The Kingdom of Bahrain
(Arabic: مملكة البحرين, Mamlakat al-Bahrayn, literally: Kingdom of the
Two Seas) is an Arabic island country in the Persian Gulf ruled by the
Al Khalifa royal family. Saudi Arabia lies to the west and is connected
to Bahrain by the King Fahd Causeway, which officially opened on 25
November 1986. Qatar is to the southeast across the Gulf of Bahrain. The
planned Qatar–Bahrain Friendship Bridge will link Bahrain to Qatar as
the longest fixed link in the world.
Al Fateh Mosque
The Al-Fateh
Mosque (also known as Al-Fateh Islamic Center & Al Fateh Grand
Mosque) (Arabic: مسجد الفاتح; transliterated: Masjid al-Fatih) is one
of the largest mosques in the world, capable of accommodating over 7,000
worshippers at a time. The mosque is the largest place of worship in
Bahrain. It is located next to the King Faisal Highway in Juffair, which
is a town located in the capital city of Manama. 
The
mosque very close to the Royal Bahraini Palace, the residence of the
king of Bahrain Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah. The huge dome built on top of
the Al-Fatih Mosque is made of pure fiberglass. Weighting over 60 t
(60,000 kg), the dome is currently the worlds largest fibreglass dome.
Al-Fateh now includes the new National Library which opened to the
public in 2006. The mosque was built by the late Sheikh Isa ibn Salman
Al Khalifa in 1987. It is named after Ahmed Al Fateh, the conqueror of
Bahrain.
Khamis Mosque
The Khamis Mosque
(Arabic: مسجد الخميس; transliterated: Masjid al-Khamys) is believed to
be the first mosque in Bahrain, built during the era of the Umayyad
caliph Umar II.
The identical twin minarets of this
ancient Islamic monument make it easily noticeable as one drives along
the Shaikh Salman Road in Khamis. It is considered to be one of the
oldest relics of Islam in the region, and the foundation of this mosque
is believed to have been laid as early as 692 AD. An inscription found
on the site, however, suggests a foundation date sometimes during the
11th Century. It has since been rebuilt twice in both 14th & 15th
centuries, when the minarets were constructed. The Khamis mosque has
been partially restored recently.
Arad Fort
Arad Fort (Arabic: قلعة عراد;
transliterated: Qal'at 'Arad) is a 15th century fort in Arad, Bahrain.
It was built in a typical Arab style.
Close to the Bahrain International
Airport, the fort has been extensively renovated and presents a
magnificent sight when it is illuminated at night. It is believed that
the fort was used by the Omanis during their brief occupation of Bahrain
in 1800, and it is located adjacent to the strategic waterways between
Bahrain Island and Muharraq Island.Little is known of the fort's
history, and there is no firm evidence of the precise date of
construction, but comprehensive excavations have been undertaken in
order to discover its past.
Bab Al Bahrain
Bab Al Bahrain (Arabic: باب البحرين, Bāb al-Bahrayn) means Gate of Bahrain.
It located in Manama's central business district (CBD) and marks the
main entrance to the Manama souq. Built by the British in the 1940s, Bab
Al Bahrain once stood at the water's edge. Due to extensive land
reclamation in the later years, one needs to walk more than 10 minutes
to get to the sea. When it was originally designed by Sir Charles
Belgrave in 1945, it housed the government offices of the time and
overlooked the sea. The sea has long been reclaimed. Government Avenue,
which runs alongside Bab Al Bahrain, and the new highway that leads to
Saudi Arabia were built on reclaimed land. Currently, the Bahrain
Financial Harbor is being constructed on further reclaimed land.The
monument itself was refurbished in 1986 to incorporate Islamic
architectural features. Today, the ground floor now houses the tourist
information office and a handicrafts shop.
Bab Al Bahrain (Arabic: باب البحرين, Bāb al-Bahrayn) means Gate of Bahrain.
It located in Manama's central business district (CBD) and marks the
main entrance to the Manama souq. Built by the British in the 1940s, Bab
Al Bahrain once stood at the water's edge. Due to extensive land
reclamation in the later years, one needs to walk more than 10 minutes
to get to the sea. When it was originally designed by Sir Charles
Belgrave in 1945, it housed the government offices of the time and
overlooked the sea. The sea has long been reclaimed. Government Avenue,
which runs alongside Bab Al Bahrain, and the new highway that leads to
Saudi Arabia were built on reclaimed land. Currently, the Bahrain
Financial Harbor is being constructed on further reclaimed land.The
monument itself was refurbished in 1986 to incorporate Islamic
architectural features. Today, the ground floor now houses the tourist
information office and a handicrafts shop.
The monument essentially consists
of a huge arch, below which runs a road, which is often referred to as
the entrance to the Manama souq (marketplace). The Government Avenue,
which runs in front of Bab Al Bahrain, contains many major banks and
business establishments. The Government Avenue is perhaps so-called
because the offices of the Manama municipality are located on it. The
Gold City (different from Gold Souq) is a shopping complex for gold
ornaments and is also located on Government Avenue.
