Jeddah Facts and History

Jeddah's population reached 3,751,722 at Saudi Arabia's 2022 census (source: General Authority for Statistics, cited via Wikipedia), with newer projections running higher. Long before petrodollars reshaped the Gulf, the city lived off pearls, Red Sea trade and the pilgrims who landed here on their way to Mecca. Caliph Uthman ibn Affan made that role official in 647 CE, and Jeddah has carried the title Gateway to Mecca ever since. What follows are the numbers, dates and practical basics behind that story, each one checked against at least two sources.

Placeholder: Red Sea coastline near the Jeddah Corniche

Population and city basics

Jeddah has grown into one of Saudi Arabia's largest cities, and the exact number depends on which count is used. Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Statistics recorded 3,751,722 residents in Jeddah at the 2022 national census (source: GASTAT 2022 census, cited via Wikipedia, Jeddah). World Population Review's 2026 projection, built on that same census series plus its own growth model, puts the figure closer to 3.81 million (source: World Population Review, Jeddah, accessed 2026-09-08). You will also see numbers above 5 million attached to Jeddah online; those almost always describe a wider metropolitan or urban-agglomeration boundary rather than the city proper (source: Macrotrends, Jiddah metro area population, 2025 figure). For anything that matters to a booking or a business decision, the 2022 census figure is the one worth citing.

Country & region

Makkah Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Jeddah is not the capital; Riyadh holds that role. Jeddah is the country's main Red Sea port and its second-largest city by population.

Language

Arabic is the official language. English is widely used in hotels, airports and most tourism-facing businesses.

Currency

Saudi Riyal (SAR), pegged at 3.75 SAR to 1 US Dollar, a rate fixed since 1986 and unchanged since.

Time zone

Arabia Standard Time, UTC+3 year-round. Saudi Arabia does not observe daylight saving time.

Weekend & religion

Islam is the state religion. The weekend runs Friday and Saturday, which shapes opening hours for offices and some shops.

Dialling code

International dialling code +966 for Saudi Arabia.

Where is Jeddah?

Jeddah sits on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, on the narrow, low-lying strip known as the Tihamah, which runs the length of the peninsula's western edge (source: Wikipedia, Tihamah). Mecca lies roughly 65 kilometres inland to the east in a straight line, though the road route runs closer to 89 kilometres because of the terrain (source: Wikipedia, Jeddah; Himmera distance calculator, accessed 2026-09-08). Jeddah's own coordinates are 21.529167°N, 39.161111°E (source: Wikidata, Q374365). Inland from the coastal plain the ground rises sharply toward the Hijaz mountains, but the city itself sits close to sea level, which is part of why its summers feel as heavy and humid as they do.

Climate and the best time to visit

Winter, from November through March, is when most visitors come: daytime highs run 20 to 30°C, with January and February the mildest stretch and nights cooling to a comfortable 18 to 20°C (source: climatestotravel.com, Jeddah; Wikipedia, Jeddah climate table). Summer is a different city altogether. From June through August, afternoon highs regularly clear 40°C with humidity often above 70%, and Jeddah once recorded Saudi Arabia's national high of 52.0°C, set in June 2010 (source: Wikipedia, Jeddah climate table). Rain is rare and mostly confined to November and December, so it rarely factors into travel planning either way. If Corniche walks, outdoor sightseeing or diving trips are the goal, winter is the season to book.

When is Ramadan, and should that affect Jeddah travel plans?

Jeddah stays fully open to visitors during Ramadan, with a different daytime rhythm rather than a closed one: daytime dining shifts to an evening rush after sunset for iftar, shops keep later hours into the night, and both the Corniche and Al-Balad take on a livelier, more festive evening atmosphere. Ramadan 2027 is provisionally expected to begin around Monday 8 February 2027, running through early March, though the exact date depends on an official moon-sighting confirmation by the Saudi Supreme Court shortly beforehand and should be re-checked closer to the date rather than booked against now (source: Gulf News, Ramadan 2027 Date, accessed 2026-09-08; Wego Travel Blog, Ramadan in Saudi Arabia, accessed 2026-09-08). Hajj dates move each year on the same lunar calendar and draw the heaviest hotel demand of the year; see the hotels guide for booking-ahead advice during both periods.

