| Hofuf | |
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| Street in Hofuf | |
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Hofuf
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Saudi Arabia |
| Province | Hofuf |
| Established | |
| Joined Saudi Arabia 1913 | |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Bin Jalawi |
| • Provincial Governor | Muhammed Bin Fahd |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Total | 400,000 |
| Hofuf Municipality estimate | |
| Postal Code | (5 digits) |
| Area code(s) | +966-3 |
| Website | [3] |
Al-Hofuf (also Hofuf , Hofof' or Hufuf) (Arabic: الهفوف) is the major urban center in the Al-Ahsa Oasis in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
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The city proper has a population of 1,200,000 (2009 census} and is part of a larger populated oasis area of towns and villages of around 600,000. 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.
Legend places this 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.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Hofuf proper was estimated at 25,000, of whom 75% were said to be Sunnis, the rest being Shi'ites of the Twelver sect.[1] The city remains mixed between Sunnis and Shi'ites today, and has historically been an important center for the Maliki rite of Sunni Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.[2] The surrounding oasis villages are also an important center of Shi'ite Islam in the country.
Although the city has two airports, it is served by King Fahd International Airport which is 130km away in Dammam. Of the local airports, the old one is abandoned, and the new one, Al-Ahsa Domestic Airport, is being used primarily by Saudi Aramco. It offers limited service to the general public, with only two weekly flights to and from Jeddah offered by Saudi Arabian Airlines.
The town has a railway junction where the direct line from the Persian Gulf to the capital splits from the indirect line.
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