47 Fun Facts About Bahrain

What is the capital and largest city of Bahrain?

Manama became the headquarters of Britain's Gulf residency after the Second World War, when the resident moved there from Bushire on the opposite shore.

Bahrain is connected by the King Fahd Causeway to which neighbouring country?

Saudi Arabia is joined to Bahrain by the King Fahd Causeway, opened in November 1986; Bahrain, which drove on the left under British protection, had switched to the right, as on the mainland, in 1967.

The name Bahrain is Arabic for what?

The two seas is the literal meaning of al-Bahrayn, the dual of the Arabic word bahr (sea); the name once covered the whole eastern Arabian coast before being confined to the islands.

Which two Asian countries are smaller than Bahrain, the continent's third-smallest nation?

Maldives and Singapore are the only Asian states smaller than Bahrain, which, like Singapore, has grown by reclaiming land from the sea.

Which Bronze Age trading civilisation linking Mesopotamia and the Indus was centred on Bahrain?

Dilmun was the Bronze Age trading power centred on Bahrain, passing copper from Magan (Oman) and goods from the Indus to Mesopotamian cities such as Ur.

The Sumerian myth of Enki and Ninhursag, linked to Bahrain, recalls which biblical story?

The Garden of Eden is the usual comparison: the myth's land, which scholars identify with Bahrain, knows no sickness or old age, and the goddess who heals Enki's aching rib is Ninti, punned on as 'lady rib'.

Ancient writers marvelled at trees that 'bear wool' on Bahrain; which crop were they describing?

Cotton is what Pliny's wool-bearing trees were: he describes pods the size of a quince that burst to show a ball of down, from which a costly cloth was made.

Which sect seized Bahrain in 899 and later stole the Black Stone from Mecca, holding it for over 20 years?

The Qarmatians carried the Black Stone off to their base in eastern Arabia; by one account it came back more than two decades later, thrown into the Kufa mosque in a sack with a note saying it was taken and returned by command.

Which European power ruled Bahrain from 1521 until it was expelled by Shah Abbas of Persia in 1602?

Portugal held Bahrain from 1521 to 1602; the fort the Portuguese left on an ancient mound on the north coast still stands, and is known simply as the Portuguese Fort.

Which royal family has ruled Bahrain since capturing it in 1783?

Al Khalifa, a Bani Utbah family, took Bahrain from the Persian-backed governor Nasr Al-Madhkur in 1783 under Ahmed bin Muhammad, remembered as Ahmed al-Fateh, 'the Conqueror'; the family has ruled ever since.

Bahrain joined the UN and which body in 1971?

The Arab League admitted Bahrain within weeks of its independence in August 1971; Bahrain had spent three years in talks on a union of nine sheikhdoms, and the United Arab Emirates formed that December without it.

In 2002 Bahrain changed its formal name from the State of Bahrain to what?

A kingdom is what Bahrain became on 14 February 2002, when the new constitution took effect and Hamad bin Isa changed his title from Emir to King.

Bahrain's Arab Spring protests centred on which capital landmark, whose monument was later demolished?

Pearl Roundabout became the protesters' camp in mid-February; after Gulf troops arrived a month later, the authorities cleared it and demolished its six-sailed pearl monument.

Bahrain's early-1930s oil strike was the first where?

First on the Gulf's Arabian side: the well came in below Jabal ad Dukhan, and the find soon drew the same American company to the far larger fields of the mainland next door.

Bahrain's ancient pearl trade collapsed in the 1930s after which country developed cultured pearls?

Japan's cultured pearls undercut natural ones in the 1930s and the Gulf's pearling fleets never recovered; in Bahrain the collapse came just as the first oil wells began to pay.

Which ancient site on Bahrain's north coast, settled about 2300 BC, was the country's first World Heritage Site?

Qal'at al-Bahrain is a 12 m tell, raised layer upon layer by people living on the same spot for nearly 4,000 years; UNESCO listed it in 2005 with most of the mound still unexcavated.

What do the five white points on Bahrain's serrated flag represent?

The pillars of Islam are what the five points stand for; the flag was cut from eight points to five in 2002, when Bahrain adopted its present design.

Bahrain's flag is often confused with the flag of which neighbour, which is maroon with nine points?

Qatar's flag is maroon with nine white points, against Bahrain's red with five; Bahrain's white stripe dates from the 1820 General Maritime Treaty, marking its ships as treaty signatories.

The Bahraini dinar splits into 1,000 of which unit, also on Dubai's coins?

Fils: 1,000 make one Bahraini dinar, so prices carry three decimal places, and at a fixed 0.376 dinars to the US dollar each dinar is worth more than two and a half dollars.

Which currency did the Bahraini dinar replace when it was introduced in 1965?

The Gulf rupee, a special note issued for the Gulf states from 1959 to curb gold smuggling, was swapped for the dinar in 1965 at ten rupees to one; Abu Dhabi also used the Bahraini dinar until 1973.

Bahrain's highest point, Jabal ad Dukhan, rises to only about how high?

134 m is all Jabal ad Dukhan, the 'Mountain of Smoke', reaches; Bahrain's first oil well was drilled at its foot.

Bahrain's Tree of Life, a lone 400-year-old tree, is famous for growing where?

In desert with no visible water, the Tree of Life stands alone on a sandy hill; nobody is sure how it survives, though its roots are thought to reach water far below.

Which antelope, bred at the Al Areen reserve, is Bahrain's national animal?

Arabian oryx, Bahrain's national animal, was shot out in the wild by 1972 and rebuilt from captive herds; it later became the first species to go from 'extinct in the wild' to 'vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List.