Manama Souq
Manama Souq (Arabic:
سوق المنامة) is the old bazaar (souk) of Bahrain's capital, Manama. It
lies in the north of Manama Peninsula, in-between the old parts of the
city and the CBD, to the east of Noaim and west of Ras Rumman.
It is a bustling marketplace with numerous traditional as
well as modern shops. The souq (marketplace) is located in the heart of
the city, near Bab Al Bahrain. The souq stretches from Isa Al Kabeer
Avenue on the east side, Government Avenue on the north and Shaikh Hamad
Avenue on the west. One can see and buy all kinds of spices, fabrics,
kaftans, thobes, handicrafts,
souvenirs, dry fruits, nuts, and any other
thing one can imagine.
The crowd as well as the traders in Manama souq consist of
Bahrainis as well as expatriates from countries like India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Egypt and neighbouring Persian Gulf countries. The souq is
frequented by tourists from all over the world to experience the
traditional setting of the marketplace which has been preserved over the
years. The Gold souk is also worth visiting and all the gold is
hallmarked and pure. One can only find 18K and 21K gold items. 10K and
14K are not usually acceptable as 'gold' jewelry. The Bahraini pearls
are the only natural pearls in the world today and they are one of a
kind. They are not cultured but natural.
Qal'at al-Bahrain
Qal`at al-Bahrain
(Arabic: قلعة البحرين meaning Bahrain Castle) is an archaeological site
located in Bahrain. It is composed of an artificial mound created by
human inhabitants from 2300 BC up to the 1700's. Among other things, it
was once the capital of the Dilmun civilization, and served more
recently as a Portuguese fort. For these reasons, it was inscribed as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
Qal`at al-Bahrain
is a typical tell – an artificial mound created by many successive
layers of human occupation. The strata of the 300x600-metre tell testify
to continuous human presence from about 2300 B.C. to the 16th century
A.D. About 25% of the site has been excavated revealing structures of
different types: residential, public, commercial, religious and
military. They testify to the importance of the site as a trading port
over the centuries. On the top of the 12m high mound, there is the
impressive Qal`at al-Burtughal (Portuguese fort), which gave the whole
site its name, qal`a, meaning fort. The site was the capital of the
Dilmun, one of the most important ancient civilizations of the region.
It contains the richest remains inventoried of this civilization, which
was hitherto only known from written Sumerian references
Bahrain Grand Prix
The Bahrain Grand Prix (Arabic: جائزة البحرين الكبرى) is a Formula One Championship race which first took place at the Bahrain International Circuit on 4 April 2004. The Bahrain Grand Prix, sponsored by Gulf Air, made history as the first Formula One Grand Prix to be held in the Middle East.
Bahrain fought off fierce
competition from elsewhere in the region to stage the race, with Egypt,
Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates all hoping for the prestige of
hosting a Formula One Grand Prix. The inaugural race was given the award
for the "Best Organised Grand Prix" by the FIA. The
Bahrain Grand Prix has usually been the third race of the Formula One
calendar, taking the spot of the Brazilian Grand Prix, which was moved
in 2004 to October. However, in the 2006 season, Bahrain swapped places
with the traditional opener, the Australian Grand Prix, which was pushed
back to avoid a clash with the Commonwealth Games.
Bahrain National Museum
The Bahrain National Museum (also referred as National Museum of Bahrain)
is the largest and one of the most oldest museums in Bahrain. It is
constructed near the King Faisal Highway in Manama. The museum possess a
rich collection of Bahrain's ancient archaeologyical artifacts since
1988, and covers 6000 years of Bahrain's history. This US$30 million
complex includes three halls devoted to archaeology and the ancient
civilisation of Dilmun, while two other halls depict the culture and
lifestyle of Bahrain's recent pre-industrial past. In 1993 a further
hall was opened, the Natural History Hall, focusing on the natural
environment of Bahrain. 
This
hall features specimens of Bahrain's flora and fauna. Among the
exhibits in the ancient history section is an actual burial mound which
was transported from its site in the desert and reassembled in the
museum. Another feature is a tableau which depicts a scene from the Epic
of Gilgamesh (in which reference to Bahrain is made as the paradise of
Dilmun). Old Quranic manuscripts, notes on astronomy and historical
documents and letters are exhibited in the Documents and Manuscripts
Hall.
Barbar temple
The Barbar temple is an archaeological site located in the village of
Barbar, Bahrain, and considered to be part of the Dilmun culture. The
most recent of the three Barbar temples was rediscovered by a Danish
archaeological team in 1954. A further two temples were discovered on
the site with the oldest dating back to 3000 BC. The temples were built
of limestone blocks, believed to have been carved out from the nearby
Jidda Island.
