What excatly is Arabia

Arabia is the largest peninsula in the world, a big body of land (a million square miles, more than a third as big as the United States) with water almost all around it. Arabia lies between the continents of Asia and Africa, but is considered part of Asia. Most of Arabia is a sandy desert, so not many people live there, considering how big it is. The population is about twelve million, about that of Pennsylvania. Four different countries make up Arabia. The biggest, Saudi Arabia, occupies almost all the territory but also has most of the desert land.

The other three are Yemen, Oman, and Aden. There are separate articles on all these countries. The countries of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria are sometimes thought of as being part of the Arabian peninsula. The importance of Arabia to the Western World is chiefly in its rich supplies of oil, which are drilled, refined and sold by American and British companies. To the hundreds of millions of Mohammedans in the world, Arabia is sacred because the Prophet Mohammed was born there, in the city of Mecca, to which every Mohammedan tries to make a pilgrimage at least once in his life.