Saladin never forgave the sacrilege: the captured raiders were executed, and he swore to kill Reynald himself, an oath he kept in the tent after Hattin. More than any border skirmish, the raid helped turn the jihad against the kingdom from a war over land into a war of annihilation.