Bahrain · Muharraq Governorate
Where to Stay in Al Muharraq, Muharraq Governorate
Al Muharraq is the old capital of Bahrain, on an island of pearl-merchant houses beside the Persian Gulf.
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Where to stay in Al Muharraq
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Al Muharraq turns on the old town or the causeway. The old lanes keep the merchant houses, the market, and the mosques within a walk, and staying there suits anyone here for the pearling past. The shaded alleys cool the heat.
Rooms sit among the coral houses. Out toward the causeway and Manama, the modern city spreads across the water. A room in Manama trades the old lanes for the towers, the malls, and the seafront of the capital.
The warm Gulf lies between the two. If you want the old houses, stay in Al Muharraq; if you want the city, take a room in Manama. Whichever side of the water you pick, the old lanes of Al Muharraq stay within reach.
About Al Muharraq
Al Muharraq is the old pearling city of Bahrain.
What is Al Muharraq known for?
For centuries this island town lived by the pearl beds of the Gulf, and its winding lanes keep the fine coral-stone houses of the pearl merchants and divers, a fort by the shore, and the old ways of the sea. The warm Gulf laps the island's edge. Pearls and old houses mark the city.
What are the main landmarks in Al Muharraq?
The old merchant houses fill the lanes of Al Muharraq. Fine homes of coral stone, with carved doors and wind-towers, stand along the shaded alleys, the mark of the town, from the pearling days. A fort guards the shore.
Arad Fort watches the sea to the east, while the ruler's old house and the pearl-merchants' halls, kept on the pearling trail, mark the island town.
What is the history of Al Muharraq?
Al Muharraq grew rich on the pearls of the Gulf. For hundreds of years the men of the island sailed out each summer to the oyster beds, diving deep for the pearls that the whole world prized, and the town became the great pearling port of Bahrain. Merchants built fine houses of coral stone.
The pearl traders raised tall homes with carved doors and wind-towers, gathered in a warren of shaded lanes around the mosques and the market. The island was the seat of the rulers. For a time the sheikhs of Bahrain held their court in Al Muharraq, and the ruler's house still stands among the lanes.
Then the pearl trade died away. When cheap cultured pearls came from abroad, the old trade collapsed, and the divers turned to other work, but the merchant houses and the fort by the sea survived. The old houses still line the lanes.
Al Muharraq keeps its pearling past on the island.
Where is Al Muharraq?
Al Muharraq lies on Muharraq island off the north coast of Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf. The town sits on a low flat island of sand and coral, linked by causeways to Manama and the main island, ringed by the shallow warm sea. Flat sand reaches to the shore.
The blue Gulf spreads all around.
What is the climate of Al Muharraq?
Al Muharraq has a hot desert climate. Fierce dry heat rules the long summer, worsened by the sea's damp, and the winters stay warm and mild, with almost no rain all year. Humid heat hangs over the island in summer.
The Gulf keeps the winters soft.
How do you get to Al Muharraq?
Al Muharraq lies on its island just north of Manama, linked by causeways. Bridges cross the water to the capital and the main island, and the country's airport sits on Muharraq itself. Taxis reach the towns around.
Most arrive by road over the causeway.
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Updated August 2026