Last updated: April 16th, 2025 at 2:11 pm · Est. Reading Time: < 1 minute
Tihamah (Tihāmah تہامہ) is the name given to the plain that runs along the Red Sea coast of Arabia. Though quite constricted and sometimes non-existent in the north, it widens south of the port of Yanbu to roughly eighty kilometres, further widening up to one hundred and thirty kilometres in Yemen (يمن). Tihamah ends abruptly at an escarpment at its western end. This is the main mountain range of Arabia. It stretches all the way from the northern end of the peninsula down to the south, becoming wider and higher as it reaches the south. Around Mecca, about midway down its length, this mountain chain has a break separating modern-day Hejaz (Hijāz حجاز) in the north from Asir (Asīr عسير) in the south.
The Tihamah coastal plain is dry, sometimes interspersed with marshes though. Thanks to the Red Sea, Tihamah is cool. Daytime temperature during summer averages 32°c while winter temperature is around 16°c. These regions receive regular rainfall. Humidity on the coast is so high in the summer that a mist often sprinkles the coastal areas in the daytime, and a warm fog hangs in the air at night. Tihamah received a surprisingly cool, humid breeze in summer.
Further reading
Alois Musil, The Northern Ḥeijāz: A Topographical Itinerary, New York: Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1926.
Paul Sanlaville, “Geographic Introduction” in Roads of Arabia, ed. ‘Ali ibn Ibrāhīm Ghabbān, Beatrice Andre-Salvini Francoise Demange, Carine Juvin and Marianne Cotty, (Paris: Louvre, 2010), 55 – 68.
Peter Vincent, Saudi Arabia: An Environmental Overview, London: Taylor & Francis, 2007.
William Bayne Fisher, The Middle East. A Physical, Social and Regional Geography, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1952.
History of Islam, Geography and Climate of Pre-Islamic Arabia, https://historyofislam.org/geography-and-climate/