Bahrain Trivia
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50 free Bahrain trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Bahrain is the third-smallest country in Asia, an archipelago of some 33 natural islands (plus dozens of artificial ones) tucked between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It has been famous for something in every era: the paradise-land of Dilmun in Sumerian myth, the finest pearls in the world for two thousand years, the first oil struck on the Arabian side of the Gulf, and today a Formula One race under floodlights and a skyscraper with wind turbines built into it. This quiz covers the whole island: geography (what do the "two seas" in the name mean?), ancient and modern history (Portuguese forts, the Al Khalifa, independence in 1971, the 2011 uprising), symbols (why the flag has five points, why the dinar is worth so much), food, sport, wildlife and the causeway that links it to the mainland. It starts easy and gets genuinely hard toward the end. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Bahrain?
Manama
Manama was named Arab Capital of Culture in 2012.
Q 02Bahrain is connected by the King Fahd Causeway to which neighbouring country?
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is joined to Bahrain by the 25 km King Fahd Causeway, opened in November 1986 and named for the Saudi king whose government paid for it.
Q 03The name Bahrain is Arabic for what?
The two seas
The two seas is the literal meaning of al-Bahrayn, the dual of the Arabic word bahr (sea); the name once covered the whole eastern Arabian coast before being confined to the islands.
Q 04Bahrain is the third-smallest nation in Asia. Which two are smaller?
Maldives and Singapore
Land reclamation has actually made Bahrain bigger, from 665 to about 780 square kilometres.
Q 05Which Bronze Age trading civilisation linking Mesopotamia and the Indus was centred on Bahrain?
Dilmun
Dilmun was the Bronze Age trading power centred on Bahrain from around 3200 BC, passing copper from Magan (Oman) and goods from the Indus to Mesopotamian cities such as Ur.
Q 06The Sumerian myth of Enki and Ninhursag, set on Bahrain, recalls which biblical story?
The Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is the parallel Samuel Noah Kramer drew: in Enki and Ninhursag the island is a pure, deathless land, and Enki's aching rib is healed by the goddess Ninti, 'lady of the rib'.
Q 07The ancient Greeks knew Bahrain by which name, when Alexander's admiral Nearchus landed there?
Tylos
Tylos was the Greek name for the island, recorded after Alexander sent Androsthenes of Thasos to survey the Gulf coast; Theophrastus described its 'wool-bearing' cotton trees.
Q 08Which sect seized Bahrain in 899 and later stole the Black Stone from Mecca, holding it for over 20 years?
The Qarmatians
The Qarmatians took Bahrain in 899 and carried off the Black Stone in 930; more than two decades later it was dumped in the Kufa mosque with a note saying they had taken and returned it by command.
Q 09Which European power ruled Bahrain from 1521 until it was expelled by Shah Abbas of Persia in 1602?
Portugal
Portugal held Bahrain from 1521 to 1602; its garrison built the fort on the tell at Qal'at al-Bahrain, which is why the site is also called the Portuguese Fort.
Q 10Which royal family has ruled Bahrain since capturing it in 1783?
Al Khalifa
Al Khalifa, a Bani Utbah family, took Bahrain from the Persian-backed governor Nasr Al-Madhkur in 1783 under Ahmed bin Muhammad, remembered as Ahmed al-Fateh, 'the Conqueror'; the family has ruled ever since.
Q 11Bahrain declared independence from Britain in which year?
1971
1971 was the year: Bahrain declared independence on 15 August 1971 after a 1970 United Nations mission found its people wanted a sovereign Arab state rather than absorption by the Shah's Persia, which had long claimed the islands.
Q 12In 2002 Bahrain changed its formal name from the State of Bahrain to what?
A kingdom
A kingdom is what Bahrain became on 14 February 2002, when the new constitution took effect and Hamad bin Isa changed his title from Emir to King.
Q 13Bahrain's Arab Spring protests centred on which capital landmark, whose monument was later demolished?
Pearl Roundabout
Q 21Which currency did the Bahraini dinar replace when it was introduced in 1965?
The Gulf rupee
The Gulf rupee, issued from Bombay for use in the Gulf states, was swapped for the dinar in 1965 at ten rupees to one dinar; Abu Dhabi also used the Bahraini dinar until the UAE dirham arrived in 1973.
