Bahrain Pearling Trail

The Bahrain Pearling Trail or Bahrain Pearling Pathway is a serial cultural heritage site inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2012. It consists of 3 oyster beds in the Bahrain northern waters, a segment of the coast and the seafront Bu Mahir fortress in the southern tip of Muharraq, and 17 buildings in Muharraq historical town connected by a 3.5 km visitor pathway. The Site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on June 30, 2012 and is Bahrain's second World Heritage Site after the Bahrain Fort.NamingThough the Site was inscribed under the label: "Pearling, testimony of an island economy" by the Bahrain Ministry of Culture, the international media has consistently referred to it as the "Bahrain pearling trail".Background historyPearl diving in Bahrain was first mentioned in Assyrian texts dating to 2000 BC, referring to "fish eyes" from Dilmun (the ancient name of Bahrain). Bahrain (as Tylos, Bahrain's Greek name) was mentioned by Pliny to have been, "famous for the vast number of its pearls". The golden age of pearling is stated to have been between the 1850s to 1930, when pearls were more precious than diamonds and had attracted jewelers like Jacques Cartier to the country. There were around 30,000 pearl divers by the end of 1930, as pearling was the principal industry in Bahrain prior to the discovery of oil in 1932. After the collapse of the pearling industry, most divers switched to the newly founded oil sector.