The Hawar Islands host the world's largest breeding colony of which seabird?

Socotra cormorant colonies on the Hawar Islands run to tens of thousands of pairs, the largest left for a species found only around Arabia; about a dozen other Gulf colonies have vanished since the 1960s.

Bahrain's long dispute with a neighbour over the Hawar Islands was settled in 2001 by which body?

The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled in 2001 that the Hawar Islands belong to Bahrain, though they lie barely 2 km off the neighbouring peninsula and some 20 km from Bahrain's main island.

Which team finished first and second at the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix in 2004?

Ferrari took the top two places at the Middle East's first Formula One race; on the podium the drivers sprayed waard, a rosewater drink, because the Bahrain race does without champagne.

The 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix marked its tenth anniversary by being run in what unusual way?

At night under floodlights is how the race marked ten years in 2014; Lewis Hamilton won it after duelling with team-mate Nico Rosberg over the closing laps, and the organisers kept it a night race afterwards.

After protests cancelled Bahrain's 2011 Formula One opener, which country's race began the season?

Australia's race in Melbourne opened 2011 after Bahrain's, due on 13 March, was postponed during the uprising; the sport briefly reinstated it for October before the organisers gave up.

The first corner of the Bahrain International Circuit was renamed in 2014 after which driver?

Michael Schumacher, a seven-time world champion, had Turn 1 named after him early in 2014, weeks after his near-fatal skiing accident at Méribel, as a mark of support.

The Bahrain World Trade Center was the world's first skyscraper to do what?

Integrate wind turbines into its design: three turbines hang on skybridges between the sail-shaped twin towers, which funnel the Gulf breeze onto the blades.

Which numbered US Navy fleet was re-established in 1995 with its headquarters in Bahrain?

Fifth Fleet, revived in 1995 after 48 years, made its base in the capital's Juffair district on the site of the Royal Navy's HMS Jufair, which the US Navy took over when Britain left the Gulf in 1971.

Which former capital of Bahrain is home to the international airport?

Muharraq was the seat of the ruling family until the capital moved across the water; the city and Bahrain International Airport share Muharraq Island, linked to the main island by causeways.

Which national dish of Bahrain is meat or fish served over rice cooked in a spiced broth?

Machboos is chicken, lamb or fish served over rice simmered in a broth of baharat spices, dried lime and saffron; muhammar, a sweet date rice eaten with fried fish, is the other island staple.

In Bahrain, which drink is often flavoured with cardamom and saffron?

Arabic coffee, or qahwah, is poured for guests in Bahrain as a sign of hospitality, and coffee shops are among the islands' favourite meeting places.

Which round did Bahrain reach at the 2004 Asian Cup, its best run?

The semi-finals: Bahrain beat Uzbekistan on penalties in the last eight, lost 4-3 after extra time to the eventual champions, then lost the third-place match to finish fourth.

Which South Asian country supplies Bahrain's largest expatriate community?

India supplies the largest expatriate community, several hundred thousand people, many of them from the southern state of Kerala; foreign residents now outnumber Bahraini citizens.

Bahrain replaced which war-torn city as the Middle East's financial hub in the 1970s and 1980s?

Beirut had long been the Arab world's banking centre, but Lebanon's civil war, which broke out in 1975, drove the banks out; Bahrain offered them a calm base beside the Gulf's new oil money.

Houda Nonoo, Bahrain's ambassador to Washington from 2008, is widely called the first what?

Jewish envoy of an Arab state: Houda Nonoo, who served in Washington until 2013, comes from a Bahraini Jewish community that shrank to a few dozen people after most emigrated from 1948 on.

Charles Belgrave ran Bahrain's administration for three decades after answering a 1925 job advertisement in which British newspaper?

The Times printed the advert in August 1925; Charles Belgrave got the job, advised Bahrain's rulers from 1926 to 1957, and called his memoir Personal Column.

Bahrain's refinery opened in the mid-1930s, a generation after the Gulf's first, built at Abadan in which country?

Iran's Abadan refinery was running before the First World War; Bahrain's plant followed in the mid-1930s and soon outgrew the island's small field, so most of its crude has long been piped in from the mainland.

Aside from oil, what is Bahrain's second-largest export product?

Aluminium has been Bahrain's main bet on life after oil since the Alba smelter began work in 1971; the metal now ranks second only to petroleum among the country's exports.

Which singer moved to Bahrain in 2005 as a sheikh's guest?

Michael Jackson flew to Bahrain shortly after his 2005 acquittal at the invitation of one of the ruler's sons, who later sued him in London over a music deal that came to nothing.

Hamad bin Isa's reforms after 1999 gave Bahraini women the right to do what?

Vote in elections: Hamad bin Isa took over in March 1999, freed political prisoners and won a 2001 referendum on reform, and in the 2002 elections women voted and stood as candidates for the first time.

Travellers since antiquity have marvelled at what bubbling up through the salty shallows off Bahrain's north coast?

Fresh water wells up from springs on the seabed north of the island; Bahrain's springs draw on water that fell as rain on the mountains of western Arabia and travelled far underground.

Which airline is Bahrain's national carrier?

Gulf Air was once shared equally by four Gulf states; the partners pulled out one by one to back airlines of their own, leaving Bahrain as sole owner.

In 2020 Bahrain agreed to normalise relations with Israel by signing which US-brokered accords?

The Abraham Accords, signed in Washington on 15 September 2020, took their name from the patriarch shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Which US company owned the subsidiary that struck Bahrain's first oil?

Standard Oil of California took over Gulf Oil's option on the concession and, because Britain insisted on a British company, registered its subsidiary, the Bahrain Petroleum Company, in Canada.