Q 22Bahrain's highest point, Jabal ad Dukhan, rises to only about how high?
134 m
134 m is all Jabal ad Dukhan reaches; its name means Mountain of Smoke, for the haze that gathers round it on humid days, and the country's first oil well was drilled at its foot.
Q 23Bahrain's Tree of Life, a lone mesquite over 400 years old, is remarkable because it grows where?
Pearl Roundabout in the capital was the protesters' camp from 14 February; after Gulf troops arrived in March, the authorities cleared it and demolished its six-sailed pearl monument.
Q 14Bahrain was the first place on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf to discover oil. In what year?
1932
The strike, below Jabal ad Dukhan, came before its neighbours', and Bahrain later diversified into banking as the oil ran low.
Q 15Before oil, Bahrain was famed for which industry, the world's finest into the 19th century?
Pearl fisheries
Pearl fisheries made Bahrain's fortune: its natural pearls were prized from antiquity until Japanese cultured pearls flooded the market in the 1930s, collapsing the trade just as oil arrived.
Q 16In which year did the Bahrain Pearling Path become the country's second World Heritage Site?
2012
2012 saw UNESCO inscribe 'Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy', a trail of 17 historic buildings, the Bu Maher seashore fort and three offshore oyster beds.
Q 17Qal'at al-Bahrain, the country's first World Heritage Site, is a tell with occupation going back to about when?
2300 BC
2300 BC is roughly when occupation began at Qal'at al-Bahrain; its 12 m tell holds layers from Kassite, Hellenistic, Islamic and early-modern times, and UNESCO listed it in 2005.
Q 18What do the five white points on Bahrain's serrated flag represent?
The pillars of Islam
The pillars of Islam are what the five points stand for; the flag was cut from eight points to five in 2002, when Bahrain adopted its present design.
Q 19Bahrain's flag is often confused with the flag of which neighbour, which is maroon with nine points?
Qatar
Qatar's flag is maroon with nine white points, against Bahrain's red with five; Bahrain's white stripe dates from the 1820 General Maritime Treaty, marking its ships as treaty signatories.
Q 20The Bahraini dinar is divided into how many fils?
1,000
1,000 fils make one Bahraini dinar, so prices carry three decimal places; the dinar's peg of 0.376 to the US dollar was made official in 2001.
In barren desert with no visible water source
In barren desert with no visible water source, the Tree of Life grows alone on a sandy rise near Jabal ad Dukhan; its Prosopis cineraria roots are thought to tap deep groundwater.
Q 24Which antelope, bred at the Al Areen reserve, is Bahrain's national animal?
Arabian oryx
Arabian oryx, Bahrain's national animal, was shot out in the wild by 1972 and rebuilt from captive herds; it later became the first species to go from 'extinct in the wild' to 'vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List.
Q 25The Hawar Islands host the world's largest breeding colony of which seabird?
Socotra cormorant
Socotra cormorant colonies on the Hawar Islands run to tens of thousands of pairs, the largest known for a species endemic to the seas around Arabia; the surrounding shallows also hold a large dugong herd.
Q 26A territorial dispute over the Hawar Islands between Bahrain and Qatar was settled in 2001 by which body?
The International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled on 16 March 2001 that the Hawar Islands belong to Bahrain, though they lie barely 2 km off the neighbouring peninsula and some 20 km from Bahrain's main island.
Q 27Bahrain hosted the first Formula One Grand Prix in the Middle East in which year?
2004
2004 was the year: the first Bahrain Grand Prix ran on 4 April 2004 at the Hermann Tilke-designed Sakhir circuit, and Ferrari finished one-two.
Q 28Since 2014, the Bahrain Grand Prix has been held in what unusual way?
At night under floodlights
At night under floodlights is how the race has run since 2014, making Bahrain F1's second full night race after Singapore; Lewis Hamilton won the first floodlit edition after a duel with Nico Rosberg.
Q 29Which year's Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled because of anti-government protests?
2011
2011 was the year: the race, due on 13 March 2011, was postponed after the February uprising and cancelled in June when the teams declined a rescheduled date; it returned the following year.
Q 30The first corner of the Bahrain International Circuit was renamed in 2014 after which driver?
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher, who won the circuit's inaugural race, had Turn 1 named after him in April 2014, months after his near-fatal skiing accident at Méribel.