Discover Bahrain’s Pearl Historical past on This New Path

It was a blazing November afternoon in Muharraq, the previous capital of Bahrain. Cardamom and clove perfumed the air, mingling with the scent of recent flatbread wafting from ovens round each nook. A muezzin’s name to prayer echoed off the coral-stone partitions and mingled with the shuffle of males heading to mosque. Guiding my method via the serpentine alleys had been spheres of milky glass as huge as basketballs, mounted on posts constituted of oyster-shell-flecked terrazzo. These pillars mark the Pearling Path, a 2.2-mile strolling path that threads collectively greater than a century of Bahrain’s pearling historical past. 

Earlier than oil, pearls had been the Persian Gulf’s principal commodity, and through the business’s heyday within the late nineteenth century, Muharraq emerged because the area’s pearling middle. The trail provides a uncommon glimpse into the nation’s previous and town’s effectively preserved structure. It’s additionally an formidable bid to revitalize Muharraq’s cityscape and heritage, which had been largely uncared for since Bahrain moved its capital to Manama in 1971. 

The self-guided path, which opened final February, begins on the Bu Mahir seashore, on Muharraq’s southern tip, the place pearl fishers would embark on their months-long journeys. At Al Ghus Home—a divers’ residence turned museum and one of many first stops alongside the route—I realized in regards to the hardships they confronted: overcrowded boats, poor diets, and backbreaking work. They discovered solace in fan al-bahri, or divers’ songs. Renditions of these melancholic hymns, which frequently instructed of homesickness and heartbreak, performed from a speaker within the courtyard.

I continued previous retailers’ mansions, lots of which have been changed into exhibition areas by notable designers, together with the Dutch architect Anne Holtrop. On the Siyadi Home, dwelling to Muharraq’s oldest mosque, the a part of the constructing as soon as used for receiving visitors (often called the majlis) is now the Siyadi Pearl Museum. Inside, I discovered priceless jewels by Jacques Cartier, who visited town on a gem-sourcing journey in 1912.

The guests’ middle, a Brutalist building by the Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati, doubles as a neighborhood gathering spot. Close by, the Suq Al Qaysariyyah, Muharraq’s oldest market, has a combination of conventional pearl sellers and new cafés and bookshops. All alongside the route, I noticed locals hanging out in lately put in public plazas within the shade of younger bushes.

“Pearl diving remains to be in our blood,” stated Mohamed Al Slaise, a fourth-generation diver who provides guided excursions. “The Pearling Path helps us perceive how our ancestors lived and the way they created such a tight-knit society. It’s the inspiration of the Bahrain of at this time.”

The place to Keep

On the new Raffles Al Areen Palace Bahrain, the 78 villas have personal courtyards and swimming pools. Every comes with a butler, who can organize pearl dives and excursions of the resort’s artwork assortment.

A model of this story first appeared within the March 2025 problem of Journey + Leisure beneath the headline “Pearl of the Gulf.”