Jeddah, also spelled Jidda, Jiddah, or Juddah, city and major port in central Hejaz region, western Saudi Arabia. It lies along the Red Sea west of Mecca. The principal importance of Jeddah in history is that it constituted the port of Mecca and was thus the site where the majority of Muslim pilgrims landed while journeying to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The city in fact owes its commercial foundations to Caliph ʿUthmān, who in 646 made it the port for Muslim pilgrims crossing the Red Sea. In 1916 Jeddah and its Turkish garrisons surrendered to British forces. It then formed part of the Kingdom of the Hejaz until 1925, when it was captured by Ibn Saud. In the 1927 Treaty of Jeddah the British recognized Saudi sovereignty over the Hejaz and Najd regions. Jeddah eventually was incorporated into Saudi Arabia. In 1947 the city walls were demolished, and rapid expansion followed. The city takes its name (which means “ancestress” or “grandmother”) from the location there of the reputed tomb of Eve, which was destroyed in 1928 by the Saudi government whose Wahhābī leanings taught that it encouraged shirk (idolatry).