Lighthouses of Eastern Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia occupies the majority of the Arabian Peninsula and has two coastlines: a long west coast on the Red Sea and a shorter east coast on the Persian Gulf. Following the collapse of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire at the end of World War I, a complicated series of wars led in 1932 to the unification of the country, named for its founder King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud.

A note on nomenclature: the Persian Gulf (as it is usually known in the West) is called the Arabian Gulf in Arabia and the Gulf of Fars in Iran. The International Hydrographic Organization calls it the Gulf of Iran and many commentators avoid all nomenclatural problems by calling it simply "The Gulf".

This page describes lighthouses of the Saudi Gulf coast, which extends along the upper Gulf from Kuwait to Bahrain. All of this coast is included in the Eastern Province, the largest of the 13 Saudi provinces. Jubail and Dammām are the major Saudi ports on the Gulf.

The Arabic word for a lighthouse is mnarh or manara (منارة). Ra's is a cape, jazīrat is an island, minā is a harbor, and shi'b is a reef.

Lighthouses in Saudi Arabia are maintained by the Saudi Ports Authority, but offshore navigational aids in the Gulf are maintained by the Middle East Navigation Aids Service (MENAS), based in Bahrain.

ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.

General Sources
Lightphotos.net - Saudi Arabia
Photos by various photographers available from Lightphotos.net.
Online List of Lights - Saudi Arabia
Photos by various photographers posted by Alexander Trabas.
Middle East Navigation Aids Service -ATON's
A map locating and identifying the MENAS beacons.
GPSNautical Charts
Navigational chart information for the Gulf.
Navionics Charts
Navigational chart for the eastern Saudi coast.

Damman Range Rear Light
Dammām Range Rear Light, June 2012
Lightphotos.net photo copyright Dmitry Rostopshin; used by permission

Khafjī Area Lighthouses
Khafjī is a town near the border between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. For many years it was in the former Neutral Zone, a territory where the two nations had joint custody. Following the discovery of oil in the area the Neutral Zone was partitioned in 1970, placing Khafjī about 20 km (13 mi) south of the Kuwaiti border. The town was briefly occupied by Iraqi forces during the 1991 Gulf War.

Khafjī North Breakwater
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 16 m (52 ft); green flash every 10 s. 13 m (43 ft) square pyramidal skeletal tower. Atif Khan has a distant view (a portion is seen at right) and Google has a satellite view. Located on the breakwater on the north side of the entrance to Khafjī harbor. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7505.4; NGA 29344.5.
Khafjī Range Front
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 16 m (52 ft); continuous red light. 13 m (43 ft) square pyramidal skeletal tower. No photo available but Google has a satellite view. Located on the quay on the south side of Khafjī harbor. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7505; NGA 29340.
Khafjī Range Rear
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 23 m (75 ft); continuous red light. 20 m (66 ft) square pyramidal skeletal tower, painted white. No photo available but Google has a satellite view. Located on the south side of the harbor, 335 m (0.2 mi) southwest of the front light. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7505.1; NGA 29344.
Ra's al Mish'ab
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 50 m (164 ft); white light occulting once every 2.3 s. 47.5 m (156 ft) building, listed as a "silo" by NGA. No photo available but Google has a satellite view. Located on the pier at Ra's al Mish'ab, a Saudi military base about 35 km (21 mi) south of Khafjī. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7462; NGA 29352.
Ra's Tanāqīb (Tanajib) Jetty
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 13 m (43 ft); red flash every 10 s. Approx. 10 m round barbell-shaped tower. No photo available and the light is not seen in Google's satellite view. Tanajib is a Saudi Aramco oil and gas facility about halfway between Khafji and Jubail. Located on a U-shaped jetty at the north entrance to the harbor of Tanajib. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7453.

