Bahrain

Bahrain has built an excellent health and education system with the proceeds from its oil and although Manama appears to be a thoroughly modern city, in fact its roots go back much further. Human occupation here dates back 10,000 years. It is thought that the thousands of date palms that flourish on the island (thanks to underground springs) were the source for the Garden of Eden myth.Highlights of a visit to Bahrain include wandering the gold and cloth souks (where cups of Arabian coffee flavoured with rosewater are sure to be thrust upon you), diving the offshore reefs to see whale sharks, a day of racing at the state-of-the-art, 10,000 capacity race track, the Al-Fatih mosque and the National Museum. Koranic verses written on a grain of rice, visible only with microscopes, are on display in the calligraphy museum of Beit Al-Qur'an.