12 Facts About Manama

Manama became the mercantile capital and was the gateway to the main Bahrain Island.

Manama was designated as the 2012 capital of Arab culture by the Arab League, and a beta global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network in 2018.

Safavids, sidelining Manama, designated the nearby town of Bilad Al Qadeem as the provincial capital.

Manama later organised the State Police and was in charge of the Finance and Land departments of the government.

Post-independence Manama was characterised by the rapid urbanisation of the city and the swallowing-up of neighboring villages and hamlets into a single urbanised area, incorporating new neighbourhoods such as Adliya and Salmaniya.

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Manama is part of the Capital Governorate, one of five Governorates of Bahrain.

The primary industry in Manama itself is financial services, with over two hundred financial institutions and banks based in the CBD and the Diplomatic Area.

Manama is a financial hub for the Persian Gulf region and a center of Islamic banking.

Manama has a bus service that launched on 1 April 2015, with a fleet of 141 MAN buses.

Presently, Manama has a wide range of private and public universities and colleges such as Ahlia University, Applied Science University, Arab Open University, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance, and the College of Health and Sport Sciences.

Notable cultural sites within Manama include the Bab Al Bahrain and the adjacent souq area.

The central areas of Manama are the main location for Muharram processions in the country, attracting hundreds of thousands of people annually from Bahrain and across the Gulf.