Ash Sharqiyah Province

Eastern Province (Arabic: الشرقية Ash-Sharqīyah‎) is the largest province of Saudi Arabia, located in the east of the country on the Persian Gulf coast, and has land borders with Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. It has an area of 710,000 km² and a population of 3,360,157 (As of 2004 census). Its capital is Dammam, and its governor is Prince Mohammed bin Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud. Adjacent to Ad-Dammam is Al-Khobar, a co... more

Eastern Province (Arabic: الشرقية Ash-Sharqīyah‎) is the largest province of Saudi Arabia, located in the east of the country on the Persian Gulf coast, and has land borders with Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. It has an area of 710,000 km² and a population of 3,360,157 (As of 2004 census). Its capital is Dammam, and its governor is Prince Mohammed bin Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud. Adjacent to Ad-Dammam is Al-Khobar, a commercial center and a vibrant seaport. The King Fahd Causeway, completed in the 1980s, links the Eastern Province to neighboring islands of Bahrain. The gateway to the province is King Fahd International Airport, the largest airport in the world in terms of land area. The southern part of the province, with more than half of the area, belongs to the largely uninhabited Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter) desert. Ther Saudis gained control of the area after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The inhabited areas had been known as Al-Ahsa (الأحساء)... less