Hafar Al-Batin

 

City of Hafar Al-Batin
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname: The Capital of the Spring[disambiguation needed]
Coordinates: 28°26′N 45°58′E / 28.433, 45.967
Country	Saudi Arabia
Province	Dammam
Established	17 AH - 638 AD
Joint Saudi Arabia	1925
Government
- Mayor	Mutlaq Abu Ethnain
- City Governor
- Provincial Governor
Population (2005)
- City	{{formatnum:+338,636}}
- Urban	{{formatnum:+289,179}}
- Metro	{{formatnum:+49,457}}
	Hafar Al-Batin Municipality estimate
Time zone	AST ([[UTC+3]])
- Summer (DST)	AST ([[UTC+3]])
Postal Code	31991
Area code(s)	+966-3-72

Hafar Al-Batin is a Saudi Arabian city belongs to the Eastern Province and located in the Northeastern region. It is located at around 28°26′3″N, 45°57′49″E just north to Riyadh, and located near the longitudinal Coordinate of Riyadh, thus it has almost the same prayer time with Riyadh, +/- 1 minute. It is about 480 km from Riyadh, 90 km from Kuwait border and about 70 from Iraq border. King Khalid Military City is a 60 km south to it.

Name

The name of Hafar Al-Batin (Arabic: حفر الباطن) means the hole of Al-Batin Valley

History

In the 1st century after hijrah in 638 AD, Hafar Al-Batin was just a route in a desert that pilgrims pass through it to Mecca for Hajj. At that time , there is no water available in this land, the pilgrims travelled from Iraq to Mecca in a long route wihout water. During Uthman ibn Affan reign (644 AD - 656 AD), complaints of pilgrims reached Abu-Musa al-Asha'ari a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad who was involved to solve the problem by digging for new wells in this route around 17 AH. The wells started from 5 reached 70 wells in the lowest point of Al-Batin valley. The name Abu-Musa al-Asha'ari wells were put. In 1320 AH, the 70 wells decreased to 40 wells only 11 wells were drinkable. The remaining wells were now holes. Thus, the current name is holes in Al-Batin valley to be holes of Al-Batin (Arabic: حفر الباطن)

Population

By 2005, Hafar Al-Batin, its suburbans and more 35 villages reached +338,636.

• Hafar Al-Batin about +289,179 28°26′3″N, 45°57′49″E
• Qaisumah about +20,887 28°18′32″N, 46°08′00″E
• Al-Theebiyah about +12,338 28°07′30″N, 45°40′03″E
• Ar Raqa'i +5,665 29°01′00″N, 46°33′00″E
• As Su'ayerah about +3,607
• As Sufayri about +2,481 28°31′25″N, 45°48′09″E
• Al-Qalt - Ibn Tuwalah about +1,128 28°37′48″N, 45°19′48″E
• Samoudah about +914
• As Sadawi about +822
• Um Qulaib about +612 27°49′50″N, 45°58′55″E
• An Nazim about +585 28°39′00″N, 45°13′12″E
• Dhabhah about +267
• Um Ashar about +73 27°43′12″N, 45°03′36″E
• Al-Metiahah Al-Janobiyah about +61
• Al-Hamatiyat about +17

Communications

All the downtown and roads of Hafar Al-Batin are paved. It is connected with an international network of roads, connecting Saudi Arabia with Kuwait in the East and connecting the North with the Eastern Province. Hafar Al-Batin has two airports, Qaisumah (IATA: AQI, ICAO: OEPA) airport about 10 km in the east, and King Khalid Military City Airport (IATA: HBT, ICAO: OEKK) about 60 km in the south.

Districts

Climate

Weather in Hafar Al-Batin is ranging from (-3 C to 5 C) at the night of winter to (40 C to 49 C) at the daylight of summer and even more but not documented. The Climate in general is harsh, hot and dry, it is rainy in winter only.

Galleries

Notes

References

• Central Department of Statistics and Informations (Arabic)
• The Saudi Arabian Information Resource

External links

• Dammam
• Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
• Maps and aerial photos for 28°′″N 45°′00″E / 28.4333, 45.9667Coordinates: 28°′″N 45°′00″E / 28.4333, 45.9667
  • Maps from MapQuest, Multimap and Yahoo! Maps
  • Satellite images and maps from Google Maps and Live Search
  • Other mapping from GlobalGuide and WikiMapia

Saudi Arabian Cities	List of main Saudi Arabian cities
	`Afif | `Ar`ar | Abha | Abqaiq | Al-Bahah | Buraidah | Ad Dammam | Dhahran | Ad Dir`iyah | Duba | Ha'il | Al Hufuf | Al Jawf | Jeddah | Jizan | Al Jubayl | Khamis Mushayt | Al-Kharj | Khobar | Al Majma'ah | Mecca (Makkah) | Medina | Najran | Bisha | Al-Qatif | Ras Tanura | Al-Khafji | Riyadh (National Capital) | At Ta'if | Tabuk | `Unayzah | Yanbu' al Bahr | Hafar Al-Batin

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