The Eastern Province ( Arabic : المنطقة الشرقية al-Mintaqah ash-Sharqīyah ), also known as the Eastern Region , is the easternmost of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia . It is the nation's largest province by area and the third most populous after the Riyadh and Mecca provinces. In 2017, the population was 4,900,325. Of these, 3,140,362 were Saudi citizens and 1,759,963 were foreign nationals The province accounts for 15.05% of the entire population of Saudi Arabia and is named for its geographical location relative to the rest of the kingdom.
48-513: Jubail Industrial City , the world's largest industrial city, was established in 1975 and is located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia . It covers 1,016 square kilometers and includes industrial complexes and port facilities. It contributes to about 7% of Saudi Arabia's GDP. According to Benchmarkia's Industrial Park Ranking, Jubail Industrial City has been ranked as the top industrial park globally in terms of performance. The city
96-677: A desert stop. His descendants also resided in the area afterwards in which became a small town. Haffar al-batin is an ancient home to many nomadic Arab inhabitants. Although it lacked water on an industrial level, it had its own strategic feature. Keeping this region dry was a critical move by the Arabs to prevent foreign armies, especially the Persians, from entering the inner derest. It was a natural barrier to foreign threats. The Arabs had camels and guides; others didn't which kept it safe for traveling Arabs and bedouins. Striking oil while digging wells
144-512: A door-socket: "The ships of Dilmun brought him wood as tribute from foreign lands." The great commercial and trading connections between Mesopotamia and Dilmun were strong and profound to the point where Dilmun was a central figure to the Sumerian creation myth. Dilmun was described in the saga of Enki and Ninhursag as pre-existing in paradisiacal state, where predators don't kill, pain and diseases are absent, and people do not get old. Likewise
192-481: A large part of the province's economy. Every year thousands of tonnes of dates are harvested from the date palms in the giant oasis of Ahsa to be sold in and around the kingdom. Dammam's King Fahd International Airport , operating since October 1999, the largest airport in the world in terms of land area, serves as the primary hub for the entirety of the Eastern Province. Located 30 km northwest of
240-565: A major platform for most of the kingdom's oil production and exports. Oil was first found in the country in the Eastern Province, at the Prosperity Well site (formerly known as Dammam No.7). The Ghawar oil field , located in the Ahsa Governorate , measuring 8,400 sq.km. (3,240 sq.mi.) is the largest oil field in the world, and accounts for roughly a third of the kingdom's oil production. The Safaniya oil field , located off
288-474: Is an oasis of water and a large city with many palm trees inhabited by Shiite Arabs." The local Saudi population is entirely Muslim, with the majority being Sunni Muslims. Shia constitute a large minority, concentrated especially in Qatif and Ahsa governorates. The official language of Saudi Arabia is Arabic . The standard spoken dialect in the Eastern Province is a variant of Najdi Arabic , similar to
336-478: Is common in this region and the local Arabs knew the water ways; others didn't. This is what stopped Hulegu Khan 's army from advancing towards Mecca in the 1200's. Due to its tough climate, his expeditionary officers reasoned that it was impossible for the 300 thousand man army to go south of Basra , thus they had to go north hoping to go around the Fertile Crescent which turned out to be quagmire on
384-473: Is regarded as one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Dilmun was an important and prosperous trading centre for millennia with well-developed and long-standing trading, commercial and cultural ties with nearby Mesopotamia in particular and the Indus Valley civilisation . A number of scholars have suggested that Dilmun originally designated the eastern province of Saudi Arabia , notably linked with
432-743: Is the largest governorate in Saudi Arabia in terms of area. Hafar al-Batin Hafar al-Batin ( Arabic : حفر الباطن Ḥafar al-Bāṭin ), also frequently spelled Hafr al-Batin , is a city in the Hafar al-Batin Governorate, Eastern Province , Saudi Arabia . It is located 430 km north of Riyadh , 94.2 km from the Kuwait border, and about 74.3 from the Iraq border. The city lies in
480-506: Is the principal language of the deaf community. The large expatriate communities also speak their own languages, the most numerous of which are some of the Indian languages , Filipino / Tagalog , Bengali , Urdu , as well as Arabic dialects such as Egyptian , Levantine , and Yemeni . From 1,264,687 male residents who were above the age of 10, 88.78%, representing 1,122,738 persons had some form of formal education . As for females, from
528-413: Is the third most populous province in Saudi Arabia, after Makkah and Riyadh . With an estimated population of 1,225,000 as of 2019, Dammam is the most populous city in the province and the sixth most populous city in the country. The governorate with the largest population is the Ahsa Governorate . It is also the largest governorate in terms of land area. The province had the lowest dependency ratio in
