Riyadh, capital city of Saudi Arabia located in Najd Province, in an oasis in the east-central part of the country. Also called Ar Riyad, it is a commercial, administrative, and educational center and is served by an international airport and by railroad and highway connections to the Persian Gulf coast. Manufactures include construction materials, refined petroleum, and processed food. In the city are the University of Riyadh (1957); the Islamic University of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud (1953); the King Abdulaziz Military Academy (1955); public administration, teaching, and technical institutes; and the National Library. Points of interest include the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, the royal palace, and the mosque of Jamida.
In 1824 the city, situated on a route to Mecca, became the seat of the Saud dynasty. Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, later the first king of Saudi Arabia, began his conquest of most of the Arabian Peninsula from Riyadh in 1902 by organizing the Wahhabis, an Islamic reform group centered here since the early 19th century. The city was made the capital of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Beginning in the 1940s some of the country's great income from foreign sales of petroleum has been used to transform Riyadh from a relatively isolated city to an expansive, cosmopolitan metropolis with many large, modern buildings. Population (1995 estimate) 2,576,000.
