Dhahran Through Time

Photographer: Ralph Wells

Dhahran camp in early 1936. Damman Well No. 7, the first to encounter commercial quantities of oil, is seen in the distance (about 500 yards north of the camp). By the end of 1938, there were 2,745 Saudis, 236 Americans and 104 people of other nationalities working for the company. The buildings featured here were used as offices until 1957.
 

Photographer: Max Steineke

In anticipation of the need for family housing, the first air-conditioned, two-bedroom portable bungalows were shipped to Saudi Arabia in June 1936. The first American wives, Annette Henry and Nellie Carpenter, arrived in the Eastern Province in the spring of 1937. These houses, photographed in 1937, have undergone numerous renovations and are still in use today.
 

Photographer: James MacPherson

Dhahran's Saudi camp, January 1946, shows the completed mosque and the mix of housing styles then in use.
 

Photographer: R. Lee

Aramco workers leaving Dhahran after a day’s work, 1955.

 

Photographer:T.F. Walters

The busiest corner in Dhahran in 1952. These portable buildings housed the community post office, laundry and canteen. The main administration building, now part of a larger complex know as the South Administration Building, is in the background.

 
Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran, 2006.

Photographer:Ken Childress / Herring Design/Saudi Aramco

The Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center, or EXPEC, and the Engineering Building opened in 1982. The first of its kind in the Middle East, EXPEC not only served to develop and implement exploration technology and better manage reservoirs, it became an incubator of Saudi geoscientists, petroleum engineers and technicians.