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.