Al-Ahsa is the world's largest date-palm oasis, and Qasr Sahood stands in the middle of it, in the busy city of Al Mubarraz. The oasis owes its existence to natural springs that rise from deep aquifers, so abundant that for centuries they fed canals and pools across tens of thousands of hectares of gardens, with several million palms shading rice, vegetables and fruit trees underneath. In the middle of an enormous desert, the effect is startling: green, wet, shaded and noisy with birds. UNESCO recognised the oasis in 2018 as a cultural landscape, and the fortress and the old mosques are part of the picture.
Qasr Sahood is a palace and fortress of the Ottoman and early Saudi periods, a mudbrick building with thick walls and towers, designed to protect the town and to impress visitors. Such buildings were both homes and strongholds in a region that lay between competing powers, and the history of Al-Ahsa, with Ottoman governors, local dynasties and tribal confederations, is a long tangle of shifting alliances. Nearby lies the Jawatha mosque, one of the oldest in the Gulf, said to date from the seventh century, and the Qaisariya market in Hofuf, where traders sell spices, carpets and the famous local textiles.
Riding in Al-Ahsa is easy in the sense that roads are wide, new and well kept, with a grid of motorways and plenty of roundabouts. It is not exciting. The best trips are those into the oasis itself, where narrow roads run between palms and canals, and to Jabal Qarah, a low mountain of sandstone and limestone with natural caves that stay cool even in the heat. From the summit, the view across the palms to the desert beyond shows how thin the line is between green and sand.
Fuel is plentiful and cheap throughout the area, with stations on every main road, and Al Mubarraz and neighbouring Hofuf have everything else, including cafés and restaurants serving Arabian dishes such as kabsa, a spiced rice with lamb or chicken. The best time is from November to March, when daytime temperatures are pleasant and evenings are cool. Summer heat is extreme, and between June and September it is best to ride only in the early morning. Dates, fresh or dried, are on sale everywhere, and the local varieties are worth buying for the road.