Al Khobar

In 1923 this was a few fishermen's huts whose people were preparing to leave for Bahrain, and oil found at Dammam in 1938 stopped them — Al Khobar became the pier the first Saudi crude went out from. The King Fahd Causeway has run twenty-five kilometres from here to Bahrain since 1986, and the traffic on it come Thursday evening describes the region better than any survey.