Safety, dress code and entry basics

Saudi Arabia climbed to 14th place worldwide on the Numbeo Safety Index in 2025, the highest position of any G20 country and a jump of twelve places from the year before (source: Moodie Davitt Report, 2025, citing Numbeo). At city level, Numbeo's own comparison tool scores Jeddah's Safety Scale at roughly 75 out of 100 with a Crime Index near 25, almost identical to Riyadh (source: Numbeo, Jeddah vs Riyadh crime comparison, accessed 2026-09-08). Both readings describe visitor perception of everyday street safety, not a government travel advisory, so check your own country's current advisory separately before booking.

Packing for Jeddah is easy: dress code has loosened considerably, and light, comfortable, modest layers cover almost every situation. Saudi Arabia dropped the legal requirement for foreign women to wear an abaya in 2019 and replaced it with a general public decency principle: cover the knees and shoulders, keep clothing reasonably loose, and expect a headscarf to be necessary only inside mosques, not on the street (source: multiple 2025-2026 visitor guides tracking Saudi Arabia's Public Decorum Code; no single official government dress-code document was located at the time of writing, so treat this as well-corroborated secondary reporting rather than a primary legal text). Men have the same freedom outside resorts and beach clubs, where shorts and sleeveless tops are best saved for the pool.

Most Western passport holders, along with travellers from 66 eligible nationalities as of the portal's most recent count, can apply for Saudi Arabia's e-visa online: a one-year, multiple-entry visa allowing stays of up to 90 days per visit (source: visa.visitsaudi.com; Wego Travel Blog, Saudi Tourist Visa guide, 2025). The eligible-country list changes occasionally, so confirm your own passport's status on the official visa portal shortly before booking rather than relying on an older list; see the FAQ below for how that count has grown since the visa's 2019 launch.

The maritime Gateway to Mecca

A fishing settlement already existed on this stretch of coast before Islam, but Jeddah's defining moment came in 647 CE, when the third Rashidun caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, formally named it the port for pilgrims travelling to Mecca (source: Wikipedia, Timeline of Jeddah; Britannica, Jeddah). That decision turned a modest harbor into the arrival point for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims sailing in from East Africa, Persia, the Indian subcontinent and beyond, a role the city held for well over a thousand years before air travel took over. Today most pilgrims land at King Abdulaziz International Airport, whose Hajj Terminal was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, opened in 1981, and won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983, built specifically to process the seasonal surge (source: ArchDaily, Hajj Terminal, King Abdulaziz Airport; SOM.com project page). The old sea route has not disappeared: Jeddah Islamic Port still handles pilgrim and cargo traffic, but the airport now carries the bulk of arrivals. Either way, the title Gateway to Mecca has stuck for close to fourteen centuries.

Placeholder: Al-Balad coral-stone architecture and rawasheen windows

Before oil: pearls, coffee and the pilgrim trade

For most of its history, Jeddah earned its keep from the sea and from travellers, not from petroleum. Pearl divers worked local Red Sea beds and exported pearls and mother-of-pearl through the port, an income stream that held up until the 1920s, when Japanese cultured pearls undercut prices across the wider Gulf pearling trade (source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Jeddah; Underwater360, history of Gulf pearl diving). The same port sat on the coffee route running from Mocha in Yemen up to Suez, moving beans, spices, textiles and precious metals in both directions through the 18th and 19th centuries (source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Jeddah). Layered on top of that trade was pilgrim spending: hundreds of thousands of Hajj and Umrah travellers passing through every year, feeding merchants, guesthouses and guides long before a single oil well existed in the kingdom. Oil wealth, discovered elsewhere in Saudi Arabia from the 1930s onward, eventually funded Jeddah's modern expansion, but the city's original economy ran on shells, beans and pilgrim footsteps.

Al-Balad: a UNESCO World Heritage district

Jeddah's old town, known as Al-Balad, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014 under the name Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah (source: Wikipedia, Al-Balad, Jeddah; Hospitalitynet, 2024). The listing recognises the district as the last intact urban survivor of the wider Red Sea trading culture, built up over centuries by merchant families whose houses still carry carved teakwood latticework windows known as rawasheen. More than 650 of these historic houses remain standing, and a Vision 2030 restoration programme is converting a growing number of them into heritage hotels, galleries and cafés rather than leaving them as museum pieces.

What is the Tomb of Eve, and can visitors see it?

