Dammam, al-

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DAMMAM, AL-

Saudi Arabian port on the Persian Gulf.

Al-Damman is a city on Saudi Arabia's gulf coast and capital of the Eastern Province since 1952. Transformed by the discovery of oil at nearby Dhahran, al-Dammam boasts a major port (built in 1950) and the terminus of the Riyadh railroad. An Anglo-Saudi conference in al-Dammam in 1952 failed to produce agreement on Saudi-Qatar and Saudi-Abu Dhabi frontiers. Al-Dammam's population has surged as a result of the steady economic growth in the Eastern Province, although no reliable figures are available. The city, in combination with the Saudi Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) headquarters at Dhahran and the residential town of al-Khubar, lies at the center of a commercial, industrial, and petroleum hub. King Faisal University is located in al-Dammam. The nearby King Fahd Causeway provides the only land link with Bahrain, and the King Fahd Airport, the newest of the kingdom's three international airports, was opened in 1999, replacing an older facility at Dhahran.

Bibliography


Nawwab, Ismail I., et al., eds. Saudi Aranco and Its World: Arabia and the Middle East. Dhahran: Saudi Aramco, 1995.

j. e. peterson

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