Ad Dammam, town in eastern Saudi Arabia, in Ash Sharqiyah (Al Hasa) Province, on the Persian Gulf. It is one of the nation's chief ports, serving as a major exporting point for petroleum and natural gas. King Faisal University (1975) is here. Ad Dammam was a small coastal community until the late 1930s, when it began to be developed as a port. Several large-scale residential and commercial building projects were undertaken here in the 1970s and early 1980s. Population 127,844 (1974).
