Medina, officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah is the second-holiest city in Islam and the capital of the Medina Province of Saudi Arabia. As of 2020, the estimated population of the city is 1,488,782, making it the fourth-most populous city in the country. Located at the core of the Medina Province in the western reaches of the country, the city is distributed over 589 square kilometres (227 sq mi), of which 293 square kilometres (113 sq mi) constitutes the city’s urban area, while the rest is occupied by the Hejaz Mountains, empty valleys, agricultural spaces and older dormant volcanoes.

Medina is generally considered to be the “cradle of Islamic culture and civilization”. The city is considered to be the second-holiest of three key cities in Islamic tradition, with Mecca and Jerusalem serving as the holiest and third-holiest cities, respectively. Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (lit. ’The Prophet’s Mosque’) is of exceptional importance in Islam and serves as burial site of the last Islamic prophet, Muhammad, by whom the mosque was built in 622 CE. Observant Muslims usually visit his tomb, or rawdhah, at least once in their lifetime during a pilgrimage known as Ziyarat, although this is not obligatory. The original name of the city before the advent of Islam was Yathrib , and it is referred to by this name in Chapter 33 (Al-Aḥzāb, lit. ’The Confederates’) of the Quran. It was renamed to Madīnat an-Nabī  after Muhammad’s death and later to al-Madinah al-Munawwarah  before being simplified and shortened to its modern name, Madinah (lit. ’The City’), from which the English-language spelling of “Medina” is derived. Saudi road signage uses Madinah and al-Madinah al-Munawwarah interchangeably.