Bahrain Trivia
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47 free Bahrain trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Bahrain is the third-smallest country in Asia, an archipelago of some 33 natural islands (plus dozens of artificial ones) tucked between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It has been famous for something in every era: the paradise-land of Dilmun in Sumerian myth, the finest pearls in the world for two thousand years, the first oil struck on the Arabian side of the Gulf, and today a Formula One race under floodlights and a skyscraper with wind turbines built into it. This quiz covers the whole island: geography (what do the "two seas" in the name mean?), ancient and modern history (Portuguese forts, the Al Khalifa, independence in 1971, the 2011 uprising), symbols (why the flag has five points, why the dinar is worth so much), food, sport, wildlife and the causeway that links it to the mainland. It starts easy and gets genuinely hard toward the end. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Bahrain?
Manama
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.
Q 02Bahrain is connected by the King Fahd Causeway to which neighbouring country?
Saudi Arabia
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.
Q 03The name Bahrain is Arabic for what?
The two seas
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.
Q 04Which two Asian countries are smaller than Bahrain, the continent's third-smallest nation?
Maldives and Singapore
Maldives and Singapore are the only Asian states smaller than Bahrain, which, like Singapore, has grown by reclaiming land from the sea.
Q 05Which Bronze Age trading civilisation linking Mesopotamia and the Indus was centred on Bahrain?
Dilmun
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.
Q 06The Sumerian myth of Enki and Ninhursag, linked to Bahrain, recalls which biblical story?
The Garden of Eden
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'.
Q 07Ancient writers marvelled at trees that 'bear wool' on Bahrain; which crop were they describing?
Cotton
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.
Q 08Which sect seized Bahrain in 899 and later stole the Black Stone from Mecca, holding it for over 20 years?
The Qarmatians
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.
Q 09Which European power ruled Bahrain from 1521 until it was expelled by Shah Abbas of Persia in 1602?
Portugal
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.
Q 10Which royal family has ruled Bahrain since capturing it in 1783?
Al Khalifa
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.
Q 11Bahrain joined the UN and which body in 1971?
Arab League
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.
Q 12In 2002 Bahrain changed its formal name from the State of Bahrain to what?
A kingdom
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.
Q 13Bahrain's Arab Spring protests centred on which capital landmark, whose monument was later demolished?
Pearl Roundabout
Q 21Bahrain's highest point, Jabal ad Dukhan, rises to only about how high?
134 m
134 m is all Jabal ad Dukhan, the 'Mountain of Smoke', reaches; Bahrain's first oil well was drilled at its foot.
Q 22Bahrain's Tree of Life, a lone 400-year-old tree, is famous for growing where?
In desert with no visible water
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.
Q 23Which antelope, bred at the Al Areen reserve, is Bahrain's national animal?
Arabian oryx
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.
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.
Q 14Bahrain's early-1930s oil strike was the first where?
On the Gulf's Arabian side
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.
Q 15Bahrain's ancient pearl trade collapsed in the 1930s after which country developed cultured pearls?
Japan
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.
Q 16Which ancient site on Bahrain's north coast, settled about 2300 BC, was the country's first World Heritage Site?
Qal'at al-Bahrain
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.
Q 17What do the five white points on Bahrain's serrated flag represent?
The pillars of Islam
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.
Q 18Bahrain's flag is often confused with the flag of which neighbour, which is maroon with nine points?
Qatar
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.
Q 19The Bahraini dinar splits into 1,000 of which unit, also on Dubai's coins?
Fils
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.
Q 20Which currency did the Bahraini dinar replace when it was introduced in 1965?
The Gulf rupee
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.
Q 24The Hawar Islands host the world's largest breeding colony of which seabird?
Socotra cormorant
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.
Q 25Bahrain's long dispute with a neighbour over the Hawar Islands was settled in 2001 by which body?
The International Court of Justice
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.
Q 26Which team finished first and second at the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix in 2004?
Ferrari
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.
Q 27The 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix marked its tenth anniversary by being run in what unusual way?
At night under floodlights
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.
Q 28After protests cancelled Bahrain's 2011 Formula One opener, which country's race began the season?
Australia
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.
Q 29The first corner of the Bahrain International Circuit was renamed in 2014 after which driver?
Michael Schumacher
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.
Q 30The Bahrain World Trade Center was the world's first skyscraper to do what?
Integrate wind turbines into its design
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.