East (Gulf) Coast visit - Apr. 1961
Occasionally we would catch the "Desert
Run" flight to the Arabian Gulf & Dhahran Airfield. This might be
for a medical appointment, work related trip or going to or from an out of
country trip. Frankly, very little can be remembered about this trip and
this group of slides dated April of '61. Most, especially the latter
photos, appear to have been taken on some sort of organized outing. Other
group members pictured here are not recognized and were not part of our Riyadh
element. As with all of these albums of old military travel photos,
suggestions and identifications are encouraged.
Thanks to input from the folks at this Aramco
ExPats web site, we believe we can now better identify where most of these
photos were taken. With the exception of the 1st 7 photos, most, if not all, of
these photos were taken on an outing to the large Al Hasa oasis located inland
from Dhahran & Dammam, but still in the eastern province. This was a
visit to the oasis, the town of Al Hofuf and the Jebel/Jabel area with its
limestone caves called "Ghar Al Hashshab" ("cave of the arrow
maker"). Additional input welcomed (& thanks, Vicci). [Also
see: "Al
Hofuf and Jebel Qara" web page
& this Saudi
Arabian Airlines Domestic Tourism web page.]
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| Obviously a shot on the
Gulf Coast probably near Al Khobar. |
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| Not a typical Saudi
scene, so must have been part to the Base or an Aramco facility. |
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| Probably part of Al
Khobar |
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| An Al Khobar back
street..or Hofuf..? |
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| Another back street of Al
Khobar or other nearby town, maybe Hofuf..? |
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| Look out of place? Not if
you were on the American housing area of an Aramco
facility |
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| A great symbol in this
desert region, these camels are down in front of some old fort..? Hofuf
again?? |
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| A nice portrait of an
animal that could be pretty nasty, though valuable in this land. |
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| Another back street
shopping area. |
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| A large prominent mosque
located ...?? |
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| A trip out in to the
sandy desert near the Gulf. |
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| This was obviously an
oasis area with the highly valuable commodity - water! |
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| Yours truly posing under
a palm tree (proving
to me that I did actually take this role of film & was present during
this day trip). |
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| This area with plentiful
water might have been in the Hofuf oasis area..? |
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| Open water often attracts
desert trucks in need of a bath. |
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| This fellow has quite an
antique rifle. |
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| This very distinctive terrain
should jar lose some memory banks, but the old memory banks were foggy. |
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| With help from the
internet & the Aramco ExPat site, I am reminded that this is the Jabel
area in the Al Hasa
Province. |
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| Within
reach of a day's outing from the Dhahran Airfield, this is the entrance to
the popular Ghar Al Hashshab caves. |
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| Again, none of the others
pictured in this series are recognized so they were probably personnel from the
Dhahran airbase. |
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| Very unusual geology
compared with our familiar Riyadh terrain. |
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| Hopefully someone can
help us better identify this particular interesting Saudi area. |
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| Three shrouded ladies
head towards ..?? |
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| Another unusual sight for
Riyadh accustomed eyes - lush, green vegetation of the oasis area. |
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| Another fort - or another
view of the fort in the earlier photo. |
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| One last fort view -
located .. probably in the Hofuf area?? |
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