Current Time in Al Hufūf, Saudi Arabia

Al Hufūf is the principal city of the Al Ahsa governorate in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, lying about one hundred and fifty kilometres inland from the Arabian Gulf. It sits at the heart of Al Ahsa, the largest oasis in the world, an astonishing expanse of date palms, springs and irrigated gardens surrounded on all sides by the sands of the Rub al Khali and its northern extensions. The desert climate is extremely hot in summer, mild in winter, and the oasis owes its existence to a system of artesian springs that has supported settlement for thousands of years.

The city and its immediate neighbours are home to several hundred thousand people, and the governorate as a whole exceeds a million. Its global importance rests on two things above all. The first is agriculture, for the oasis contains several million date palms and has been famous for its fruit since antiquity. The second is oil, since the Ghawar field, the largest conventional oil field ever discovered, lies beneath the desert nearby and has made this quiet inland region central to the world energy economy.

Al Ahsa has been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times and appears in classical sources as the land of Gerrha. It was the seat of the Qarmatian state in the tenth century, later fell under Ottoman and then local rule, and was incorporated into the emerging Saudi state in 1913. In 2018 the oasis was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an evolving cultural landscape.

The city's most prominent monument is Qasr Ibrahim, a large fortress with a domed mosque, garrison quarters and thick mud brick and stone walls, standing in the middle of the urban area. Close by is the Qaisariah Souq, a covered market of narrow lanes and small shops selling textiles, spices, gold and traditional cloaks, and one of the oldest working markets in the kingdom. Jawatha Mosque, a short distance away, is among the earliest mosques in the Arabian Peninsula and is remembered as the place where the second Friday prayer in Islam was performed.

Jabal Al Qarah, a limestone outcrop rising from the palm groves, is honeycombed with cool natural passages that local people have used for shelter and for pottery workshops for centuries, and it is now a well organised visitor site. The oasis also offers the Al Ahsa National Park, the Yellow Lake, hot springs and small museums of local heritage.

Al Hufūf is served by the railway between Dammam and Riyadh, an unusual asset in the kingdom, together with an airport and good highways. King Faisal University, established here in 1975, is a large institution with a particular strength in agriculture, veterinary medicine and medicine.

The city remains known for handicrafts such as pottery, palm frond weaving and the making of the traditional bisht cloak.

Al Hufūf matters as the living centre of an ancient oasis civilisation and as a place where Saudi Arabia's agricultural past and industrial present meet.