North Breakwater Light, Khafjī, August 2018
Google Maps photo by Atif Khan

Gulf Islands Lighthouses
Harqūs West
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 15 m (49 ft); white flash every 20 s. 12 m (39 ft) skeletal tower, painted yellow. No photo available, although the shadow of the tower is barely visible near the right end of the island in an aerial view. Harqūs is a sandbank, seen in a distant Google satellite view, about 50 km (30 mi) west northwest of Al-Arabiyah. The island is so low that it disappears completely when storm waves wash over it. Located at the western tip of the sandbank. Accessible only by boat. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7456; NGA 29372.
Al-Arabiyah (Arabi Island)
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 23 m (75 ft); two white flashes every 6 s. Skeletal tower, height unknown, painted with red and white horizontal bands. No photo available but Google has a distant satellite view. Farsi and Al-Arabiyah are two small islands near the center of the Gulf roughly 120 km (75 mi) northeast of Jubail. The two islands were among the most difficult issues when Saudi Arabia and Iran negotiated their maritime border during the 1960s. Under the final agreement in 1968 Farsi was assigned to Iran and Al-Arabiyah to Saudi Arabia. A Saudi Coast Guard station occupies nearly all of the small island. Accessible only by boat. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7454; NGA 29368.

Jubail Area Lighthouses
Formerly a small fishing village, Jubail became the site of industrial development in 1975 and has grown to a city of almost 700,000 people.

Ra's al Khair Range Front
2011. Active; focal plane 15 m (49 ft); white light, 3 s on, 3 s off. Approx. 12 m (39 ft) tower. No photo available but Google has a satellite view. Ra's al Khair is a new port being developed for shipment of bauxite and phosphate. Located on the main quay of Ra's al Khair, about 60 km (37 mi) north of Jubail. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7448.2.
Ra's al Khair Range Rear
2011. Active; focal plane 29 m (95 ft); white light, 3 s on, 3 s off. Approx. 27 m (89 ft) tower. Khalid Mahmoud has a distant 2020 view (a portion is at right)and Google has a satellite view. Located near the base of the main quay of Ra's al Khair. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7448.21.
 

Range Rear Light, Ra's al Khair, December 2020
Google Maps photo by Khalid Mahmoud
 
#Abu Ali
Date unknown. Inactive since 2005. Previously described by NGA as a 15 m (49 ft) tower. No photo available; the light is not seen in Google's satellite view so it has probably been removed. The light has been replaced by a lightfloat. Located off the end of the dangerous Abu Ali sand spit, about 35 km (22 mi) north of Jubail. Accessible only by boat. Site status unknown. ARLHS SAU-001; ex-Admiralty D7444; ex-NGA 29412.
Jazīrat Al Jurayd (Juraid Island)
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 27 m (92 ft); continuous red light. Approx. 25 m (82 ft) round cylindrical racon (radar transponder) tower supporting a platform. Wikimapia has several photos including the one at right, Naseer Khan has a view from the sea, another view from the sea is available, but Google has only a fuzzy satellite view of the island. Located in the Gulf about 40 km (25 mi) northeast of Jubail, marking the beginning of the approach to the port. Accessible only by boat. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7443.1; NGA 29416.
Al Jubayl (Jubail) North Breakwater
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 9 m (30 ft); flash every 2 s, white or green depending on direction. Approx. 7 m (23 ft) round barbell-shaped metal tower painted with red and white horizontal bands. No photo available but Google has a satellite view. Located on the main breakwater of the inner harbor of Jubail. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7439; NGA 29440.
Al Jubayl (Jubail) East Breakwater North Head
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 9 m (30 ft); flash every 4 s, white or red depending on direction. Approx. 7 m (23 ft) round barbell-shaped metal tower painted with red and white horizontal bands. No photo available but Google has an indistinct satellite view. Located at the north end of the detached breakwater of the inner harbor of Jubail. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7438.8; NGA 29432.
King Abdul Aziz Naval Base Range Rear
Date unknown. Active; focal plane at least 25 m (82 ft); red light occulting once every 8 s. At least 25 m (82 ft) robust post carrying a large square daymark. No photo available but Google has an indistinct satellite view. This is the entrance range for the naval harbor on the south side of Jubail. The front light is on a post in the harbor. Located near the waterfront of the harbor. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7441.1; NGA 29480.

