Explore Bahrain’s Pearl History on This New Trail

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 manner by means of the serpentine alleys had been spheres of milky glass as huge as basketballs, mounted on posts made out 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 predominant commodity, and throughout the trade’s heyday within the late nineteenth century, Muharraq emerged because the area’s pearling heart. The trail affords a uncommon glimpse into the nation’s previous and the town’s effectively preserved structure. It’s additionally an bold 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 House—a divers’ residence turned museum and one of many first stops alongside the route—I discovered 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, a lot of which have been become exhibition areas by notable designers, together with the Dutch architect Anne Holtrop. On the Siyadi House, house to Muharraq’s oldest mosque, the a part of the constructing as soon as used for receiving company (often called the majlis) is now the Siyadi Pearl Museum. Inside, I discovered priceless jewels by Jacques Cartier, who visited the town on a gem-sourcing journey in 1912.

The guests’ heart, a Brutalist development by the Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati, doubles as a neighborhood gathering spot. Close by, the Suq Al Qaysariyyah, Muharraq’s oldest market, has a mix 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 timber.

“Pearl diving remains to be in our blood,” stated Mohamed Al Slaise, a fourth-generation diver who affords 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 muse of the Bahrain of at the moment.”

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 prepare pearl dives and excursions of the resort’s artwork assortment.

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