Sitra ( ar, سترة or , ''As-Sitra''), also known as Sitrah ( ar, Jazīrat Sitrah, script=Latn) or Sitra Island ( ar, Jazīrat as-Sitra, script=Latn), is an
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
in Bahrain.
It lies south of the capital,
Manama
Manama ( ar, المنامة ', Bahrani Arabic, Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is h ...
, on
Bahrain Island
Bahrain Island ( ar, جزيرة البحرين ''Jazīrah al-Baḥrayn''), also known as al-Awal Island and formerly as Bahrein, is the largest island within the archipelago of Bahrain, and forms the bulk of the country's land mass while hosting ...
.
History
;Conflict with Al Khalifa in 1782
In 1782, a conflict occurred between locals and a number of
Al Khalifa
The House of Khalifa ( ar, آل خليفة, translit=Āl Khalīfah) is the ruling family of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Al Khalifas profess Sunni Islam and belong to the Anizah tribe, some members of this tribe joined the Utub alliance which m ...
who came from
Zubara
Zubarah ( ar, الزبارة), also referred to as Al Zubarah or Az Zubarah, is a ruined and ancient fort located on the north western coast of the Qatar peninsula in the Al Shamal municipality, about 105 km from the Qatari capital of Doha. ...
to buy supplies. The clashes resulted in deaths from both sides.
;Arab Spring
During the Arab Spring, there was a big protest here. Many protesters were injured or killed. (See
Day of Rage (Bahrain)
The Day of Rage ( ar, يوم الغضب, translit=Yawm al-Ghaḍab) is the name given by protesters in Bahrain to 14 February 2011, the first day of the national uprising as part of the Arab Spring. Inspired by successful uprisings in Egypt a ...
).
Geography
The Island is located just east of
Bahrain Island
Bahrain Island ( ar, جزيرة البحرين ''Jazīrah al-Baḥrayn''), also known as al-Awal Island and formerly as Bahrein, is the largest island within the archipelago of Bahrain, and forms the bulk of the country's land mass while hosting ...
in
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
. It lies south of
Manama
Manama ( ar, المنامة ', Bahrani Arabic, Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is h ...
and
Nabih Saleh
Nabih Saleh ( ar, النبيه صالح) is an island of Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf. It lies in the Tubli Bay, east of Bahrain Island, and is south of the capital, Manama, on Bahrain Island.
History
The island is named for the formerly separat ...
. The island's western coast forms the boundary of
Tubli Bay
Tubli Bay ( ar, خليج توبلي) (also known as the Gulf of Tubli) is a bay in the east of Bahrain, between Bahrain Island and Sitra island. The body of water is directly south of the Manama peninsula. The island of Nabih Saleh lies in the ba ...
.
The island used to be covered in
date palm
''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as date or date palm, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across northern Africa, the Middle Eas ...
groves and
farm
A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...
s, watered by several
freshwater spring
A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fresh w ...
s.
Mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...
s used to line the western coast, however they have almost disappeared due to development.
Demography
Most of the inhabitants of the island live in nine historic villages:
*
Wadyan Wadyan (Arabic: واديان) is a village in the island of Sitra, Bahrain. A branch of the National Bank of Bahrain and the Sitra police station are located in Wadyan. Also, the central market of Sitra island is located in Wadyan. In the past, this ...
*
Al Kharijiya Al-Kharijiya (Arabic: الخارجية) is the largest village in Sitra, Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Per ...
*
Marquban
*
Al Garrya
Al-Garrya (Arabic: القرية) is a village on the island of Sitra, Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Pers ...
*
Mahazza
Mahazza (Arabic: مهزة, ''Muhazza'') is a village in Sitra, Bahrain, located in the eastern coast of the island. The Portuguese consulate
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to ...
*
Sufala
Sufala (Arabic: سفالة، ''Sfala'') is a village in Sitra, Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf ...
*
Abul Aish
Abul Aish (Arabic: ابو العيش) is a village in the island of Sitra, Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Pe ...
*
Halat Um al-Baidh Halat Um al-Baidh (Arabic: حالة أم البيض) is a town in the island of Sitra, Bahrain. The area was inhabited by 150 people in 1905.Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia: Bahraini 1905 census
Today it is inhabited by 100 p ...
(the location of the yacht club and Al Bandar resort)
*
Al Hamriya
AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media
* Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera
* Al (''Fullmetal ...
There is a massive land reclamation project called
East Sitra
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
which increased the island size by 50% and has a new city built on it.
Economy
The island's economy used to be based on agriculture and fishing.
The northern section of the island has been turned into an industrial area.
Bapco oil storage reservoirs are located in the south. Sitra is also the terminus of the 42-km Dhahran-Sitra
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
pipeline
Pipeline may refer to:
Electronics, computers and computing
* Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on
** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
, which connects it to
Dahran
Dhahran ( ar, الظهران, ''Al-Dhahran'') is a city located in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. With a total population of 240,742 as of 2021, it is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Together with the nearby cit ...
in
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
Several car and furniture showrooms also make up the new development on the island.
