My trip to Kuwait, part 1: the Persian Gulf

In March, I had an opportunity to head to Kuwait. Kuwait is a very small country on the Persian Gulf. Those of you who are keeping track of all my adventures will know that Kuwait is the fourth Arab country I have blogged about (after Tunisia, Jordan, and Lebanon, plus Bobbe is in Morocco). It is also the seventh predominately Muslim country I have visited (after Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, and Malaysia).

One thing you need to know about Kuwait is that it is a very rich country. The Persian Gulf, as you might know, is a place where lots of oil can be found. All of the eight countries that border the Persian Gulf (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman) have very important oil industries. The Persian Gulf, however, is important for more than just oil. For hundreds of years, Kuwait's economy and culture have been based on the exchange of goods and ideas throughout the Persian Gulf and beyond into the Indian Ocean.
Before my trip to Kuwait, I got ready by buying the appropriate clothes. Kuwait is really, really hot, so it is wise to cover your head. In this photo, I am wearing a keffiyeh, which is a cloth covering your head, and an agal, which is the little ropelet that holds the keffiyeh in place. Different countries in the Arab world have different kinds of keffiyehs, but this is the kind that is typical of the Gulf countries.

I'm ready to blend in with the locals in my keffiyeh and agal.

Here are some photos of the Persian Gulf. You can see the skyline of Kuwait City in the background of some of them.

This stray cat and I pose in front of the Persian Gulf.

Sunset on the Persian Gulf with Kuwait City in the background.

Sunset behind the Kuwait skyline.

One of the most prominent buildings in Kuwait is called the Liberation Tower. This tower was built to commemorate the end of the Gulf War in 1991. In 1990, Kuwait had been occupied by the army of Iraq, its much larger neighbor. After an international war led by the United States, the Iraqi army was forced back to Iraq and Kuwait became independent once more.

Here is Kuwait's Liberation Tower.

Long before oil was discovered in the Persian Gulf, some of the people in the area got rich off of pearls, which grow in oysters throughout the Gulf. Once upon a time, much of Kuwait's economy was based on the trade in pearls. Divers would hold their breath a very long time and go down to the bottom of the Gulf in search of oysters. A museum I visited has a display showing a the tools necessary to pry open an oyster shell along with an open shell.

These are the tools you need to open up an oyster and get its pearl.

I also went to the Kuwait Museum, which has displays of the ships that Kuwaitis used to use to conduct trade throughout the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Traditional ships from this region were called dhows. Dhows are long and thin and they have big sails. Long before the discovery of oil, trade helped make Kuwait a diverse and cosmopolitan place.

I sit in a bear-sized dhow in the museum.

This is a full-sized dhow outside the museum.

In my next post, I will tell you some things I learned about Kuwaiti culture and society. Stay tuned!

--Benny