city, northeastern Saudi Arabia. The city, under construction in the early 1980s, was being built by U.S. Army engineers after developing the nearby port of Raʾs al-Mishʿab on the Persian Gulf to handle the materiel brought in for the King Khālid Military City project. The city, built to provide lodging for several brigades of Saudi Arabia's troops, is located 46 miles (75 km) south of al-Qayṣūmah and 155 miles (249 km) west of Raʾs al-Mishʿab. The new city is located in a sparsely populated desert.