The
Sitra Club
Sitra Club ( ar, نادي سترة الثقافي والرياضي) is a sports club based in Sitra, Bahrain. The club was established in 1957. The main activities are Association football, football and basketball. The basketball and football t ...
is a cultural and sports club for the island.
Today Sitra handles Bahrain's entire petroleum production. It is the location of
Port of Sitra. It is also the export center for the oil fields in northeastern
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
Education
Sitra is the site of many school campuses such as
Al Noor International School and
Indian School, Bahrain
The Indian School ( ar, المدرسة الهندية) is a CBSE–affiliated community school in Bahrain. Founded by three Indian women as an elementary school for the children of Indian nationals in Bahrain, it is currently one of the largest ...
. The
Applied Science University is located here.
Transportation
The
Sitra Causeway
The Sitra Causeway consists of a series of bridges and causeways constructed in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The causeway connects the island of Nabih Saleh and Sitra, to the capital city Manama across Tubli Bay.
Originally constructed in the early 1 ...
connects the north of the island to
Nabih Saleh
Nabih Saleh ( ar, النبيه صالح) is an island of Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf. It lies in the Tubli Bay, east of Bahrain Island, and is south of the capital, Manama, on Bahrain Island.
History
The island is named for the formerly separat ...
and to
Umm al Hussam (
Manama
Manama ( ar, المنامة ', Bahrani Arabic, Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is h ...
) on
Bahrain Island
Bahrain Island ( ar, جزيرة البحرين ''Jazīrah al-Baḥrayn''), also known as al-Awal Island and formerly as Bahrein, is the largest island within the archipelago of Bahrain, and forms the bulk of the country's land mass while hosting ...
.
Two small bridges on the south west of Sitra also joins Bahrain Island, near the villages of
Ma'ameer
Ma'ameer ( ar, المعامير) is a village in Bahrain. Nationally, the village is known for its Industrial Area, which consists of the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) refinery and a large number of factories, production units such as Awal Rea ...
and
Eker
Eker ( ar, العكر) is an area in Bahrain, located near the villages of Nuwaidrat, Ma'ameer and the island of Sitra.
It is divided into 2 regions: East Eker and West Eker, with Shias making up the majority of the former's population. .
Administration
The southern part of the island belongs to
Southern Governorate
The Southern Governorate () has the largest area of the four governorates of Bahrain, and the smallest population (91,450). It includes parts of Bahrain's old municipalities – Al Mintaqah al Gharbiyah, Ar Rifa' wa al Mintaqah al Janubiyah ...
and the northern part to
Capital Governorate.
Between 1990 and 2013 it was part of
Central Governorate of
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
, but that is now dissolved.
Between 1920 and 1990 it was part of Sitra Municipality.
Sitra Municipality
This was a
municipality in Bahrain before they were re-organized as Governorates. The Sitra Municipality consisted of the island of Sitra and three villages close to it on the main island of Bahrain:
Ma'ameer
Ma'ameer ( ar, المعامير) is a village in Bahrain. Nationally, the village is known for its Industrial Area, which consists of the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) refinery and a large number of factories, production units such as Awal Rea ...
,
Eker
Eker ( ar, العكر) is an area in Bahrain, located near the villages of Nuwaidrat, Ma'ameer and the island of Sitra.
It is divided into 2 regions: East Eker and West Eker, with Shias making up the majority of the former's population. and
Nuwaidrat Nuwaidrat (Arabic: النويدرات) is a village located in Bahrain, close to Sitra; it was formerly part of the Sitra Municipality.
History 1990s uprising
During the 1990s Bahraini uprising, a policeman named Ibrahim al-Saeedi was killed in E ...
.
Image gallery
File:Un-bahrain.png, Map 1
File:Bahrain, administrative divisions 2014 - de - colored.svg, Map Districts
File:Capital Governorate in Bahrain 2014.svg, District Map
File:Southern Governorate in Bahrain 2014.svg, District Map
File:BapcoTanks-SitraBahrain.jpg, Bapco Bahrain oil reservoirs in Sitra
File:Sitra Wharf, 1940.jpg, Berth number 4 in Sitra Wharf
A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...
in 1940
File:Bahrain-Sitrah.png, Map of Bahrain showing Sitrah municipality
File:Sitra_cemetery_-_Flickr_-_Al_Jazeera_English.jpg, Cemetery
File:Women taking part in a pro-democracy sit in in Sitra.jpg, Women taking part in a pro-democracy sit-in in Sitra
File:Bahrain map.png, Sitra (Sitrah), east of Manama, in Bahrain
Sitra Island
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sitra
Populated places in Bahrain
Islands of Bahrain
Artificial islands of Bahrain
Former municipalities (regions) of Bahrain