Osama bin Laden was born on this day in 1957 in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. His father – Mohammed bin Avad bin Laden – was a Saudi billionaire, who rose from poverty to become the richest man in Saudi Arabia outside the royal family. Namely, Mohammed bin Laden amassed a great wealth in the construction industry, where he worked in the service of the Saudi kings. He was responsible for restoring famous mosques, and in time acquired a sort of monopoly on all great construction projects financed by the ruling Saudi dynasty.
Osama bin Laden was one of approximately 58 of his father’s children. His father has 22 wives over the course of his life, though allegedly never more than four at a time. Osama’s mother, Hamida al-Attas, was the tenth wife of Mohammed bin Laden, and was of Syrian origin.
It is likely that Osama bin Laden was left-handed, and he was over 190 centimeters tall (193 according to some reports). He graduated civil engineering, and inherited several tens of millions of dollars from his father (a relatively small part of the inheritance).
