Al-Hofuf also
Hofuf or
Al-Hufuf is the major urban center in the huge
Al-AhsaAl-Ahsa may refer to:* Al-Ahsa or Al-Hasa - an oasis region in eastern Saudi Arabia* Al-Ahsa Governorate - the administrative unit that includes the Al-Ahsa oasis...
Oasis in the Eastern Province of
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
.
The city proper has a population of 287,841 (2004 census} and is part of a larger populated oasis area of towns and villages of around 600,000. It is located inland, southwest of
AbqaiqBqaiq is a Saudi Aramco camp in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, located in the desert 60 km southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. The camp was built in the 1940s by ARAMCO...
and the
DhahranDhahran is located in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Large oil reserves were first identified in the Dhahran area in 1931, and in 1935 Standard Oil of California drilled the first commercially viable oil well...
-
DammamDammam is the capital of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Dammam is the largest city in the Eastern Province and third largest in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Dammam Port is the largest on the Persian Gulf...
-Al-Khobar metropolitan area on the road south to
HaradhHaradh is a small village located about 280 km southwest of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Haradh is famous for its oil-rich and gas-rich fields. Several oil plants and a gas plant are located in the Haradh area.It is located on top of the massive Ghawar Field....
.
Al-Hofuf also
Hofuf or
Al-Hufuf is the major urban center in the huge
Al-AhsaAl-Ahsa may refer to:* Al-Ahsa or Al-Hasa - an oasis region in eastern Saudi Arabia* Al-Ahsa Governorate - the administrative unit that includes the Al-Ahsa oasis...
Oasis in the Eastern Province of
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
.
Overview
The city proper has a population of 287,841 (2004 census} and is part of a larger populated oasis area of towns and villages of around 600,000. It is located inland, southwest of
AbqaiqBqaiq is a Saudi Aramco camp in the interior of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, located in the desert 60 km southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area. The camp was built in the 1940s by ARAMCO...
and the
DhahranDhahran is located in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Large oil reserves were first identified in the Dhahran area in 1931, and in 1935 Standard Oil of California drilled the first commercially viable oil well...
-
DammamDammam is the capital of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Dammam is the largest city in the Eastern Province and third largest in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Dammam Port is the largest on the Persian Gulf...
-Al-Khobar metropolitan area on the road south to
HaradhHaradh is a small village located about 280 km southwest of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Haradh is famous for its oil-rich and gas-rich fields. Several oil plants and a gas plant are located in the Haradh area.It is located on top of the massive Ghawar Field....
. It is the closest city to the famous Ghawar oil field, one of the world's largest conventional (land-based) fields.
Hofuf is one of the major cultural centers in Saudi Arabia. A lot of well known families live there. The faculties of agriculture, veterinary medicine and animal resources for
King Faisal UniversityKing Faisal University is a public university with campuses in Al-Hassa and Dammam, Saudi Arabia founded in 1975.The university is best known for its medical program, although engineering and other majors are offered as well...
are located in the city (the others being in
DammamDammam is the capital of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Dammam is the largest city in the Eastern Province and third largest in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Dammam Port is the largest on the Persian Gulf...
). The Hofuf campus also has facilities where Saudi women can study medicine, dentistry and home economics.
Legend places this as the burial place of Laila and Majnoon, the star-crossed pair of the most popular love story in the Arab and Muslim world. The Queen of
ShebaSheba was a kingdom mentioned in the Jewish scriptures and the Qur'an...
is also fabled to have visited this city from her kingdom in
YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
.
Ethnography
The city of Hofuf--one of the largest in the traditional
al-HasaAl-Ahsa is the largest governorate in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, named after Al-Ahsa oasis. The name Al-Ahsa is also given to the biggest city in the region, Hofuf. In classic Arabic, Ahsa means the sound of water underground...
/Ahsa district after the city of
QatifQatif or Al-Qatif is a historic, coastal oasis region located on the western shore of the Persian Gulf in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the...
, is historically one of the primary centers of Shia Islam in the modern kingdom of
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
. However, in view of the suppression of Shiism by the Wahhabi religious authorities who dominate most aspects of political and administrative life of the Saudi state, no Shia was openly allowed to practice his/her beliefs or confess to being a Shia. Only after 2003 invasion of Iraq and the rise of the Shia fortunes has the Saudi government allowed for some local, but subdued expressions of Shia identity in the region. As such, the Shia cities like Hofuf, Mubarraz,
QatifQatif or Al-Qatif is a historic, coastal oasis region located on the western shore of the Persian Gulf in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the...
etc. are listed as having Wahhabi or Sunni Muslim majorities. This is of course an error. A quick review of the British colonial sources, such as J.G. Lorimer (Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, 1915, vol. 8, Oman and Central Arabia, pp. 642-679), imparts to the reader city and village-level ethnic and religious statistics taken at the time that the area was still an Ottoman district (until 1912-1914) and free of religious suppression that follows with the Saudi takeover.
Like the rest of the
al-HasaAl-Ahsa is the largest governorate in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, named after Al-Ahsa oasis. The name Al-Ahsa is also given to the biggest city in the region, Hofuf. In classic Arabic, Ahsa means the sound of water underground...
/Ahsa oasis, Hofuf city boasts to a Shia majority, although thanks to the discovery of the largest oil deposits in the world--the
Ghawar FieldGhawar is an oil field in Saudi Arabia. It is located about WSW from the city of Dhahran in Al-Ahsa county of the Eastern Province. Measuring , it is by far the largest conventional oil field in the world. The field is entirely owned and operated by Saudi Aramco, the nationalized Saudi oil company...
in this Shia region, a very large numbers of outsiders with various religious afliations have now settled the primary cities of
AhsaAhsa may mean:* Al-Ahsa, the Saudi Arabian oasis region * the American Horse Shows Association* the American Hunters and Shooters Association* , the Gothic letter a, see Gothic alphabet, Ansuz rune...
, such a Hofuf.
Airport
Although the city has two airports, it is served by
King Fahd International AirportDammam King Fahd International Airport is located 20 kilometers northwest of Dammam . It is the largest airport in the world in terms of land area , thus making it larger than the nearby country of Bahrain...
which is 130km away. The local airports; the old one is abandoned, and the new is being used by Saudi Aramco along with limited service from
Saudi Arabian AirlinesSaudi Arabian Airlines is the national airline of Saudi Arabia, based in Jeddah. It operates domestic and international scheduled flights to over 70 destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Domestic and international charter flights are operated, mostly during...
offering only two weekly flights to
JeddahJeddah is a Saudi Arabian city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh...
.
Railway
The town has a railway junction where the direct line from the Persian Gulf to the capital splits from the indirect line.
See also
- an aerial map showing the location of Al-Hofuf in relation to other towns in the oasis
- Al-Ahsa
Al-Ahsa may refer to:* Al-Ahsa or Al-Hasa - an oasis region in eastern Saudi Arabia* Al-Ahsa Governorate - the administrative unit that includes the Al-Ahsa oasis...
- or Al-Hasa - Oasis
External links
- Hofuf on www.The-Saudi.net