Al-Ahsa Oasis
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How it came to be
Al-Ahsa Oasis lies in eastern Saudi Arabia, about 60 km inland from the Gulf. More than 280 springs fed by a large aquifer allow farming all year in the desert, and with over 2.5 million date palms it is the largest oasis in the world.
People have lived here since the Neolithic. In 899 the Qarmatian leader Abu Tahir al-Jannabi declared a state independent of the Abbasid caliphate, with its capital near modern Hofuf. The region came under Ottoman rule in 1550, and in 1913 Ibn Saud, founder of modern Saudi Arabia, annexed it.
The oasis was inscribed in 2018 as twelve components, including gardens, canals, springs, wells, a drainage lake, part of historic Hofuf and archaeological sites. Its farms are still worked today.
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