Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy World Heritage Site

Official name
Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy | UNESCO
Country
Bahrain | Map
Continent
Asia
Location
26.2412° Lat, 50.6135° Lon | Map
Code
1364
Time Zone
Asia/Bahrain (+03, +0300)
Current Time
Category
Cultural
Description
Inscribed 2012. The site consists of seventeen buildings in Muharraq City, three offshore oyster beds, part of the seashore and the Qal’at Bu Mahir fortress on the southern tip of Muharraq Island, from where boats used to set off for the oyster beds. The listed buildings include residences of wealthy merchants, shops, storehouses and a mosque. The site is the last remaining complete example of the cultural tradition of pearling and the wealth it generated at a time when the trade dominated the Gulf economy (2nd century to the 1930s, when Japan developed cultured pearls). It also constitutes an outstanding example of traditional utilization of the sea’s resources and human interaction with the environment, which shaped both the economy and the cultural identity of the island’s society.