AL AHSA PALM GROVE

The Al-Ahsa palm grove stretches northeast of Al Hofuf over nearly 4,000 hectares. Self-declared the largest oasis in the world, it is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2018. The date palms are wisely arranged behind low walls. They are supplied with water by a network of canals that criss-cross the area. In the past, the Al-Ahsa oasis was fed by 160 natural springs. The trees are spaced 6 meters apart to allow the palms to flourish. When they reach 10 to 12 meters, they are uprooted because the fruit is of lower quality. There are more than 3 million trees that produce the khalas dates. Oblong in shape, brown in color, fleshy, its harvest takes place between late September and mid-October. The palm grove is then active and the boxes are piled up in the fields. The dates are harvested by hand by an expert workforce. While a man climbs to the top of the tree, his colleagues place a large tarp at the foot of the palm tree. The harvester cuts the branches loaded with date bunches. Each cluster can bear a hundred fruits. The bunches are then hand-picked and the fruit placed in cardboard boxes, which were originally designed to carry bananas. Farmers use these boxes because each one, when filled, weighs exactly 20 kg. The dates are then transported to a packing plant and sent across the country. Khalas dates have the particularity of being pressed.