The Kingdom of Bahrain

ISA Cultural Centre Manama

The Kingdom of Bahrain

Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been able to reconcile, intelligently, a rich economic growth with a social and cultural tradition. Their history is visible in the perfectly renovated architecture.

The Arabian Peninsula also has different realities, in which it is possible to harmonize an oil wealth with ancient civilizations, often intimately kept.

It is the case of the Oman. It maintains customs, religiosity, and antique wisdom at the same pace as financial development, modestly not exhibited. Quality: cultural supremacy, a still predominant native citizenship, a convivial human behaviour, and a meditative attitude to the warmth of the sun.

The island of the Kingdom of Bahrain has equal features.

Bahrain is located in the Persian Gulf surrounded by the sea but in direct communication with Saudi Arabia through a long bridge.

It is one of the smallest nations in the world - 760 square kilometres - with about one and a half million inhabitants. Per capita income is forty-nine thousand US dollars, the thirty-third ranking among all countries. (1)

Bahrain National Museum, Manama, Bahrain

Wandering around Manama - the capital, with a third of the country's population - is a return to the past. Bahrain has grown, many skyscrapers, hotels but without sacrificing history, education, their moral.

Often there is a union between modernity and ancient timeas in the two of Manama's most beautiful buildings.

The first is the Bahrain National Museum. The elegant building is low, surrounded by a lush garden with large and luxurious palm trees. There is wide parking limited by a marble fence with numerous flags. Next, there is a similar construction, built in the same style, the National Theater.

The outer border is the Persian Gulf.

In the museum, the interior space is significant, on the floor; there is a gigantic map of the same island. The most intellectual section is the history of the excavations of the tombs; sarcophagi and crafts from the period before the Common Era. The vestiges come from the Burial Mounds necropolis. An ingenious documentary shows how the graves have shared the city so far. They were buried and fewknew of their vast existence. Cohabitation with the necropolis is the reason for an indelible tradition.

Then there is deep religiousness. Part of the gallery has a sophisticated selection of ancient texts, first, Koran and sacred books. Daily life is exposed both with a representation of traditional days and with a collection of vintage documents. Many are licenses for picking pearls up. The activity of fishing pearls has been flourishing in Bahrain for a long time and has attracted to the island, for their excellent quality, the most famous jewelers in the planet.

A sincere spirituality merges as always in the high peculiarity of the structures used for prayer. The pride of Manama is The Grand Mosque. On the street from the Corniche to the Juffair district, there is a huge mosque with two high minarets.

The mosque is in a vast surface with big parking and roads. The interior is big; the zone for men contains almost five thousand people, while the female sector is about two thousand women.

Anyone is welcome regardless of religion. A smart, polite guy is the guide. He illustrates the inner with erudite explanations, focusing especially on the common vision between Islamism and Christianity, through memory quotation of both the Koran and the Bible. The hospitality is great and helps to understand the meaning of suggestive place.

The Grand Mosque, Manama, Bahrain

Bahrain is not a tourist country appreciated for Europeans. Nevertheless, Arabs like a lot Bahrain mostly for his liberty. It is a main reason is the sociality of the population both in the roads and privately. Clubs are inside hotels, frequented by many people busy to the hunting of easy diversions.

It is a picturesque image and impresses both for being in an Arab state, and for the expressive and physical humanity, evident throughout the night.

The most intriguing is the district of Juffair. Young and old persons frequent the bars, pubs, and the centres massage. Groups of friends, couples, and singles peaceful, drink coffee and watch the movement. Juffair is the main military base of the Fifth Fleet of the United States Navy. Fifteen thousand soldiers and numerous civilians work there, who must scrupulously respect the strict policy:

"U.S. Personnel (service members, DoD civilians, and their dependents): interacting with people in a strategic and vital part of the world. At the same time, we must also protect U.S. personnel from ever-present and emerging threats to their safety and security by equipping them with relevant information and response policies that promote awareness, engagement, and intervention." (2)

Yet the strictly words policy hide intense humanity of the discreet restaurants and massage centres from Thailand. Americans and Arabs go in because they can enjoy existence.

As in the other Arab countries of the peninsula, although to a lesser extent in Bahrain, the influence of immigrants has modify social and religious life. The Indians have their own little India, with a multiplicity of shops, cinemas, with projections of Bollywood films in the morning and, of course, the Hindu temples.

The churches are present, like the Catholic one of the Sacred Heart Church, carefully protected.

The biggest is the St Christopher’s Cathedral and Awali Anglican Church, which also runs the nearby the old Christian Cemetery.

Cornique, Manama

Manama is lively. The skyline is attractive both for the Corniche and for the huge skyscrapers like the World Trade Center. Furthermore, there are markets with so many interesting craft objects but with some attention, it is possible to meet in embarrassing but, lovely situations, it is fundamental to attend the capital with an open-heart.

Human aspects are important because the local inhabitants are curious, brilliant, innovative, friendly, and relaxed as in all Arab nations.

(1) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ba.html

(2) https://www.cusnc.navy.mil/Civilian-Attire-Policy/

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