الدمام (ad-Dammam)

الدمام (ad-Dammam), just northwest of the island of Bahrain and on the Persian Gulf, has a metropolitan area of about 1.7 million, but the population of the city proper is less than one million. The suburbs include Dharan and Khobar, and Khobar has the tallest tower, a 46 story rental apartment building.¹ A bridge links the metropolitan area to the island of al-Bahrayn. While it has been around a while--as attested by an offshore stone castle--its world significance came in the last century, thanks to the nearby az-Zahran² oilfields. The King Fahd International Airport is one of the Saudi nation's busiest airports.³

External references

desalination facility at Khobar, ad-Damman metropolitan area, Eastern Province, al-'Arabīyah as-Su'ūdīyah (Saudi Arabia)

Historical Maps

Footnotes

1. It is the tallest building in stories listed for the three cities by emporis.com, accessed 3/4/2014, and has a wide gap in stories over other buildings, so it is probably the tallest in feet, assuming the listings are complete. The building name is Dharan Tower even though it is not in Dharan.
2. Or Dharan.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_the_Arab_states_of_Persian_Gulf, accessed 3/4/2014.