The three
temples were built atop one another with the second built approximately
500 years later and the third added between 2100BC and 2000BC. It’s
thought that the temples were constructed to worship the god Enki, the
god of wisdom and freshwater, and his wife Nankhur Sak (Ninhursag). The
temple contains two altars and a natural water spring that is thought to
have held spiritual significance for the worshippers. During the
excavation of the site many tools, weapons, pottery and small pieces of
gold were found which are now on display in the Bahrain National Museum.
Beit Al Qur'an
Beit Al Qur'an (Arabic: بيت القرآن)
means House of Qur'an in Arabic. It is an Islamic museum at Hoora,
Manama, in Bahrain, which is an island country in the Persian Gulf.
The House of the Qur'an was
built to accommodate a comprehensive and valuable collection of the
Qur'an and rare manuscripts, a concept which is unique in the Persian
Gulf. All visitors are welcome, and the complex comprises a mosque, a
library, an auditorium, a school and museum consisting of ten exhibition
halls.This great institution and its museum house an internationally
celebrated collection of historic Quranic manuscripts from various parts
of the Islamic world, from China in the East to Spain in the West,
representing a progression of calligraphic traditions from the first
century of the Islamic era to the present day.
Dilmun Burial Mounds
The Dilmun Burial Mounds is a
necropolis in Bahrain dating back to the Dilmun era. A Danish group was
excavating the capital city of the Bronze Age when they opened some
tumuli and discovered items dating to around 4100 - 3700 BP of the same
culture. Many others began to excavate more of the graves, providing us
with a view of the construction and content on these graves. Each of the
tumuli is composed of a central stone chamber that is enclosed by a low
ring-wall and covered by earth and gravel. Size of the mounds varies,
but the majority of them measure 15 by 30 ft (4.5 by 9 m) in diameter
and are 3-6 ft (1-2 m) high. The smaller mounds usually contain only one
chamber. The chambers are usually rectangular with one or two alcoves
at the northeast end. Occasionally there are additional pairs of alcoves
along the middle of the larger chambers. Although the chambers usually
contained one burial each, some contain several people and the secondary
chambers often contain none. The deceased were generally laid with
their head in the alcove end of the chamber and laying on their right
side. The bodies were accompanied by few items. There were a few pieces
of pottery and occasionally shell or stone stamp seals, baskets sealed
with asphalt, ivory objects, stone jars, and copper weapons. The
skeletons are representative of both sexes with a life expectancy of
approximately 40 years.
Attempts to protect the
burial mounds have run into opposition by religious fundamentalists who
consider them unIslamic and have called for them to be concreted over
for housing. During a parliamentary debate on 17 July 2005, the leader
of the salafist Asalah party, Sheikh Adel Mouwdah, said "Housing for the
living is better than the graves for the dead. We must have pride in
our Islamic roots and not some ancient civilisation from another place
and time, which has only given us a jar here and a bone there."
Scuba diving
Scuba diving
("scuba" originally being an acronym for Self Contained Underwater
Breathing Apparatus, although now widely considered a word in its own
right) is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set
to breathe underwater for recreation, commercial or industrial reasons.
Unlike early diving, which
relied exclusively on air pumped from the surface, scuba divers carry
their own source of breathing gas (usually compressed air), allowing
them greater freedom than with an air line. Both surface supplied and
scuba diving allow divers to stay underwater significantly longer than
with breath-holding techniques as used in snorkelling and free-diving.
According to the purpose of the dive, a diver usually moves underwater
by swimfins attached to his feet, but external propulsion can come from
an underwater vehicle, or a sled pulled from the surface.
First Oil Well
As its name suggests, it is the first oil well in the Persian Gulf
and is located in Bahrain. Oil first spurted from this well on 16
October 1931, and the well finally began to blow heads of oil on the
morning of 2 June 1932, to much celebration on the part of those
involved in the project.
The initial oil flow rate was
400 barrels per hour. The well is situated below Jebel Dukhan, dubbed
the Mountain of Smoke, which, at a height of 134 m (450 ft), is the
highest point of the island. Its name comes from the misty haze, which
frequently surrounds it on a hot and humid day. Bahrain was the first
place on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf where oil was discovered.
It couldn't have come at a better time for Bahrain as it roughly
coincided with the collapse of the world pearl market.
King Fahd Causeway
The King Fahd Causeway (Arabic: جسر الملك فهد)
is a causeway connecting Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Construction started
during 1968 and continued until 1986, when it was officially opened to
the public.
The project cost a total of US$1.2 billion (SAR3
billion). One of the major contractors of the project is Ballast Nedam
Group, based in the Netherlands. The four-lane road is 28 km (17 mi)
long and approximately 23 m (75 ft) wide, and was built using 350,000 m2
(3,800,000 sq ft) of concrete along with 47,000 metric tonnes of
reinforced steel. The causeway is constructed in three segments starting from Saudi Arabia:
1. From Khobar to the Saudi-Bahrain border
2. From the border to Nasan Island, Bahrain
3. From the Nasan island to the main island of Bahrain