Muharraq Pearling Path Cultural Walking Tour

The Bu Maher Fort Visitor’s Center is the starting point to discovering more about the Pearling Path that has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The center contains a three-dimensional display that guides the viewer though the history of the path and the houses which formed it from the early beginnings to the main pearling traders.

Al Ghus House – the pearl diver house – is thought to have been built by a boat captain (Nukhidhah), a captain’s second-in-command, or perhaps a master boatbuilder in the first decade of the 20th century and is said to have been inhabited and used by related divers.

Badr Ghulum Suleiman was a traditional folk medicine therapist and barber who set up his business in Muharraq in 1912. In the absence of modern medical services in Muharraq, Badr Ghulum’s residence, progressively gained the character of a small health clinic, and today it contains the city’s earliest remaining structures built for the purpose of medical provision.

Situated in the old city of Muharraq along the Pearling, testimony of an Island Economy pathway , Dar Almuharraq is a training and research centre for traditional folk music and has a space for cultural and musical events. An extension to Dal Jinaa, the three- storey building enveloped with a steel mesh, which also acts as a cooling device shading the building from direct sunlight. The mesh can be lifted on the ground floor, opening it up directly to the street and reinforcing its role as an open majlis to the city.

Al Jalahma family was involved in a wide range of key professions in the pearling economy, from the diver and hauler to pearl trader (Tajir) and grand pearl merchant (Tawwash). Al Jalahma House, built on the northern tip of Muharraq city at the gateway to Al Halah Island before the age of land reclamations, was the family’s home. It offers a prototype of a large, complex residence in which women, as a result of multiple marriages, made up the majority of household members. Consequently, the house provides a unique opportunity to explore the female perspective on the pearling economy.

Al Alawi House is an example of residential architecture built with wealth derived from the supply trade that underpinned the pearling industry. It has Muharraq’s only remaining functioning wind tower apart from the palace of the former ruler, Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa.

Fakhro House was the luxury residence of Yousif Abdulrahman Fakhro, a successful timber and boat merchant at the height of the pearling boom. The original scale and rich detail of Fakhro House invites comparisons to the elaborate houses built by the grand pearl merchants, and also offers a unique example of a family home that in early land reclamation practices gradually expanded into the sea as need required.

Guests will have a traditional Bahraini dinner in a traditional Bahraini house/restaurant. It is only valid for the Ramadan month.