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#1732787417011576-924: The Kuwaiti border in the north to the Ramlah border station on the Omani border in the south via Jubail , Ra's Tanura , the Dammam metropolitan area , the Salwa border station on the Qatari border and the Batha' border station with the United Arab Emirates . Highway 40 (Route 80M) connects Bahrain and Dammam via the 25 km (15 mi) King Fahd Causeway over the Persian Gulf and onward to Jeddah on
624-530: The Levant crosses the ancient desert trail towards Buraydah and Taif , now Highway 50, and meet downtown Haffar al-batin. There is a distillation plant in the area, along with and electric substation and an army base to serve the area. The city has an industrial park for heavy manufacturing plants. Local population is about half a million residents along with a considerable foreign class. In 2010, Hafar al-Batin , had more than 35 villages in its suburban area and
672-516: The Meluhha (suspected to be Indus Valley Civilisation), Magan ( Oman ), and Mesopotamia . The Dilmun civilization is mentioned first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the late third millennium BC, found in the temple of goddess Inanna , in the city of Uruk . One of the earliest inscriptions mentioning Dilmun is that of king Ur-Nanshe of Lagash ( c. 2300 BC ) found in
720-731: The Red Sea via Riyadh , Ta'if and Makkah . Highways 605, 610, 613, 614, 615, 617 and 619, known locally by other popular names, connect the Greater Dammam area to Ra's Tanura, Jubail, the King Fahd International Airport, Abqaiq and Hofuf . Intercity bus services are operated in the province by the Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company (SAPTCO). Umrah and Hajj shuttle services are also provided to residents of
768-505: The Safaniya oil field , the largest offshore oil field in the world. Petroleum is refined in various refineries spread across the kingdom and shipped to dozens of countries from port cities such as Ra's Tanura . The East–West pipeline enables efficient transport of oil from the eastern oil fields and refineries to the western refineries and ports, such as Rabigh and Jeddah . Saudi Arabia's largest agricultural product, dates, also forms
816-504: The United Arab Emirates , Qatar and Bahrain , with the latter being linked to the province via the 25 km (15 mi) long King Fahd Causeway . The region also shares a border with Oman , Yemen . The province is bordered to the west, from north to south, by the provinces of the Northern Borders , Ha'il , Qassim , Riyadh and Najran . The Eastern Province encompasses the entire east coast of Saudi Arabia and acts as
864-701: The collapse of Babylon in 538 BC. The northern part of the Eastern Province later became inhabited by the Arab Lakhmids around 300 AD, with the coastal regions claimed by the Sasanians but governed by the Lakhmids. The entire Arabian Peninsula fell into Muslim hands during the Rashidun Caliphate and the Muslim conquest of Persia , after Muhammad 's death. The region stayed stable during
912-403: The 1,161,677 residents above the age of 10, 80.77% or 938,233 persons were formally educated. 44.42% of residential units in the Eastern Province are apartments and 96.29% of residential units are made of concrete . Homelessness was not reported. 3.51% of the province's Saudi residents, who were above the age of 15, reported some form of disability in 2016, with visual impairment being
960-712: The 1500s, when the Jabrids took over around 1507 AD, but they too fell due to internal conflicts in or around the 1540s. In 1551 AD, the Ottomans invaded the region during their first war with the Safavids , and kept it under their control until 1671. After several years of unrest between the Ottomans, Saudis and Rashidis, the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa , also known as the Third Saudi State, under Ibn Saud , took
1008-560: The Eastern Province, being the province with most of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves enjoys a high economic position. Saudi Aramco , the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia and an organization of major significance in the petroleum industry , is based in Dhahran in Greater Dammam . It became the fifth company in the world to reach a market capitalization of $ 1 trillion ($ 1,000,000,000,000) on December 11, 2019. After going public
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#17327874170111056-700: The Kuwaiti-Saudi border and seized the town of Khafji. The US and Saudi Arabian armies were able to kick them out. This was known as the Battle of Khafji . According to the Population Characteristics Surveys conducted by the General Authority for Statistics , the Eastern Province had a population of 4,900,325 as of December 2017, of which 3,140,362 were Saudis and 1,759,963 were foreign nationals. The Eastern Province
1104-644: The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story. Dilmun's commercial power began to decline between 1000 BC and 800 BC because piracy flourished in the Persian Gulf. The most recent reference to Dilmun came during the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Neo-Babylonian administrative records, dated 567 BC, stated that Dilmun was controlled by the king of Babylon. The name of Dilmun fell from use after
