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Arar Governorate

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Arar Governorate
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Arar is one of the governorates of the Northern Borders Province in the Kingdom of Saudi ‎Arabia. It is the seat of the emirate and the second-largest ‎governorate in terms of area. It has the largest population in the province, as it is home to 202,719 people, which makes up 54.3 percent of the province's population, as shown in the 2022 census.

Location of Arar Governorate

Arar Governorate is located in the far north of the Kingdom. It is bordered to the north ‎by the Iraqi borders, to the south by al-Jawf province, to the east by al-Uwayqilah, and to the west by Turaif Governorate.

Jdeidet Arar land port is the main gateway for pilgrims from Iraq, and a trade corridor between the two countries. Arar Governorate's strategic ‎location between the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant has made it a historic ‎transit station on the ancient routes of Hajj and trade, and a ‎current point of contact between the Arabian Gulf States and Jordan, ‎Syria, and Lebanon.‎

History of Arar Governorate

Historically, Arar Governorate is an old oil pipeline station (Tapline), stretching from the east in Hafar al-Batin to the south in Sidon, Lebanon. It was known in ‎the 1950s as Arar Oil Station, and was established as a business area dedicated to housing for pipeline workers. Its growing population and urbanization made Arar the administrative capital of the Northern Borders Province, thus recording a ‎population growth rate of 1.7 percent annually.‎

Characteristics of Arar Governorate

Deserts make up 50 percent of Arar's area. It is famous for its juniper trees ‎and fertile land, making it suitable for grazing. Three of the largest valleys in the Kingdom pass ‎through its territory: Arar, Badanah, and al-Awaisi valleys. Dolomite and limestone, the most important environmental resources in the Northern Borders Province, are ‎extracted from its banks.‎

Arar Domestic Airport

Arar has a regional airport named after the governorate. It is the main ‎airport of the Northern Borders Province, located seventeen km southeast of the city center. To ‎the south of the airport lies the headquarters of the Northern Border University, whose ‎branches are distributed across the governorates of the province.‎