Jeddah's own name is popularly linked to the Arabic word for grandmother, and local tradition ties that story to a cemetery on the old town's edge once said to hold the grave of Eve, matriarch of humanity in the Abrahamic traditions. The oldest documented trace is a 10th-century account by the Arab geographer Al-Hamdani describing Adam and Eve meeting near Jeddah; the 12th-century geographer Al-Idrisi was the first to specifically place Eve's grave at this cemetery, and the traveller Ibn Jubayr, writing shortly after, described a domed structure there believed to mark her resting place (source: Wikipedia, Tomb of Eve, citing Al-Hamdani, Al-Idrisi and Ibn Jubayr, accessed 2026-09-08). A British diplomat's 1926 account measured the grave-like monument at about 200 yards, roughly 180 metres, long, though a separate French estimate from the same era puts it closer to 130 metres, a discrepancy the sources do not resolve (source: Wikipedia, Tomb of Eve, citing S. R. Jordan's 1926 report and Emile-Felix Gautier, accessed 2026-09-08). Prince Faisal, then Viceroy of Hejaz, ordered the site destroyed in 1928, and Saudi religious authorities sealed what remained in concrete in 1975, reflecting an Islamic position that discourages venerating or praying at graves (source: Wikipedia, Tomb of Eve; Amusing Planet, Tomb of Eve, Jeddah, accessed 2026-09-08). The cemetery still holds ordinary burials today, but the historic grave site itself carries no marker and stays closed to visitors. It remains one of Jeddah's more evocative stories rather than a stop on an itinerary: for a landmark that is fully open, the coral-stone lanes of Al-Balad a few minutes away carry an equally deep, and considerably more visible, layer of the city's history.

Local customs and etiquette for visitors

Dress code and mosque etiquette are covered above and in the prayer times guide; the customs below fill in the everyday social rules that visitors ask about most. Men greet men with a handshake as a matter of course. Between a man and a woman, custom lets the woman decide: a handshake is fine if she offers her hand first, and a polite nod or a right hand placed briefly over the heart is the accepted alternative if she does not, carrying no negative meaning (source: Discover Riyadh, Saudi Etiquette Guide, March 2026 update; Arabia Interculture, Shaking Hands in Saudi Arabia, accessed 2026-09-08). The customary spoken greeting either way is "As-salamu alaykum" (peace be upon you), answered with "Wa alaykum as-salam." The right hand is used for greetings, eating, and passing or receiving objects, including cash and tips; the left hand is reserved for personal hygiene under Islamic custom. This is a genuine, current norm rather than an overstated travel-blog cliché: a 2026 tipping guide independently flags the same right-hand rule for handing over cash, and left-handed visitors are not expected to force the habit outside these specific actions (source: Cultural Atlas, Saudi Arabian Culture: Etiquette; WildyNess, Tipping in Saudi Arabia, 2026 guide, accessed 2026-09-08).

Jeddah's coral-stone lanes and Corniche sculptures make for rewarding photography, and one simple courtesy keeps every shot trouble-free: ask before photographing anyone, and take particular care with women, families and children. Photographing people without consent is treated as a public-decency offence in Saudi Arabia, under Public Decency Regulations approved by the Council of Ministers on 9 April 2019 (source: Saudipedia, Public Decency in Saudi Arabia; Arab News, 2019, cross-checked against Wikipedia, Public Decency Law in Saudi Arabia, accessed 2026-09-08). This is the same regulatory framework referred to elsewhere on this page as Saudi Arabia's Public Decorum Code for dress rules. Sharing a photo of someone without consent can also escalate the matter under cybercrime rules, and government buildings, military sites and some mosques are off-limits to cameras regardless of consent (source: SaudiTimes, What Are the Rules for Tourists Taking Pictures in Saudi Arabia?, 19 November 2025, accessed 2026-09-08). The same regulations list public displays of affection, hand-holding, kissing or hugging in public, as a violation that applies to everyone, with fines for the regulations' full list of offences reported to range from 50 to 3,000 Saudi Riyals and higher for repeat offences (source: SaudiTimes, What Are Saudi Arabia's Public Decency Laws for Tourists and Visitors?, 22 January 2026, accessed 2026-09-08). The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office puts it more bluntly, warning that public displays of affection can lead to a fine or even detention (source: gov.uk, Saudi Arabia travel advice, accessed 2026-09-08). Several current traveller guides note that married couples get more everyday leniency for brief hand-holding in relaxed, tourist-facing venues than the strict rule suggests, though no official source confirms a formal exception, so the simplest approach is to save affectionate moments for private time and let Jeddah's scenery fill the photo album instead.

