Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to-energy power, it's unlikely that any of these green technologies will replace oil in the
collective memory of the region. Oil, after all, has given Arabia back its place in the
world.
TIMELINE
c 66,000,000 BC
Unlike the deserts of modern Arabia, the Peninsula is covered in savannah-like grasslands, rainfall is
abundant and permanent rivers are home to crocodiles and herbivorous dinosaurs.
c 100,000 BC
Homo sapiens live a hunter-gatherer life across the Peninsula, burning fires and rearing their own
livestock. They form the first organised communities in the region.
6000-3200 BC
Loose groups of Stone Age and Bronze Age individuals occupy the Peninsula, setting up intricate
trade routes between Arabia and Mesopotamia (Iraq) and the Indus Valley.
c 3000 BC
Dilmun, the first great civilisation in the Peninsula, is founded of the coast of Bahrain; it extends
from Failaka Island (near present-day Kuwait) towards the hills of Oman.
3000-2000 BC
In Oman, tombs at Bat and Gaylah are erected along mountain ridges by the Hafit and the Umm an
Nar cultures - people belonging to the low-lying territories of the Gulf.
323 BC
Alexander the Great, attracted to Arabia's wealth, dies leaving his plan to mount an expedition to the
region unfulfilled. His admiral, Nearchus, establishes an important trading colony on Failaka Island.
c 200 BC-AD 100
The Nabataean Empire controls northwestern Arabia and grows rich by taxing frankincense cara-
vans travelling between southern Arabia and Damascus. Much of the Gulf comes under the influence
of Persian dynasties.
c 300
