Bahrain Pearling Trail is now a World Heritage Site!

For those of you who don't know, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) converged this past week (still ongoing till July 5), and just yesterday morning, they've announced that they've added two new additions to the UNESCO World Heritage List ; The Mosque of Isfahan and the Bahrain Pearling trail.

What is this trail ? A dirt road ?

Not exactly a dirt road, it's an area that consists of 17 buildings in the island of Muharraq (to the north-east of Bahrain) , three offshore oyster beds, part of the seashore and the Qal’at Bu Mahir fortress (which has, over the years, worn down to a single pillar) on the southern tip of Muharraq Island, from where boats used to set off for the oyster beds.This site was used by the many generations of pearl divers (pearl diving in Bahrain was first recorded in 2000 BC!) right until the early 1930s, when cultured Japanese pearls were introduced to the global market, effectively destroying the pearl market in Bahrain.

So what makes this so special ?

Well, UNESCO has stated that the site is:

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 . 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 cultural identity of the island’s society. 

Photos or it doesn't exist!

(From Herb Stovel)

Pearl divers (from Iván Rosales)

Searching for pearls (from Eva Battis)

Seyadi complex (from Ghassan Chemali)

Al Alawi house (from Anwar Ali Hubail)

Interior of Seyadi complex (from Manfred Erber)

 Happy ?

For now...