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.

Geography and geology

Longitude: 50°09'0.

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Latitude: 26°16'N.

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Altitude a.s.l.: 26 m.

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Dhahran is a short distance west of downtown Khobar (or Al-Khubar), the closest Saudi Arab town to Dhahran and its traditional shopping center, and about 15 km south of Dammam (or Al-Dammam), both older Saudi port cities on the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Looking farther afield, Dhahran is northeast of Abqaiq, also a Saudi Aramco compound, and southeast of Qatif (a traditional Shi'ite oasis town) and, further north, Ras Tanura, Saudi Aramco's main oil port. The island nation of Bahrain is also within easy driving distance to the east (about 20 miles) across a causeway from Khobar.

Related Topics:
Khobar - Dammam - Abqaiq - Qatif - Shi'ite - Ras Tanura - Bahrain

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The patch of desert on which the original oil company compound was built is hilly/rocky, and most of the earliest productive oil wells in the country were drilled in the area, such as Dammam Well #7: "Prosperity Well," the first commercially viable oil well in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. This later led to the selection of two barren nearby hills (the "two backs", or "dhahran" in Arabic) as the place for Saudi Aramco to construct its headquarters.

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Dhahran map from 1972

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