Shops and restaurants in Jeddah are no longer legally required to close during the five daily prayers: a circular from the Federation of Saudi Chambers in July 2021 ended the mandatory-closure rule, originally framed as a measure to reduce crowding during the coronavirus pandemic (source: Asharq Al-Awsat, Markets to Remain Open during Prayer Times in Saudi Arabia, 17 July 2021, accessed 2026-09-08). Enforcement has relaxed further since; the religious police that once enforced closures no longer have that authority. In practice, as of mid-2026, many smaller shops and restaurants still pause briefly, roughly 15 to 30 minutes, for each prayer out of habit, while large malls generally keep running and hotels, pharmacies, airports and other essential services do not pause at all; the pause is reported as least noticeable in tourist areas, malls and international hotels (source: Wadana Go, Prayer Times & Shop Closures, 25 July 2026; Discover Riyadh, Saudi Etiquette Guide, March 2026, accessed 2026-09-08). Expect variation by business and neighbourhood rather than one fixed rule; see the prayer times guide for where to pray while you wait.

Tipping beyond restaurants follows the same not-mandatory-but-appreciated pattern found across Saudi Arabia (source: WildyNess, Tipping in Saudi Arabia, 2026 guide; Cultural Atlas, Saudi Arabian Culture: Etiquette, accessed 2026-09-08):

Taxis & ride-hailing

Street taxi drivers do not expect a tip; rounding the fare up by SAR 5 to 10 is a common gesture. Uber and Careem both offer an in-app tip after the ride, often around 10 percent for good service.

Hotel staff

Porters and bellhops typically receive SAR 5 to 10 per bag, housekeeping around SAR 10 to 20 for the stay, and concierge staff roughly SAR 50 for arranging something complex.

Tour guides & drivers

Guides on a full-day tour are commonly tipped SAR 50 to 100 per person, and a private multi-day driver around SAR 30 to 50 per day. Figures vary between guides, so treat these as a starting point rather than a fixed rate.

As with any exchange in Jeddah, hand tips over with the right hand.

Jeddah's alcohol-free rule keeps restaurants, cafes and hotel dining relaxed and family-friendly, a theme covered in more depth in the restaurants guide, but the law leaves no room for exceptions for tourists: a traveller caught importing, possessing or consuming alcohol, or arriving intoxicated, risks arrest, imprisonment and heavy fines, followed by deportation and typically a long-term or permanent re-entry ban (source: Tripbase, Legal Drinking Age in Saudi Arabia, last verified 21 June 2026, citing the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the US State Department, accessed 2026-09-08). A single licensed store opened in Riyadh's Diplomatic Quarter in 2024, but it serves only registered non-Muslim diplomats and is not accessible to tourists; reports in May 2025 of a wider, roughly 600-venue alcohol-licensing scheme for 2026 were officially denied by Saudi authorities, and the nationwide ban remained fully in force as of mid-2026 (source: SA-FE, Saudi Arabia's rumoured 2026 alcohol licences draw official denial, citing Reuters, 26 May 2025, accessed 2026-09-08). Drug laws are stricter still: all recreational controlled drugs are illegal with zero tolerance, personal possession can carry up to 5 years in prison plus a fine near SAR 30,000, and trafficking or smuggling is punishable by death, a penalty Saudi Arabia is reported to carry out with some frequency for drug offences (source: Tripbase, Are Recreational Drugs Legal in Saudi Arabia?, last verified 21 June 2026, accessed 2026-09-08). Steer clear of both entirely, and Jeddah's food and drink scene remains easy to enjoy.

Can non-Muslims visit Mecca from Jeddah?

Jeddah itself welcomes visitors of any faith, with no entry restriction anywhere in the city: Al-Balad, the Corniche and the Red Sea coast below are all open to everyone. The one hard boundary sits well outside the city, on the highway toward Mecca: non-Muslims are legally barred from entering Mecca and its wider Haram area, a rule enforced at police checkpoints on the approach roads (source: Wikipedia, Mecca Gate; US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom, Saudi Arabia, accessed 2026-09-08). The boundary itself is marked by a landmark arch known as the Quran Gate, or Mecca Gate, built in 1979 on the Jeddah-Mecca highway in the shape of an open Quran resting on a book stand; it sits roughly 27km from the Masjid al-Haram and about 60km out from Jeddah (source: Wikipedia, Mecca Gate, accessed 2026-09-08). Passing the checkpoint on false pretences, including misrepresenting religion, risks arrest, fines, detention or deportation, so the only safe approach for a non-Muslim visitor is not to attempt the crossing at all; rules and enforcement can shift, so confirm current guidance with Saudi Arabia's official visa and tourism portal before planning anything near Mecca. None of this touches a Jeddah-based trip: Al-Balad's coral-stone lanes, the Corniche's fountain and sculpture trail, and the Red Sea dive sites covered elsewhere on this site are all fully open, and a day trip toward Taif on the separate Al-Hada mountain road reaches the cooler hills without going anywhere near the Haram boundary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Gateway to Mecca mean for Jeddah?

