Introduction:

The Department of Geography, which was a department of the College of Education in Makkah, is considered one of the oldest ones in the university. When the Teachers' College was re-established under the name of the College of Education in 1384:5 A.H, the Department of Geography was one of those which remained as part of the College until the year 1404 A.H.

Though known as the "Department of Geography", this Department did not solely teach the branches of geography : it had an elite staff teaching Islamic history and civilization in the college of Shari'ah and Islamic studies during the academic year 1385:6 A.H/AD 1965:6. Both departments and colleges worked together on putting into action the first syllabus of specialization in geography and history which was approved by the decision of the Ministry of Education no. 572 on 11^th Rabie El-Thani 1382 A.H.     

It is noteworthy that ever since its establishment in 1384 A.H., the Department of Geography in Umm Al-Qura University has witnessed outstanding administrative, academic and cultural activities. It has also been concerned with achieving the goals of the comprehensive and integrated plans for development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the last of which is the academic study courses. These courses involve opening a subclass for geography technologies and services which are planned to become one for "geographical information systems and remote sensing". The Department has also set two courses for postgraduate studies and it, therefore, awards an MA and Ph.D. degrees in geography. In addition, there are diplomas in territorial studies which go in line with the modern advances in the field of modern scientific and geographic research.