Al-Hofuf ( ar, ٱلْهُفُوف ', also spelled Hofuf or Hufuf, also known as "Al-Hasa", "Al-Ahsa" or "Al-Hassa") is the major urban city in the

Al-Ahsa Oasis ''Al-Aḥsāʾ'' ( ar, الْأَحْسَاء, ''al-ʾAhsā''), also known as al-Ḥasāʾ () or Hajar (), is a traditional oasis historical region in eastern Saudi Arabia whose name is used by the Al-Ahsa Governorate, which makes up much of th ...

in the Eastern Province of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

, with a population of 858,395 (as of 2021). It is also known for being one of the largest date producers in the world, and for its old souks and palaces.

Overview

The city proper has a population of 150,000 and is part of a larger populated oasis area of towns and villages of around 600,000. It is located inland, southwest of

Abqaiq Abqaiq ( ar, بقيق, Biqayq) is a Saudi Aramco gated community and oil-processing facility located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, located in the desert 60 km southwest of the Dhahran-Dammam-Khobar metropolitan area, and north o ...

and the Dhahran–

Dammam Dammam ( ar, الدمّام ') is the fifth-most populous city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. It is the capital of the Eastern Province. With a total population of 1,252,523 as of 2020. The judicial and administrative ...

– Al-Khobar metropolitan area on the road south to Haradh. 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 University King Faisal University (KFU) ( ar, جامعة الملك فيصل ') is a public university with the main campus in the city of Hofuf in Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia founded in 1975. KFU was initially established with four colleges: two in Dammam and t ...

are located in the city (the others being in

). The Hofuf campus also has facilities where Saudi women can study medicine, dentistry and home economics. Legend places Hofuf 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 Sheba The Queen of Sheba ( he, מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא‎, Malkaṯ Šəḇāʾ; ar, ملكة سبأ, Malikat Sabaʾ; gez, ንግሥተ ሳባ, Nəgśətä Saba) is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the original story, she bring ...

is also fabled to have visited this city from her kingdom in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

. German explorer, Hermann Burchardt, photographed the city in 1904.

Economy

Historically, Hofuf made textiles out of

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

, silk, and cotton. The town was also renowned for its fruit of the date palm, the Arabs considering the ''khalasi'' variety of dates, locally grown in Hofuf, and also the ''fardh'' variety of

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

, among the best.''Western Arabia and the Red Sea'', Naval Intelligence Division, London 2005, p. 488 As of 1920, the city was known for making coffee pots from silver and

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wi ...

Climate

Al Hofuf has a hot desert climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''BWh'') with long, very hot summers and mild, short winters.

Culture

The International Random Film Festival was going to be hosted in Hofuf in January 2015, but it was replaced by

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

in May 2017.

Transportation

Airport

The city is served by

King Fahd International Airport King Fahd International Airport ( ar, مطار الملك فهد الدولي; KFIA) , also known as Dammam International Airport or simply Dammam Airport or King Fahd Airport, is the international airport serving Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The airp ...

which is 160 km away in

, despite the fact that the city has two airports of its own. The local airport,

Al-Ahsa International Airport Al-Ahsa International Airport ( ar, مطار الأحساء الدولي, ) is an airport serving Hofuf (also known as Al-Ahsa or Al-Hasa), a city in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. History During Operation Desert Shield and the Gulf War in 1991 ...

, is being used for domestic and limited international flights to

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...

. While the other is an old airstrip which is now abandoned.

Railway

The city has a railway station connecting the city with the capital Riyadh to the west and Dammam to the north. All railways in Saudi Arabia are organized by the Saudi Railways Organization.

Notable people

Samira Islam Samira Ibrahim Islam is a Saudi Arabian pharmacologist and scholar. She heads King Fahd Medical Research Center's Drug Monitoring Unit at King Abdulaziz University. She was instrumental in securing formal university education for women in Saudi ...

pharmacologist Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemic ...

and scholar

References

External links

Hofuf
on www.The-Saudi.net
Jabal Qarah
Splendid Arabia: A travel site with photos and routes {{Authority control Populated places in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia