Current Time in Al Mubarraz, Saudi Arabia

Al Mubarraz is one of the two principal cities of the Al Ahsa governorate in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, standing among the palm groves of the largest oasis in the world about a hundred and fifty kilometres from the shore of the Arabian Gulf. It lies only a few kilometres from Al Hufūf, and the two settlements have grown together into a continuous urban area surrounded by irrigated gardens and, beyond them, open desert. The climate is severe, with very hot summers, warm sunny winters and negligible rainfall, so that the whole life of the place depends on the springs and wells beneath it.

Several hundred thousand people live in Al Mubarraz, which is among the larger urban centres of the kingdom outside the main coastal and central cities. It sits within a governorate whose population exceeds a million and which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2018 as a cultural landscape shaped by continuous human use of water.

Settlement in the oasis reaches back thousands of years, and Al Ahsa appears in classical geography as a prosperous region of trade between Arabia and Mesopotamia. Al Mubarraz grew as a market and farming town, later coming under Ottoman authority and then joining the emerging Saudi state in 1913. Its historic quarters preserve mud brick houses, small mosques and the remains of defensive towers, and traces of the old irrigation channels can still be traced among the plantations.

Date palms define the landscape and the economy. Millions of trees fill the oasis, producing many varieties of dates that are processed and exported, and market gardens supply vegetables, rice and citrus to the eastern region. The other foundation of local prosperity lies beneath the desert nearby, where the Ghawar oil field, the largest conventional oil accumulation ever found, has drawn engineers, technicians and service companies to the area.

Visitors come chiefly for the oasis itself. Springs such as Ain Najm, long valued for their warm mineral water, the caves and cool passages of Jabal Al Qarah, the Al Ahsa National Park with its sand dunes and camel tracks, and the historic markets and fortresses of neighbouring Al Hufūf are all within a short drive. Al Mubarraz has its own parks, a large modern souq and the Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Sports City, home to a well supported local football club.

The city is well connected by highway to Dammam, Riyadh and Bahrain, and the railway between Dammam and the capital passes through the governorate, an unusual advantage in a country where road travel dominates. Al Ahsa International Airport serves the region.

King Faisal University, based in the neighbouring city, provides higher education in medicine, veterinary science and agriculture, and technical colleges train workers for the oil and service industries.

Al Mubarraz is important as part of an ancient oasis civilisation that continues to flourish, combining traditional palm agriculture with the modern industry of the Saudi east.