Bahrain

Bahrain is an archipelago of low-lying islands in the Arabian Gulf, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the region. Its fresh-water springs made it a natural stopping point for ships, and by the third millennium BC it was the centre of Dilmun, a trading civilisation that connected Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley.

Later centuries brought Assyrian, Persian, Greek and Islamic influence, followed by Portuguese and Omani presence and the rise of the Al Khalifa. Each period left its trace in the burial mounds, forts, mosques and merchant houses that still stand across the islands.

Modern Bahrain was the first Gulf state to discover oil, in 1932, and used that head start to build banking, industry and services long before its neighbours began to diversify.

Qal'at al-Bahrain, the ancient harbour and capital of Dilmun, is a layered mound holding almost five thousand years of occupation, crowned by a Portuguese fort that looks out over the sea.

The second site, Pearling: Testimony of an Island Economy, runs through Muharraq and links oyster beds, a seashore fortress and seventeen buildings — merchants' houses, shops, warehouses and a mosque — that together record the Gulf before oil. The Dilmun Burial Mounds, tens of thousands of them, were added to the World Heritage list in 2019.

Bahraini life still turns around the majlis, the reception room where families, neighbours and visitors gather to talk over coffee and dates. Fijiri, the rhythmic music once sung by pearl divers at sea, is still performed in Muharraq's traditional houses.

Craft traditions remain active: pottery at A'ali, weaving at Bani Jamra, boat building along the shore, and the pearl trade itself, which is protected by a national ban on cultured pearls.

Bahrain's landscape is shaped by the meeting of desert and sea. Date gardens and artesian springs once covered the northern coast, while the interior rises gently towards Jabal ad-Dukhan, the Mountain of Smoke.

Offshore, the Hawar Islands are a refuge for migratory birds and hold one of the largest breeding colonies of Socotra cormorants in the world. In the southern desert, the Tree of Life stands alone, drawing water from an unseen source.