Photo Gallery Kingdom on Edge
The slightest uncertainty about the stability of Saudi Arabia, one of the world's biggest oil producers, is enough to make the markets nervous. Now analysts and politicians around the world are waiting anxiously to see if the wave of unrest in the Arab world will spread to the kingdom. This 2007 photo shows an oilfield complex in Shaybah.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah arrived back in Riyadh last Wednesday after surgery in New York and a period of convalescence in Morocco. But he returned to an Arab world that was very different from the one he left.
Saudi Arabia is similar to other Arab countries in many ways. Jeddah and Riyadh (seen here) are home to just as many young people who are keen to enjoy life as Tunis and Cairo. They are equally avid tweeters and share their experiences on Facebook just as enthusiastically as their Egyptian and Tunisian contemporaries.
The country's leadership has allowed no more modernization than the bare minimum that is required for the state to function. It is mainly women who suffer under Saudi Arabia's deeply conservative society.
