A harbour for al-Ahsa and Najd
Al-Uqair, in al-Ahsa Governorate, was the first seaport established on the Kingdom's Arabian Gulf coast and the main harbour for the successive civilisations of al-Ahsa. Trade passed here as far back as the Stone Age.
From the start of the Saudi state it served as Najd's gateway to the sea. Its role held until 1945, when the oil finds at Buqayq and Dhahran redrew the trade routes, and it faded from 1957 once Dammam Port and the railway were in place.
Treaties by the shore
On 26 December 1915 King Abdulaziz concluded the al-Uqair Treaty here with Percy Cox, representing the British government. In 1922 talks with British delegations over the borders of Najd produced the al-Uqair Protocol.
The port's buildings still stand: the customs house, listed on the National Antiquities Register, the passport office, the small quay known as the farda, the khan where travellers rested, the emirate building and palace, a mosque, a spring and the Abu Zahmol tower. The khan, the emirate building and the palace were restored in 1997.