1364 BH - Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy (2012)

Brief Description

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.

Source UNESCO WH website http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1364 

three offshore oyster beds, 

• 1364rev-001 Hayr Bū-l-Thāmah
• 1364rev-002 Hayr Bū ‘Amāmah
• 1364rev-003 Hayr Shtayyah

seashore and the 

• 1364rev-004a Bū Māhir Seashore

Qal’at Bu Mahir fortress on the southern tip of Muharraq Island

• 1364rev-004b Qal‘at Bū Māhir

Seventeen buildings in Muharraq City

• 1364rev-005 Al-Ghūṣ House
• 1364rev-006 Badr Ghulum House
• 1364rev-007 Al-Jalahma House
• 1364rev-008 Al-Alawi House
• 1364rev-009 Fakhro House
• 1364rev-010 Murad House
• 1364rev-011 Murad Majlis
• 1364rev-012 Siyadi Shops
• 1364rev-013a Amārat Yousif A. Fakhro
• 1364rev-013b ‘Amārat Ali Rashed Fakhro (I)
• 1364rev-013c ‘Amārat Ali Rashed Fakhro (II)
• 1364rev-014 Nūkhidhah House
• 1364rev-015a Siyadi House
• 1364rev-015b Siyadi Majlis
• 1364rev-015c Siyadi Mosque

Courtesy of Ulla from France

Shaikh Isa Bin Ali House