Pearl Diving Season (Ghaus Al Kabir Heritage Festival)

Bahrain’s pearl diving heritage — recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity — is celebrated through an annual heritage festival that recreates the rituals of the traditional pearl diving season. Demonstrations of traditional dhow boat building, pearl diving techniques, and the haunting songs sung by divers and their crews fill the harbours of Muharraq and Manama. The Pearling Path (also UNESCO-listed) in Muharraq connects 17 restored sites relating to the pearl trade that defined Bahrain for centuries before oil.