Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business 
Hofuf, also called Al-Hofuf or Al-Ahsa, is the seat of Al-Ahsa Governorate in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and the second-largest city of the province, with 729,606 people in 2022. It lies inside the Al-Ahsa Oasis, the largest oasis in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is known for its dates, old markets and palaces.
The oasis has been settled since prehistoric times thanks to its springs, and around 900 the Qarmatians ruled the region from a capital near today's Hofuf. The Ottomans built Ibrahim Palace from 1555 and made the city their headquarters again from 1871, until Ibn Saud took it in 1913. Nearby Jawatha Mosque is the earliest known mosque in eastern Arabia.
Today visitors walk the lanes of Qaisariya Souq, climb into the cool caves of Jabal Al-Qarah and look out over palm groves that stretch to the dunes of Al-Asfar Lake. Hofuf forms one urban area with its twin city Al-Mubarraz, and trains link it with Riyadh and Dammam.
Ibrahim Palace is the walled fortress on the north side of Hofuf's old Al-Kut quarter, begun in 1555 together with its domed Al-Qubba Mosque and later enlarged with a fort, a prison and Ottoman baths. Ibn Saud took it on 13 April 1913, and its 16,500 square metres were fully restored in 2019.
Sahood Palace is the mud-brick fortress outside the western walls of Al-Mubarraz, Hofuf's twin city, ringed by thick double walls and two-storey towers pierced with openings for guns and cannon. Inside are a mosque, a well, a majlis and stables, though who first built it is still disputed.
Khuzam Palace guards the old south-western entrance to Hofuf, built to watch over the Bedouin camps that gathered there every summer to trade livestock and wool for dates. Smaller than Ibrahim Palace, its walls measure about 70 by 80 metres and carry six towers of two storeys each.
Mihayris Fort is a small hilltop stronghold north of Al-Mubarraz, built in 1793-94 under Imam Saud bin Abdulaziz to store weapons and supplies, its name coming from the Arabic word for a guard post. Its square 20-metre walls and round tower stand in a garden that now hosts art shows and events.
Jawatha Mosque, 12 kilometres north-east of Hofuf, is the earliest known mosque in eastern Arabia, built by the Bani Abd al-Qays tribe in the 7th century, and is said to have held the second Friday prayer in Islam. Only a few arches survived the centuries before it was restored in 2007.
Al-Jabri Mosque stands in the heart of Hofuf's Al-Kut quarter, just west of Ibrahim Palace, and was built in 1475 by Saif bin Zamil al-Jabri, emir of the Jabrid state that then ruled Al-Ahsa. Repaired many times since Ottoman days, its plastered walls enclose a square plan with a large courtyard.
The Amiri School, also called Hofuf First School, is the oldest government school in Saudi Arabia, begun in 1937 and opened in February 1941 in central Hofuf. Prince Khalid al-Faisal studied in its classrooms behind a white Islamic-style entrance, and it is now known as the House of Culture.
Qaisariya Souq in central Hofuf is one of the largest covered markets in the Gulf, first laid out in 1822 under the Ottomans and rebuilt in local style under King Abdulaziz. More than 400 small shops line its roofed lanes, selling Hasawi rice, dates, spices, herbs, incense, perfume and henna.
Al-Ahsa Oasis surrounds Hofuf with more than 2.5 million date palms, watered by an underground aquifer and over 280 artesian springs, which makes it the largest oasis in the world. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2018, it takes in four cities and 22 villages set among farms and palm groves.
Jabal Al-Qarah is a 75-metre mesa 15 kilometres east of Hofuf, part of the Al-Ahsa UNESCO site, worn by wind into towers and narrow canyons of reddish rock. Its caves stay at about 20 degrees Celsius all year, with a cool breeze blowing out from inside, a welcome escape in summer.
Al-Asfar Lake lies east of the Al-Ahsa Oasis, about 13 kilometres from Al-Omran, where drainage water from the palm farms gathers between high sand dunes into one of the largest bodies of water in the Gulf region. Rich in reeds, fish and birds, it was declared a nature reserve in 2019.
Al-Uqair is an ancient seaport on the Gulf coast some 65 kilometres from Hofuf, possibly linked with the classical trading city of Gerrha, and long the main gateway for goods bound for Al-Ahsa and Najd. The 1922 Uqair Protocol was signed here, and its old port buildings stand by a quiet beach.
Been to Al Hufūf? Add your best shots to the gallery.
Log in to add photosPhoto: Ahmady4321, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Heritage Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Heritage Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: saudipics, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Ahmady4321, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Richard Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Heritage Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Richard Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: محمد الفهيد, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Mark Dolce, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: King Eliot, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: بندر بن عبدالرحمن, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Photo: Richard Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: محمد الفهيد, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: النهى على, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Heritage Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Peter Dowley from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Richard Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Richard Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: FShbib, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Heritage Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Heritage Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Heritage Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: بندر بن عبدالرحمن, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Photo: Richard Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Richard Mortel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: marviikad, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Shijan Kaakkara, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: محمد الفهيد, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: saudipics, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Qasim Al Eid, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