1152-548: The advancements made during the Green Revolution in farming and irrigation techniques. The entire eastern coast of the kingdom lies in the Eastern Province. The region borders, from north to south, the countries of Iraq , Kuwait , Bahrain , Qatar , United Arab Emirates and Oman , And Yemen . The Eastern Province was home to the Dilmun civilization for several millennia which was an important trading center from
1200-482: The area, so the pilgrims travelled from Iraq to Mecca on a long route without much water. During the reign of Uthman (644 - 656 CE), many pilgrims complained about the lack of water, and Abu-Musa al-Asha'ari , a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad was placed in charge of the area and responded by digging new wells along the route. He ended up leaving a heavy impact on the oasis which eventually turned it into
1248-480: The capital of the province, is the fourth most populous city in the kingdom. The incumbent governor of the province is Prince Saud bin Nayef Al Saud . Other populous cities in the province include Hofuf , Mubarraz, Hafr al-Batin , Jubail and Khobar . The region is extremely popular among tourists for its beaches on the Persian Gulf and proximity to the other countries of the eastern Arab world , such as
1296-533: The city, the airport is well connected by air to 43 destinations in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, provided by 37 airlines. Other airports in the province include Ahsa International Airport and Qaisumah-Hafr Al Batin Airport . Saudi Aramco has a separate terminal at the King Fahd International Airport for their employees and aircraft with scheduled flights to Shaybah , Yanbu , Jeddah and other sites where
1344-537: The coast of the province, is the largest offshore oil field in the world. The Jubail Industrial City, part of the city of Jubail , the fifth most populous in the province, is the largest industrial city in the world. The region was home to the Dilmun civilization which was an ancient Semitic -speaking polity in Eastern Arabia . Founded in the late 4th millennium BC and lasting until approximately 538 BC it
1392-756: The company is active. Built in the 1940s, the King Abdulaziz Sea Port , located on the coast of the Persian Gulf , is the second largest and second busiest port in Saudi Arabia , after the Jeddah Islamic Port in Jeddah. It is also the largest port in the Persian Gulf. The port is equipped with 9 ports with 214 platforms. The port receives more than 15,000 ships carrying more than 13 million containers or 532 million tons of cargo annually. Highway 95 (Route 5M) connects Khafji on
1440-449: The dry valley of the Wadi al-Batin , which is part of the longer valley of the river Wadi al-Rummah (now dry), which leads inland toward Medina and formerly emptied into the Persian Gulf . The name of Hafar al-Batin ( Arabic : حفر الباطن , "the inner hole") is derived from its location; the water hole in the desert. . In the 1st Islamic century after hijrah or 638 CE, Hafar al-Batin
1488-659: The emirate to become unstable and eventually leading to the rise of the Bedouin Usfurids. The Usfurids saw a short period of stability. After overthrowing their former allies, the Uyunids, they had an uneasy relationship with the Persian rulers of Hormuz, who took control of the former Uyunid cities of Qatif and Bahrain around 1320 AD. This eventually led to the fall of the Usfurids. The region was mostly overlooked until
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1536-595: The entire Arabian Peninsula from Ottoman and Rashidi control. Most of the Eastern Province came under the Hasa region, and as such, the emirate has been under Saudi control since 1902. In 1923, the Dawasir of Bahrain moved into the area which is now Khobar , and later spread into Dammam , and they are credited with the foundation of the two cities. In the early 1990s, during the First Gulf war, Iraqi troops crossed
1584-822: The first three Islamic caliphates. During the Abbasid Caliphate , the region was taken over by the Qarmatians , a Shi'ite group of the Isma'ili branch, around 899 AD. The Qarmatians attacked Makkah and Madinah in 930 AD and held the Black Stone to ransom in Ain Al Kuayba , Qatif. The region was ruled by the Qaramatians until 976 AD, when after losing to the Abbasids, they were reduced to
1632-400: The kingdom at around 36%, as of 2016. The sex ratio for Saudis was 109 males per 100 females and 150 males per 100 females for non-Saudis, yielding a common sex ratio of 151 males per 100 females. 1% of children in the province were orphans. Sunni traveler, Ibn Battuta (1304 - 1369 A.D.) mentioned: "Then we traveled to the city of Al- Qatif , its name is derived from fruit picking, which
1680-642: The kingdom by private contractors. Shuttle services also connect the Dammam metropolitan area to the Bahrain International Airport , northeast of Manama in Bahrain. The Saudi Arabian railways are managed by two separate organizations, the Saudi Railways Organization and Saudi Railway Company . The lines in the Eastern Province, two lines, one passenger, which runs from Dammam to Riyadh via Abqaiq an Hofuf, and
1728-465: The late fourth millennium BC to 800 BC. At the height of its power, Dilmun controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium. The Dilmun civilization was the centre of commercial activities linking traditional agriculture of the land—then utterly fertile due to artesian wells that have dried since, and due to a much wetter climate—with maritime trade between diverse regions such as
