Bahrain

Bahrain is an island nation not far from the coast of Saudi Arabia, in the Persian Gulf. It is connected to Saudi Arabia by the King Fahd Causeway, named for the Saudi king of that name. The royal family in Bahrain is the Al Khalifa but Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy, meaning that the king does not have absolute power. The majority of the population of Bahrain is Shiite Moslem, but the ruling family is Sunni.

Much of the population of Bahrain is foreign workers, particularly from India.

The capital city of Bahrain is Manama, at the north end of the island that faces out to sea. This is the central area of Manama.

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This is more of the central city of Manama. The water around Bahrain is shallow, and it looks as if quite a bit of land re-claimation has been done.

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This is the part of the modern waterfront of Manama known as Seef.

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Bahrain looks modern but it actually very old, going back far into ancient times. Here is a look at the older part of Manama.

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Near the center of Manama, and close to the waterfront, is Bahrain Fort. This is where Bahrain really began. Buildings are believed to have existed on this site since the time of the Pyramids of Giza, in Egypt. Bahrain has been part of many empires over thousands of years, going back to Assyria and Babylon, followed by the Persians and the Greeks. This has historically been the focal point of Bahrain.

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There was an ancient civilization called the Dilmun. They were active in trading by ship on the Persian Gulf, and part of their territory was Bahrain. The Dilmun were very important to the Sumerians and Akkadians, which we saw in our visit to "Basra". Bahrain was on the trade route between there and the Indus Valley Civilization, which we saw in our visit, "Where India Began". 

This is the fort further south on Bahrain, Salman Bin Ahmed Fort and also known as Riffa Fort, that was built over two centuries ago.

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This is the western part of the island of Bahrain.

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Finally, further south is the Bahrain International Circuit, where the Bahrain Grand Prix of auto racing is held. Remember that we saw the Grand Prix circuit in Shanghai on our visit there.

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