Tree of Life Day Tour

Located 40 Kms from Manama ,Capital city of Bahrain .Near Al Khuff gas extraction site.On a hill in a barren area of the Arabian Desert is the Tree of life (Shajarat-al-Hayat) which is a 9.75 Metre(32 feet) high Prosopis cineraria species tree that is over 400 years old. There is no entrance fee for visiting the area and its open to the public.

The Tree is abundantly covered in green leaves throughout the year.Bahrain has little to no rain through all seasons. So how the tree manages to stay alive still remains a mystery.Claims are that the tree learned to extract moisture from grains of sand others say that its standing on what was once the Garden of Eden .Due to its age and the fact that it is the only major tree growing in the area,the tree is a local tourist attraction and is visited by approximately 65,000 people every year.I visited the Tree of life on a Friday since it’s more like a weekend in Bahrain ,because it’s a muslim country and they go to the mosque on Fridays. It was during “Winter” and yes i put it in quotes since it’s more like a mild winter season the temperatures vary between highs of 22 degrees and lows of upto 13 degrees.That’s pretty low for the country since the summers could go upto highs of 45 degrees.

All in all ,when visiting the place the area around was full of tents and camping sites with lots of people..On inquiring it came to my knowledge that most Bahraini come to with their families to camp for upto 1 month to have fun and bond with friends during winter season.I arrived at around 3pm there was a lot of people at the site , and snacks being sold around on ice cream trucks...To be honest i expected more than what i saw because in reality is that its just a tree in the middle of nowhere with people taking pictures.So if you know nothing about the tree you will be so confused since there is no tour guide or signs explaining more about the tree and it history.Therefore i highly recommend reading more and researching about the history of the tree before visiting..Or perhaps having a local guide like i did.

Generally for me it was a great experience and i ended up taking cute pictures. During winter i would advice going earlier during since the sunsets early by around 4:30pm its usually already getting dark.