1776-690: The long run. The Suhail Arab clan make up some of Haffar al-batin population along with many other Sunni Arabs such as Anizah and Shammar. The region was part of Kuwait before the Uqair Protocol of 1922 in which it was given to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Housing announced in August 2020 that they would be including Hafr Al Batin in its program to increase residential ownership by its citizens. The ministry will be providing 759 plots in Hafr Al Batin alone. Diagonal Highway 85 to
1824-598: The major Dilmunite settlements of Umm an-Nussi and Umm ar-Ramadh in the interior and Tarout Island on the coast. Approximately two-thirds of the province is desert, comprising, from south to north, the Rub' al Khali , Dahna and Nafud deserts, with the Rub' al-Khali alone making up more than half of the area of the province. Areas such as Hafr al-Batin and the Ahsa Oasis have become important sites for desert farming due to
1872-465: The most common form of disability and 42,052 persons suffering from some form of visual impairment. 58,000 persons reported severe or extreme disability. 285,754 Saudi residents above the age of 15 reported that they were regularly smoking , with 254,233 reporting daily smoking and 31,521 reporting intermittent smoking. The economy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is largely dependent on oil. As such,
1920-505: The other 12 regional capitals, Dammam is not included within any governorate but is instead simply known as the City of Dammam, in Arabic, the word أمانة ( amānah ) is used and the city is headed by a mayor ( Arabic : أمين ; amīn ). The Ahsa Governorate , which includes the traditional oasis of Ahsa and the Rub' al Khali desert, which comprises more than half of the governorate itself,
1968-819: The other freight, which runs directly from Dammam to Riyadh, are managed by the Saudi Railways Organization (SRO). A plan to build a metro in Dammam was also in the works, but its current status is unknown. The Eastern Province is one of the 13 provinces of Saudi Arabia ( Arabic : مناطق إدارية ; manātiq idāriyya , sing. منطقة إدارية; mintaqah idāriyya ). The region is further subdivided into 11 governorates ( Arabic : محافظات ; muhāfazāt , sing. محافظة; muhāfazah ). The governorates are further subdivided into sub-governorates ( Arabic : مراكز ; marākiz , sing. مركز; markaz ). The Eastern Province's capital city of Dammam has special status. Like
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2016-471: The same day in what is considered the largest public offering ever as of December 2019, the next day, on December 12, 2019, the company reached a market cap of $ 2 trillion, becoming the first and only company in the world to break the record. The kingdom's main oil and gas fields are located in the Eastern Province with sites such as the Ghawar Field , the largest onshore oil field in the world and
2064-505: The southwest. All the downtown roads of Hafar al-Batin are paved. It is connected with an international network of roads, connecting Saudi Arabia with Kuwait in the East and connecting the North with the Eastern Province . The weather in Hafar al-Batin ranges from −2–8 °C (28–46 °F) in winter nights to 40–50 °C (104–122 °F) during summer days. The climate in general
2112-680: The status of a local power. After Bahrain and Qatif seceded from Qarmatian rule around 1058 AD, they retreated to the Ahsa Oasis , to which Abdullah bin Ali Al Uyuni laid siege and invaded in 1076 AD, ending the rule of Qarmatians in Ahsa and founding the Uyunid Emirate . Not much is known of the Uyunids, except that they were the descendants of the Banu Abdul Qays tribe. They were involved in several internal disputes, causing
2160-465: The total population reached 400,993 to 600,000 For full international service, the city is served by King Fahd International Airport with driving distance of 450 km. Nonetheless, Hafar al-Batin has two airports: One with limited domestic flights ( Qaisumah ) ( IATA : AQI , ICAO : OEPA ) airport about 20 km in the southeast, and one for military use only ( King Khaled Military City Airport ) ( IATA : KMC , ICAO : OEKK ) about 70 km in
2208-399: The urban Najdi spoken in Riyadh, but influenced by other dialects local to the Eastern Province. Other dialects spoken natively in the Eastern Province include: There are also many dialects spoken by Saudis who have immigrated from elsewhere, such as other Najdi dialects, South Arabian dialects, and Hejazi dialects . The Mehri language is also spoken by Mehri Saudis. Saudi Sign Language
2256-454: Was constructed by the US-based Bechtel Corporation starting from 1976. The construction project was further expanded until 2021 with a cost of $ 20 billion. This Saudi Arabia related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia More than a third of the population is concentrated in the Dammam metropolitan area . With an estimated population of 1.53 million as of 2022, Dammam ,
2304-411: Was just a highway oasis in the desert that pilgrims passed while traveling to Mecca for Hajj . It falls on the route from Asia towards the Red Sea. It's an ancient desert trail that delivered silk and metals coming from China towards Mecca and Jeddah . The new formed Muslim Caliphate moved in immediately and gained hold of the area. At the time of Islam's arrival, there was little water available in
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