The surrounding mountains that separate Taif from nearby villages, such as Al-Hada and Ash-Shafa, are between 2,000 and 2,550 m high. The city is embedded in this mountain range on a relatively flat plateau as if in a basin. The entire mountain range of the Sarawat Mountains, which stretches to the south of Saudi Arabia, rises steeply in the west not far from the Red Sea and becomes lower and flatter towards the east. In a stark contrast to that green and wooded landscape you will come, the further you drive towards the interior of the province. You will pass the steppe and then be amidst the desert landscape that you may already know from other areas of Saudi Arabia. The scenery changes its appearance. In a strip on both sides of the road, short grass-like tufts and sometimes also bushes and steppe trees grow changing smoothly to a wide, flat, barren plain.
The foothills of the Sarawat Mountains are characterised by coarse pink granite interspersed with grey granodiorite and diorite.
