Bahrain....Garden of Eden???

Al Khamis Mosque (1st Mosque to be established in GCC, 7th Century)

A tiny pearl adorning the Persian gulf, this entire country covers only 706 sq km. but every inch is full of life for one and all.

I wanted to fill myself on historical facts about Bahrain before writing this post We constantly live in this ignorance of GCC (referred to as Gelf ) lacking historical background and crediting the other middle eastern country as a mother of all mankind (Mesopotamia).
Bahrain has been constantly inhabited by humans since ancient times and has even been proposed as the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden. Influence by Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, finally under the Arabs, this island became Muslim.

Dilmun was the first civilization dating back 4000 years, highly sophisticated craftsmen and even warriors; fell to droughts and the plague, dying in many numbers, resorting to mass burial. Our visit to the Bahrain Archeological museum witnessed huge burial mounds, well restored in its premises showing sign of staunch religion until the last rites.

In 1st century, Alexander the Great, named this tiny kingdom; Tylos. It prospered as a centre for pearl diving and trade. Unfortunately, in the whole of the 2 floor museum one does not see any Greco remains. Just wondering, is it to do with religion?
Tip: when u visit Bahrain, do not forget to visit the pearl diving village, it is very authentic, still practicing age old pearl diving and fishing methods.

Bahrain was never incorporated into the Roman Empire; it did become a centre of Christianity that survived until 835. Christianity left its traces in Muharraq (the old city), Christian names, like the village of Dair (ie parish), Samahij (used to be the name of a bishop) remain until today.
Bahrainis were amongst the first to embrace Islam in 629. Prophet Mohammed ruled Bahrain through one of his representatives. I guess I got my answer to the above question
Other than Dilmun and Ummayad rulers, one does not see any other relics or remains in the entire small country, we saw forts, houses and palaces, dating 300 – 400 years back, when the country was called Awal.

Did u know that even Bahrain became the British protectorate in 1861, however gained independence in 1971, later becoming the founding member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)? Now u know!

Linking to the modern days, Bahrain is a very active centre of Trade and Commerce, much more organized and ambitious compared to its other GCC brothers, building well on its limited monetary backing.

One of the fascinating structure is the Bahrain – The Saudi causeway, this 40 Kms stretch into the azure vibrant sea connecting Saudi with Bahrain is a beautiful experience. One sees a Mc Donald’s Bahrain all painted bright and colorful with a Bahrainy flag, and on the other end is Saudi Mc D, all in green with its glossy green flag flying high! Two extremely opposite cultures, both very hospitable, very genuinely GCC.

Bahrain has lived up to its name, which literally means two seas in Arabic, it is a tiny island just by its size and rest let its history and modernism talk.