Half Moon Bay (), is located near

Khobar Khobar () is a city and List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Province of the Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, situated on the coast of the Persian Gulf. With a population of 409,549 ...

city in the Eastern Province of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. Half Moon Bay has been a place of recreation for many people, including oil workers and their families, for the last 80 years. Known for its great

grouper Groupers are a diverse group of marine ray-finned fish in the family Epinephelidae, in the order Perciformes. Groupers were long considered a subfamily of the seabasses in Serranidae, but are now treated as distinct. Not all members of this f ...

fishing and sailing, many generations have enjoyed it. With an average depth of around 22 feet (with a few spots dropping to 50 feet) Half Moon Bay has been an excellent classroom for thousands of divers learning the sport of scuba diving. It is a very forgiving bay, with shallow entrances and very few large sharks. However, around 1968 a 30-foot whale wandered in to the enjoyment of many of the locals.

History

In the early 1900s Half Moon Bay was known locally as Doha Dhalum. It was a stop for many of the Arab traders from the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

area sailing their traditional dhows. It was a stop to get out of bad weather and load up on fresh water from any number of artesian wells which dot the bottom of the bay. Traders would also pull into the cove on the middle of the western shore which is now a housing development and load up with salt from a local mine. This salt would either be sold in Africa or traded for skins, or taken to India depending on the prevailing winds. This cove used to be called Quincy's Cove after a local oil family that used to frequent the cove in the 1950s.

Private beaches

* Saudi Aramco Beach Only Saudi Aramco Staff with grade 11+ are allowed to use the Saudi Aramco beach. The beach is distinguished by palm trees, picnic tables, lights and electric sources, barbecue grills, a yacht club and showers with comfortably-cooled water. *

King Faisal University King Faisal University (KFU) ( ') is a public university in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1975, it is named after King Faisal bin Abdulalziz, the ruler of Saudi Arabia from 1964 until 1975. KFU was initially established with four colleges: tw ...

Beach. *

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) is a nonprofit research university in Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Founded near the earliest local oil fields as the College of Petroleum & Minerals (1963) in response to the ...

Beach. *King Fahad Military City Beach.

Resorts and amusement parks

* Prince Mohammad Amusement Park * King Fahad Coastal City * Palm Beach Resort * Half Moon Village * Alkhaleej Makarim Village

References

Beaches of Saudi Arabia Bays of Saudi Arabia Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia {{SaudiArabia-geo-stub