The Kingdom of Bahrain is an island nation located just off the Saudi Arabian port of Dammām on the south side of the Persian Gulf. Bahrain consists of some 33 islands, the largest being Bahrain Island, 55 km long by 18 km wide (34 mi by 11 mi). The 25 km (15 mi) long King Fahd Causeway connects Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. Small but densely populated, Bahrain has about 1.9 million residents. The Al Khalifa dynasty has occupied the throne in Bahrain since the 1780s. However, Britain established a protectorate over Bahrain in the 1860s and the country did not resume full independence until 1971, following a referendum held by the United Nations. A note on nomenclature: the Persian Gulf (as it is usually known in the West) is called the Arabian Gulf in Arabia and the Gulf of Fars in Iran. The International Hydrographic Organization calls it the Gulf of Iran and many commentators avoid all nomenclatural problems by calling it simply "The Gulf". The Arabic word for a lighthouse is mnarh or manara (منارة). Ra's is a cape, jazīrat is an island, minā is a harbor, and shi'b is a reef. Aids to navigation in Bahrain are the responsibility of the Ports and Maritime Affairs Department of the Ministry of Transportation. Offshore navigational aids in the Gulf are maintained by the Middle East Navigation Aids Service (MENAS), based in Bahrain. MENAS also supplies and maintains many of the navigational aids in Bahrain under contract. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Southwestern Iran | East: Qatar | West: Eastern Saudi Arabia
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Posted April 4, 2012. Checked and revised October 30, 2024. Lighthouses: 4; lightfloats: 1. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.