Jeddah earned the title in 647 CE, when the caliph Uthman ibn Affan made it the official port for pilgrims sailing to Mecca. For centuries, Hajj and Umrah travellers arrived here by sea before continuing overland; today most arrive by air, through King Abdulaziz International Airport's dedicated Hajj Terminal, though Jeddah Islamic Port still handles some pilgrim traffic (source: Wikipedia, Timeline of Jeddah; Britannica, Jeddah).

How many people live in Jeddah?

Saudi Arabia's 2022 national census counted 3,751,722 residents in Jeddah (source: General Authority for Statistics, cited via Wikipedia). A 2026 projection from World Population Review puts the figure near 3.81 million; broader metro-area estimates from Macrotrends run past 5 million because they use a wider urban boundary, not the city-proper count.

What was Jeddah's economy before oil?

Pearl diving, mother-of-pearl exports and Red Sea trade, including a stop on the coffee route between Mocha and Suez. Pearling held up until the 1920s, when Japanese cultured pearls undercut natural-pearl prices across the Gulf, and pilgrim spending supplemented trade income long before Saudi Arabia's oil industry existed (source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Jeddah).

Is Al-Balad, Jeddah's old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Yes. UNESCO inscribed it in 2014 under the name Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah, recognising it as the last intact urban example of the historic Red Sea trading culture (source: Wikipedia, Al-Balad, Jeddah; Hospitalitynet, 2024).

When is the best time to visit Jeddah?

November through March, when daytime highs sit between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius. Summer runs hotter and far more humid, with afternoon highs regularly above 40 degrees Celsius between June and August (source: climatestotravel.com, Jeddah; Wikipedia climate data).

Is Jeddah safe, and what should visitors wear?

Saudi Arabia ranked 14th worldwide on the 2025 Numbeo Safety Index, the highest of any G20 nation, and Jeddah scores close to Riyadh on Numbeo's city-level comparison (source: Moodie Davitt Report, 2025; Numbeo city comparison, accessed 2026-09-08). Packing is easy too: Saudi Arabia dropped the mandatory abaya rule for foreign women in 2019, so light, comfortable, modest layers, covering knees and shoulders, cover almost every situation, with a headscarf needed only inside mosques.

How many countries are eligible for the Saudi tourist e-Visa?

66 nationalities, per the Saudi Ministry of Tourism's count checked in September 2026, up from 49 at the programme's September 2019 launch and 63 after a later expansion round. The e-Visa is a one-year, multiple-entry permit for stays of up to 90 days per visit, covering tourism, family visits, cultural and entertainment events and Umrah outside Hajj season; it does not cover Hajj, business or study, which need separate visa categories. The eligible-country list keeps changing, so check visa.visitsaudi.com directly rather than treating this number as fixed (source: Saudi Ministry of Tourism, mt.gov.sa; Wikipedia, Visa policy of Saudi Arabia, launch figures, accessed 2026-09-08).

Is it acceptable to shake hands with someone of the opposite gender in Jeddah?

Men shake hands with men as standard practice. Between a man and a woman, custom lets the woman decide: a handshake is fine if she offers her hand first, and a polite nod or a right hand placed over the heart is the accepted alternative if she does not, carrying no negative meaning (source: Discover Riyadh, Saudi Etiquette Guide, March 2026; Arabia Interculture, accessed 2026-09-08).

Can I take photos of people in Jeddah?

