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We report coincident damped Lyα (DLA) and sub‐DLA absorption at   z  abs = 2.66  and   z  abs = 2.94  towards the  z ∼ 3, 13.8 arcsec separation binary quasar SDSS 1116+4118 AB. At the redshifts of the absorbers, this angular separation corresponds to a proper transverse separation of ∼ 110  h  −1  70   kpc . A third absorber, a sub‐DLA at   z  abs = 2.47 , is detected towards SDSS 1116+4118 B, but no corresponding high column density absorber is present towards SDSS 1116+4118 A. We use high‐resolution galaxy simulations and a clustering analysis to interpret the coincident absorption and its implications for galaxy structure at  z ∼ 3. We conclude that the common absorption in the two lines of sight is unlikely to arise from a single galaxy, or a galaxy plus satellite system, and is more feasibly explained by a group of two or more galaxies with separations ∼100 kpc. The impact of these findings on single line‐of‐sight observations is also discussed; we show that abundances of DLAs may be affected by up to a few tenths of a dex by line‐of‐sight DLA blending. From a Keck Echellette Spectrograph and Imager spectrum of the two quasars, we measure metal column densities for all five absorbers and determine abundances for the three absorbers with log  N (H  i ) &gt; 20. For the two highest  N (H  i ) absorbers, we determine high levels of metal enrichment, corresponding to 1/3 and 1/5 Z ⊙ . These metallicities are amongst the highest measured for DLAs at any redshift and are consistent with values measured in Lyman‐break galaxies at  2 &lt;  z  &lt; 3 . For the DLA at   z  abs = 2.94  we also infer an approximately solar ratio of α‐to‐Fe peak elements from [S/Zn] =+0.05 , and measure an upper limit for the molecular fraction in this particular line of sight of log  f  (H  2 ) &lt; −5.5.

Coincident, 100 kpc scale damped Lyα absorption towards a binary QSO: how large are galaxies at z ∼ 3?