Kuwait

Kuwait hugs the sheltered water of Kuwait Bay at the north-western head of the Gulf, a small wedge of flat desert with no rivers or lakes, where drinking water comes from desalination plants. North of the bay the low Jal az-Zor escarpment breaks the flatness, and offshore lies the marshy island of Bubiyan. Summers are fiercely hot, and the shamal wind raises dust storms that turn the sky orange. In the mild winter, families camp out in tents on the sand.

On Failaka Island lie traces of Bronze Age Dilmun traders and a temple built by Greek settlers after Alexander. In the eighteenth century Bani Utub clans settled on the bay and chose the Al Sabah family to lead them. The town lived from pearling and from booms sailing to India and East Africa. Britain took Kuwait under its protection in 1899, oil was struck at Burgan in 1938, and independence came in June 1961. In August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait, and a US-led coalition expelled Iraqi forces in February 1991.

Men gather in the evening in diwaniyas, reception rooms beside family homes, and Bedouin women wove camel bags in the striped Al Sadu style. Machboos, rice cooked with dried lime and spices under chicken, lamb or fish, is the everyday feast, and zubaidi, a silvery pomfret, the prized catch. Oil, refined at Mina al-Ahmadi, pays for nearly everything, and since 1953 the state has invested its surplus abroad.