Al Asimah Governorate, Kuwait — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Al Asimah Governorate known for?

Al Asimah Governorate is known as the Capital Governorate of Kuwait, its name meaning the capital in Arabic. It holds Kuwait City on the south shore of Kuwait Bay, the seat of government and the heart of the country. The capital defines it.

While other governorates of Kuwait stretch across desert and coast, this one gathers the political and cultural core of the emirate around the capital on the Persian Gulf.

Where is Al Asimah Governorate?

Al Asimah Governorate occupies a small coastal stretch of Kuwait on the south shore of Kuwait Bay. It is very nearly all city. The ground is low and flat, the desert running right to the edge of the built-up capital with little rise between the streets and the open interior.

Compact and urban, the governorate sits where Kuwait City meets the sheltered water of the bay at the head of the Persian Gulf. At the centre of it stands Kuwait City, the capital, which fills the greater part of the governorate. The city is the governorate's heart.

Around the seafront the built-up area presses back from Kuwait Bay across flat desert ground toward the boundary with the neighbouring divisions of Kuwait. From the shore the land reaches only a short way before the open desert, so Al Asimah Governorate stays drawn tight around the capital on the gulf, its shape following the streets of Kuwait City more than any wider country.

What is Al Asimah Governorate like?

Al Asimah Governorate carries the culture of Kuwait's capital, urban and outward-facing on the shore of the Persian Gulf. Arabic is the working language of government and daily life across the governorate. Kuwait City sets the whole tone of Al Asimah.

Because the governorate is essentially Kuwait City and its reach, its cultural life is the capital's own, from the seafront and its museums to the civic institutions of the emirate. The old traditions of the gulf still run through the governorate, for the capital grew from a pearling and trading port on Kuwait Bay. That maritime past shapes its character.

Beyond the sea, the museums and heritage houses of Kuwait City give the governorate a full round of cultural life at the head of the Persian Gulf. As the Capital Governorate of Kuwait, whose very name means the capital in Arabic, Al Asimah lives entirely to the rhythm of the city that fills it.

What is the history of Al Asimah Governorate?

Al Asimah Governorate takes its name and its role from Kuwait City, the capital that grew on the south shore of Kuwait Bay. As the country organised its divisions, the governorate was drawn around the capital as the Capital Governorate of Kuwait. Capital and governorate grew as one.

This coastal division on the Persian Gulf came to hold the seat of government, bound tightly to the city, and its name, meaning the capital in Arabic, marks that central role.

What is the climate of Al Asimah Governorate?

Al Asimah Governorate has a hot desert climate at the head of the Persian Gulf. Summers are long and fierce, with scorching sun and dry winds off the desert behind Kuwait Bay. Rain is rare.

When it comes, it falls in brief winter showers before the dry heat returns to the shore, while dust storms blow in from the interior of Kuwait through the hottest part of the year.

How do you get to Al Asimah Governorate?

Al Asimah Governorate is reached above all through the capital that fills it. Kuwait City holds the international airport and the port on Kuwait Bay that draw arrivals from across the region to this corner of the Persian Gulf. Air and sea lead in.

From the capital, roads and highways run out across the small governorate and into the rest of Kuwait, so most visitors land first at Kuwait City and travel only a short way to reach the whole of Al Asimah.