Jeddah is a rewarding place to shoot, from Al-Balad's carved windows to the Corniche's sculptures, as long as one rule guides every photo of a person: only with consent, and take particular care with women, families and children. Photographing people without permission is treated as a public-decency offence in Saudi Arabia, and sharing such images online can escalate the matter under cybercrime rules; government buildings, military sites and some mosques are also off-limits to cameras (source: SaudiTimes, 19 November 2025; Saudipedia, Public Decency in Saudi Arabia, accessed 2026-09-08). Landscapes, architecture and street scenes need no permission at all, so there is plenty to capture either way.

Do shops and restaurants in Jeddah still close during prayer times?

Not by law. A July 2021 circular ended the requirement for businesses to close during the five daily prayers, and enforcement has relaxed further since. In practice, some smaller shops and restaurants still pause briefly out of habit, while malls, hotels, pharmacies and airports generally keep running without interruption (source: Asharq Al-Awsat, 17 July 2021; Wadana Go, 25 July 2026, accessed 2026-09-08).

Do I need to tip taxi drivers, hotel staff or tour guides in Jeddah?

It is appreciated rather than required. Round up a taxi fare by SAR 5 to 10 or add a similar in-app tip for Uber or Careem; hotel porters typically receive SAR 5 to 10 per bag and housekeeping around SAR 10 to 20 per stay; tour guides commonly get SAR 50 to 100 for a full day (source: WildyNess, 2026 guide; Cultural Atlas, accessed 2026-09-08).

Is it true I should only use my right hand in Jeddah?

For greeting, eating and passing or receiving objects, including cash and tips, yes: this is a genuine, current norm, not an outdated cliché. It comes from an Islamic hygiene custom that reserves the left hand for personal cleaning; left-handed visitors are not expected to force the habit outside these specific actions (source: Cultural Atlas; WildyNess, 2026 guide, accessed 2026-09-08).

What happens if a tourist is caught with alcohol or drugs in Jeddah?

Jeddah's alcohol-free rule keeps restaurants, cafes and hotel dining relaxed and family-friendly, but it leaves no room for exceptions: alcohol is banned nationwide with no exception for visitors; being caught importing, possessing or consuming it, or arriving intoxicated, risks arrest, imprisonment, fines, deportation and typically a long-term re-entry ban. Drug laws are stricter still: personal possession can carry up to 5 years in prison plus a fine near SAR 30,000, and trafficking is punishable by death (source: Tripbase, last verified 21 June 2026, citing UK FCDO and US State Department, accessed 2026-09-08). Steer clear of both entirely, and Jeddah's food and drink scene remains easy to enjoy.

Can non-Muslims visit Mecca from Jeddah?

Jeddah itself welcomes visitors of any faith, with Al-Balad, the Corniche and the Red Sea coast all fully open. Mecca is the one exception: no, non-Muslims cannot enter Mecca or its surrounding Haram area, a boundary marked on the Jeddah-Mecca highway by the Quran Gate (also called Mecca Gate), roughly 60km from Jeddah and 27km from the Masjid al-Haram, and enforced by police checkpoints (source: Wikipedia, Mecca Gate; US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom, Saudi Arabia, accessed 2026-09-08).

What is the Tomb of Eve in Jeddah?

A historic cemetery on Jeddah's edge long linked in local tradition to the grave of Eve, first placed there by the 12th-century geographer Al-Idrisi after an earlier account by Al-Hamdani. Prince Faisal, then Viceroy of Hejaz, ordered the grave-like monument destroyed in 1928, and religious authorities sealed the remaining site in concrete in 1975, so it is not open to visitors today (source: Wikipedia, Tomb of Eve, accessed 2026-09-08). Al-Balad historic district nearby carries an equally deep layer of the city's story, and it is fully open to explore.

When is Ramadan 2027 in Saudi Arabia?

Provisionally around Monday 8 February 2027 through early March, based on projected moon-sighting calculations; the Saudi Supreme Court confirms the exact start only after sighting the crescent moon on the evening of 29 Sha'ban, so treat this date as a planning estimate to re-verify closer to travel (source: Gulf News, Ramadan 2027 Date, accessed 2026-09-08; Wego Travel Blog, Ramadan in Saudi Arabia, accessed 2026-09-08). Jeddah stays open to visitors throughout, with later shop hours and a livelier evening atmosphere after sunset.

Continue exploring: see the things-to-do guide for where to go, or prayer times in Jeddah for faith-related practicalities.

Sources

Population figures, safety rankings and visa eligibility lists change. Verify anything time-sensitive against the primary authority (GASTAT for demographic data, visa.visitsaudi.com for entry requirements) before relying on it for a booking or business decision.