Dhahran

Dhahran (Arabic الظهران aẓ-Ẓahrān, meaning "the two backs") is a city in Saudi Arabia located in the country's Eastern Province not far from the Persian Gulf a short distance south of the larger port city of Dammam. Dhahran is, technically speaking, a fenced-in company compound, and only Saudi Aramco employees and their dependents may live inside. However, because the town's name is also used for the international airport (DHA) and US consulate, both located outside the Saudi Aramco compound, "Dhahran" is often used for convenience to refer to the larger metropolitan area that includes (Al-)Khobar, (Al-)Dammam, and many private residential compounds, all of which have grown together into a single megalopolis of over 1 million inhabitants.

Dhahran in film and TV

• West Wing: In one episode, the story plot was picketers outside the Aramco camp of Dhahran.
• CNN: A report about Dhahran was aired.
• In 1998 after the bias-motivated kidnapping and murder of a Wyoming college student, the major American news networks would occasionally make mention of the fact that the student's parents lived in Dhahran and worked for Aramco.