Saudi Arabia–Yemen border
international border separating the territories of Saudi Arabia and Yemen
The Saudi Arabia–Yemen border is 1,307 km (812 mi) in length and runs from the Red Sea coast in the west to the tripoint with Oman in the east.
Description
The border starts in the west on the Red Sea coast just north of Midi. An irregular line then proceeds to the north-east and then east to the vicinity of Al Bugal, first through a coastal plain and then through the Sarawat Mountains. A series of straight lines then proceeds eastwards through the Rub al Khali desert, dipping south so as to include Al Wadiah within Saudi Arabia, before further straight line segments proceed to the north-east and then eastwards to the Omani tripoint.
History
Ottoman Empire era
Historically there was no clearly defined boundary in this part of the Arabian Peninsula; at the start of the 20th century the Ottoman Empire controlled the western coast as far south as North Yemen, Britain controlled Aden (South Yemen), with the interior consisting of loosely organised Arab groupings, occasionally forming emirates, the most prominent of which was the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa ruled by the al-Saud family. Britain and the Ottoman Empire theoretically divided their realms of influence in Arabia via the so-called 'Blue' and 'Violet lines' in 1913–14, however these agreements were rendered null and void following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War.
Early 20th century
During the First World War, an Arab Revolt, supported by Britain, succeeded in removing the Ottomans from the Arabian Peninsula; in the period following this Ibn Saud managed to expand his kingdom considerably, eventually proclaiming the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. In the south-west the Idrisid Emirate of Asir had taken advantage of the Ottoman withdrawal and declared independence in 1917, only to be annexed by the Saudis in 1926–30. More successful was the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (later known as the Yemen Arab Republic or North Yemen) further south, which declared independence in 1918.
North Yemen and Saudi Arabia had no defined frontier and disputed ownership of border territories (notably Asir, Jizan and Najran, claimed by North Yemen as part of 'Greater Yemen'); these tensions culminated in a border war in 1934, in which Saudi Arabia won control over most of the disputed territories.
“Saudi Arabia–Yemen border” enters the record as international border separating the territories of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Saudi, Arabia and Yemen can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3088719. Authority coordinates are 19.139, 52.278. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1932, 1917 and 1926.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Saudi Arabia–Yemen border” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.