Al Bahah Province

Al-Bahah occupies Saudi Arabia's southwestern highlands where elevations create agricultural conditions that desert lowlands cannot match. The province's 36,000 km² supports seasonal grain and fruit production—apples, pomegranates, figs, peaches, and bananas—that exploit the cooler temperatures and higher rainfall that altitude provides.

As Saudi Arabia's least populous province, Al-Bahah demonstrates how geography determines settlement patterns in a kingdom where water scarcity constrains where people can live. The agricultural traditions that sustained communities for centuries continue, though Vision 2030 investments in infrastructure and services attempt to retain populations that might otherwise migrate toward Riyadh or Jeddah.

The province's distance from major development corridors limits the megaproject investment that transforms Tabuk or Riyadh, but also preserves traditional landscapes that heritage tourism might eventually monetize. Whether Al-Bahah can develop economically—or whether remoteness perpetuates marginality—depends on infrastructure connections and diversification that the province's small population struggles to attract.