Dammam

About Dammam

Dammam is the capital of the Eastern Province on the Arabian Gulf coast and the Kingdom's fourth-largest city with about 1.53 million residents according to the 2022 census, founded by the Dawasir in 1923 and transformed by the discovery of oil at Dammam Well No. 7 in 1938 into the heart of the energy industry. With Dhahran and Khobar it forms one metropolis that holds Ithra, Dhahran Expo, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and King Fahd Airport, the world's largest by area, while its corniche and Al-Marjan Island, the Kingdom's first artificial island, line the shore. Its annual calendar opens with the iRead Marathon and Founding Day at Ithra, then the spring fairs at Dhahran Expo and the forums of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, the Summer Flowers Season on the waterfront and the Saudi Film Festival in June, the Saudi Maritime and Logistics Congress in autumn, and the Society for Culture and Arts exhibitions, the Playwriting Forum and the Monodrama Festival in winter.