Al Heedan ( ar, الحيضان; also spelled Al Hidan and Al Haydan) is a village in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

located in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

Al Khor Al Khor ( ar, الخور; also spelled ''Al Khawr''), officially Al Khor and Al Thakhira, is a municipality in coastal northeastern Qatar. Al Khor City, the municipal seat, is located in the northeast coast of Qatar, around from the capital, ...

. It is situated on the outskirts of Al Khor City, the municipal seat, and is considered a district of the city. Parts of its territory fall under Al Daayen Municipality.

Etymology

Similar to most other place names in Qatar, Al Heedan derives its name from its geographic features. "Heedan" is

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

for "water reservoir", being so named because its area consists of three adjacent rawdas (depressions) which retain water for long periods of time.

History

J.G. Lorimer's ''

Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf The ''Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia'' (nicknamed ''Lorimer'') is a two-volume encyclopedia compiled by John Gordon Lorimer. The ''Gazetteer'' was published in secret by the British government in India in 1908 and 1915 an ...

'' (1908) has an entry for Al Heedan, referring to it as "Al Hadhan". He lists its location as 7 miles south-west of Khor Shaqiq and 6 miles east from the coast. Few details are offered of it, except that it is a camping ground for Bedouins and has an unlined well which yields good water at 7 fathoms.

Infrastructure

As part of the Qatar Power Transmission System Expansion project, in 2015 it was announced that a power substation would be created in Al Heedan in order to power

Al Bayt Stadium Al-Bayt Stadium () is a retractable roof football stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, which was opened in time for matches in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which began on 20 November 2022. The stadium's construction contract was awarded to Qatari contractor ...

. In July 2018, the substation was fully commissioned after being constructed at a cost of QR 138 million. Al Khor's municipal council allocated 1,000 plots of land in Al Heedan to be developed as housing units for residents of Al Khor City in 2017.

References

Populated places in Al Khor {{Qatar-geo-stub