Profile
The Kingdom of Bahrain is an archipelago made up of 33 islands situated in the Arabian Gulf midway between the tip of the Qatar Peninsula to the south and the Saudi Arabian mainland, 25 km to the east. The country is centrally placed among the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and shares membership with Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
With a population of over 688,000 (approximately 235,000 of whom are non-nationals) you´ll find that the majority of the population lives in the cosmopolitan capital of Manama. The official language is Arabic (Gulf dialect), although English is widely spoken and taught in schools as a second language due to years of British influence. Farsi and Urdu are also very common.
Bahrain time zone is three hours ahead of GMT with no variation throughout the summer months.
The national currency of Bahrain is the Bahraini Dinar (BD) and it is linked to the US dollar.
For approximately eight months of the year Bahrain enjoys moderate, pleasant weather, with continuous sunshine and blue skies. Temperatures are at their lowest during December and January and come down to a low of 14 degrees Celsius. It typically starts getting hot around May, and the summer months of June through August are characterized as hot and humid, with temperatures averaging above 45 degrees Celsius.