Hafar al-Batin
| Hafar al-Batin | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Coordinates | 28 ° 26 ' N , 45 ° 58' E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Saudi Arabia | ||
| al-Sharqiyyah | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | SA-04 | ||
| Residents | 271,642 (2010) | ||
| founding | 7th century AD | ||
Hafar al-Batin ( Arabic حفر الباطن, DMG Ḥafar al-Bāṭin ), also known as Hafr al-Batin , is a Saudi Arabian city in the province of Ash-Sharqiyya . It is 430 km north of Riyadh , 94 km from the border with Kuwait and about 74 km from the border with Iraq . The King Khalid Military City is located near the city. The city is located in the dry valley of the Wadi al-Batin, which is part of the longer valley of the now dried up river Wadi ar-Rumma, which led inland towards the Medina and flowed into the Persian Gulf .
The population in 2010 was around 270,000. In 2010 Hafar al-Batin had more than 35 villages and towns in its surrounding area, making the total population of the agglomeration between 400,000 and 600,000 inhabitants.
history
In the 1st century of the Islamic Calendar (c. 638 AD), the Hafar al-Batin area was just one route in the desert on which pilgrims traveled to Mecca to complete the Hajj . At that time there was no water in this region, so pilgrims had to travel a long way from what is now Iraq to Mecca with water supplies. During the reign of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (A.D. 644-656), many pilgrims complained of the lack of water, and Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī , a companion of the Prophet Mohammed , acted by building new wells along the route in al-Batin Valley. The name of Hafar al-Batin, literally “the hole of the al-Batin valley”, is derived from it.
Infrastructure
All streets in downtown Hafar al-Batin are paved. It is connected to an international road network that connects Saudi Arabia with Kuwait in the east and the north with the province of Ash-Sharqiyya.
Hafar al-Batin has two airports: one with restricted domestic flights (Qaisumah) (IATA: AQI, ICAO: OEPA), about 20 km southeast, and one exclusively for military use (King Khaled Military City Airport) (IATA: KMC, ICAO) : OEKK) approx. 70 km southwest. The closest domestic international airport is King Fahd International Airport .
climate
The temperatures in Hafar al-Batin range from −2 to 8 degrees Celsius on winter nights and up to 40 to 50 degrees on summer days. The climate is generally hot and dry and it only rains in the winter months. The Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies the climate as a hot desert climate (BWh).
Sports
The football club al-Batin FC rose to the Saudi Professional League for the first time in 2011 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ General Authority for Statistics. Retrieved January 13, 2020 .
- ↑ Hafar Al-Batin climate: Average Temperature, weather by month, Hafar Al-Batin weather averages - Climate-Data.org. Retrieved January 13, 2020 .
- ^ Al-Batin - club profile. Retrieved January 13, 2020 .