Khobar
— a Gulf city built along the causeway.
Not only on a wall.
“On the Persian Gulf coast of the Eastern Province, across the water from Bahrain. The King Fahd Causeway runs 25 kilometres out from the corniche; the lights of Manama come on across the channel just after sundown. Khobar was a pearl-divers' fishing village a century ago and is now a low-slung modern coastal city, palms along the seafront and towers behind.
Khobar, 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.
Khobar (Al-Khobar) sits on the Persian Gulf coast in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, forming the eastern anchor of the Dammam metropolitan area together with Dammam and Dhahran. The city holds a population of roughly 600,000 and runs along a long corniche facing the open Gulf. Bahrain lies about 25 kilometres west across the water, connected since 1986 by the King Fahd Causeway. The city sits near the headquarters of Saudi Aramco in neighbouring Dhahran.
The Gulf here is shallow and warm, rarely deeper than 50 metres for many kilometres offshore, with summer sea temperatures that climb past 32°C. The city's Corniche runs several kilometres along this water, lined with parks, cafés, and the Khobar Water Tower at its northern end. Before oil, the local economy was pearl diving and fishing. Khobar was a small fishing settlement of a few hundred people until the 1930s, when the discovery of oil at nearby Dammam transformed the entire coast within a generation.
Khobar is reached most easily through King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, about 35 kilometres north. Winters are mild, with January days around 20°C; summers run punishingly hot, often above 42°C, with high humidity off the Gulf. The cooler months from November through March are the recommended visiting window. The Corniche, the Half Moon Bay beaches to the south, and the causeway crossing to Bahrain are the standard outings; many visitors combine the city with a side trip to historic Diriyah further inland.