Physical Characteristics:

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a group of 33 islands,

 with an area of 707 square kilometers, situated

in the Arabian Gulf, off the east coast of

Saudi Arabia. The local time is GMT + 3 hours.

The "Pearl of the Gulf" takes its name from the

largest island Bahrain, which is 586.5 square

kilometers.

Arabic is the official language, although

English is widely understood and it's used

by most businesses.

Islam is the religion of Bahrain and is practised

by a large, majority . Places of worship of

other faiths exist on the island.

The climate is hot and humid in summer and

 mild in winter.

History:

Bahrain is rich in history and ancient civilizations have  been discovered by     international archaelogists.

Recent finds have evidenced that Bahrain was indeed the site of the lost civilization of Dilmun dating from the third millennium BC,often referred to as the fabled Garden of Eden and described as "paradise" in the Epic of Gigamesh.

The land is repeatedly mentioned in Sumerian,Babylonian and Assyrian insriptions as an important seaport between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley,due to the perennial abundance of sweet water.

By 600 BC, Bahrain was absorbed in the new Babylonian Empire and once again flourished         as a prosperous entreaty.

In 323 BC, two of Alexander the Great ships     arrived and new trade routes opened,resulting in such a strong Greek influence that Dilmun was renamed Tylos.Bahrain was also the site of the largest prehistoric cemetery in the world.An estimated 170,000 burial mounds covered the central western areas.

 Money & Currency

The Bahraini Dinar is linked with the US dollar at :

$1= BD 0.375

and is divided into 1000 fils. Notes are available in the following denominations:

• 500 fils (brown),
•  one dinar (red),
• five dinars (blue),
• ten dinars (green)
• twenty dinars (peach).

Coins come in units of 10,25, 50, and 100 fils.

Money can be changed easily at any commercial bank or at one of the money changers found in the Soukh. There are no restrictions on the import and export of currency.

Credit Cards & Travellers’ Cheques

Both forms of payments are widely accepted in hotels and most business establishments, although some smaller shops may prefer to deal in cash.