Bahrain

Bahrain - Bahrain (officially Kingdom of Bahrain). Capital - Manama. Place - Middle East, Bahrain is an archipelago of 36 islands within the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia. The 4 main islands are joined by causeways (95 % of the total nation area). Bahrain's total area is 707 sq. km. (273 sq. mi). Capital - Manama (Al Manama).

Bahrain is defined by its relationship with water. Take the country’s name: ‘Two Seas’ in Arabic, the focus is not the island’s minimal landmass, but the water that laps its shores. So shallow stands out as the water lapping Bahrain’s coastline that the inhabitants regularly ‘reclaim’ pieces of land, filling in the gaps between sand bars, as if winning back lost territory. The new Bahrain Financial Harbour of Manama is currently rising like Neptune from this sort of reclaimed land, and its proud buildings, just like the Dual Towers, look to become holding back the sea. Of course nation reclamation in the Gulf has become the fashion. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Doha and Muscat all have ambitious projects involving a tamed sea in a human landscape. Only Bahrain, however, can claim a actually integral connection among the two: the sweet-water springs that bubble off-shore helped cause 4000 many years of settlement, the layers of which are exposed in rich archaeological sites around the island. The springs also encouraged the most lustrous of pearls – the trade in which helped build the island’s early fortunes.

Like an oyster, Bahrain’s rough exterior takes some prising open, but it is worth the effort. Inside good National Museum in Manama and the conventional houses of Muharraq towards extraordinary burial mounds at Sar, there are lots of fine websites to visit. For more modern pearls, there’s the spectacular Bahrain Globe Trade Centre, King Fahd Causeway as well as the new islands project at the southern tip. Presumably the engineers have factored within the projected effects of global warming or the sea might yet have the last laugh.