Dammam
— — the coast where the oil came up.
Not only on a wall.
“Dammam sits on the western shore of the Arabian Gulf, the seat of the Eastern Province and the city where Saudi oil was first struck in 1938. The corniche runs for kilometres along the water, palm-lined and lit at night. Inland the desert begins almost immediately. Together with Dhahran and Al Khobar the three cities form a single urban band along the coast.
Dammam, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Dammam is the capital of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province (Ash-Sharqiyah) and the country's principal port on the Arabian Gulf, with a city population of roughly 1.5 million and a metropolitan area, joined with Dhahran and Al Khobar, of about five million. It lies 400 kilometres east of Riyadh, reached by the country's only passenger rail line, and is served by King Fahd International Airport, which by land area is the largest airport in the world. The city grew from a small fishing village in the 1930s after the discovery of oil at the Dammam No. 7 well.
The Arabian Gulf at Dammam is shallow and warm, averaging around 35 metres in depth and reaching surface temperatures above 33°C in August. The city's Corniche follows the water for more than eight kilometres, lined with palms, parks, and the Heritage Village; offshore, Half Moon Bay curves south toward Al Khobar with the shallow turquoise water that Gulf summers turn nearly green. Tarout Island, just north of the city in Qatif Bay, has been inhabited for more than five thousand years and holds one of the oldest port sites on the Arabian peninsula.
The Dammam metropolitan area is the easiest entry point to the Eastern Province. King Fahd International Airport, about 20 kilometres northwest, links the city to Riyadh, Jeddah, and the Gulf capitals; the Saudi Landbridge train reaches Riyadh in just over four hours. The King Fahd Causeway joins the area to Bahrain across 25 kilometres of water and remains the principal land connection between the two countries. Most public life happens after dark — the corniche fills after the maghrib prayer, and the souqs of nearby Qatif open into the evening through the cooler months from November to March.