Juraid Island Light, Jubail
Wikimapia Creative Commons photo
Gharībah
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 9 m (30 ft); six quick white flashes and one long white flash every 15 s. 9 m (30 ft) tower. Upper half of the tower painted yellow, lower half black. No photo available but Google has a distant satellite view. Located in the Gulf about 20 km (25 mi) east of Jubail and a similar distance north of Ra's Tanura. Accessible only by boat. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7424; NGA 29532.

Ras Tanura Area Lighthouses
Ras Tanura is a city of about 150,000 residents located on a peninsula on the north side of Dammām. Its name means "Cape Oven," a reference to the extreme heat of the Gulf coast.

Ra's al Ju'aymah Terminal Range Front
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 15 m (49 ft); red flash every 10 s. Approx. 15 m (49 ft) square skeletal tower mounted on a platform supported by piles. No photo available but Bing has an indistinct satellite view. Located in the harbor on the north side of Ras Tanura. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7434.6; NGA 29533.
Ra's al Ju'aymah Terminal Range Rear
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 23 m (75 ft); green flash every 10 s. Approx. 20 m (66 ft) round cylindrical tower. No photo available but Bing has an indistinct satellite view. Located in the harbor on the north side of Ras Tanura. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7434.61; NGA 29533.1.
Ras Tanura Range Rear
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 18 m (60 ft); continuous green light. Light atop a large oil tank. No photo available but Google has a satellite view. Located in the oil terminal in southern Ras Tanura. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7428.81; NGA 29548.
Ras Tanura South End
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 18 m (60 ft); white flash every 10 s. 15 m (49 ft) square black skeletal tower. No photo available but Bing has an indistinct satellite view. Located at the southern tip of the Ras Tanura peninsula. Site and tower closed. Admiralty D7429; NGA 29576.

Dammām Area Lighthouses
Dammām is the metropolis of eastern Saudi Arabia and the capital of the Eastern Province. The city has a population of about one million, with four million in the metropolitan area.
Najwah Shoal (Dammām)
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 15 m (49 ft); flash every 10 s, white or red depending on direction. 15 m (49 ft) round post, painted with red and white horizontal bands and mounted on a square platform supported by piles. Google has a distant satellite view. Located at the north end of a dangerous shoal off the entrance to Dammām. Accessible only by boat. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7431; NGA 29580.
Dammām Range Front (2)
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 14 m (46 ft); quick-flashing white light. 14 m (46 ft) round cylindrical tower mounted on a square platform supported by piles. Lighthouse painted with red and white horizontal bands. Bing has a satellite view. NGA lists a skeletal tower. Located off the northeastern corner of Dammām harbor. Accessible only by boat. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7432; NGA 29584.
Dammām Range Rear (2)
Date unknown. Active; focal plane 25 m (82 ft); white flash every 4 s. 25 m (82 ft) round cylindrical tower mounted on a square platform supported by piles. Lighthouse painted with red and white horizontal bands. Dmitry Rostopshin's photo is at the top of this page and Bing has a satellite view. NGA lists a skeletal tower. Located 370 m (1/4 mi) southeast of the front light. Accessible only by boat. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7432.1; NGA 29588.
Dammām West Mole
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 11 m (36 ft); green flash every 5 s. 6 m (20 ft) round hourglass-shaped concrete tower mounted on a square base. Lighthouse painted with green and white horizontal bands. A photo is at right but Google has only a fuzzy satellite view. Located on the west breakwater of Dammām's King Abdul Aziz Seaport. Site status unknown. Admiralty D7432.4; NGA 29592.
Damman West Mole Light
Dammām West Mole Light, April 2013
Lightphotos.net photo copyright Dmitry Rostopshin; used by permission

Information available on lost lighthouses:

Notable faux lighthouses:

Adjoining pages: North: Southwestern Iran | East: Bahrain | Northwest: Kuwait

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Posted January 5, 2008. Checked and revised September 30, 2023. Lighthouses: 23. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.