Al-Hofuf is the major urban center in the Al-Ahsa Oasis in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It is also very well known for being one of the largest date producers in the world, and for its old souks and palaces. Historically, Hofuf made textiles out of wool, silk, and cotton. The town was also renowned for its fruit of the date palm, the Arabs considering the khalasi variety of dates, grown in Hofuf, as also the fardh variety of Oman, among the best. As of 1920, the city was known for making coffee pots from silver and brass.
Legend places Hofuf as the burial place of Laila and Majnoon, the star-crossed pair of the most popular love story in the Arab and Muslim world. The Queen of Sheba is also fabled to have visited this city from her kingdom in Yemen.
The city proper has a population of about 660,000 and is part of a larger populated oasis area of towns and villages of over 1,000,000. It is located inland, southwest of Abqaiq and the Dhahran–Dammam–Al-Khobar metropolitan area on the road south to Haradh. It is the closest city to the famous Ghawar oil field, one of the world’s largest conventional (land-based) fields. Hofuf is one of the major cultural centers in Saudi Arabia. A lot of well-known families live there. The faculties of agriculture, veterinary medicine and animal resources for King Faisal University are located in the city (the others being in Dammam). The Hofuf campus also has facilities where Saudi women can study medicine, dentistry and home economics.
Although the city has two airports, it is served by King Fahd International Airport which is 130 km away in Dammam. Of the local airports, the old one is abandoned, and the new one, Al-Ahsa International Airport, is being used for domestic and limited international flight to Doha and Dubai. The city has a railway station connecting the city with the capital Riyadh to the west and Dammam to the north. All railways in Saudi Arabia are organized by the Saudi Railways Organization.
