Bin Ghannam Island in spotlight with Amir’s visit on Sports Day. What do you know about the island?
NT Bureau
Doha: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani participated in this year’s National Sports Day activities on Tuesday by rowing at the Bin Ghannam Island, popularly known as Purple Island, on the eastern coast of the country.
Images shared by the Amiri Diwan showed the Amir rowing through the island, located an hour away from the capital, Doha.
The pictures not only went viral on social media, but also brought renewed attention to Bin Ghannam Island, which is already a popular tourist spot among residents.
What is Ben Ghannam Island?
Bin Ghanam Island is a very beautiful tourist island in the country. According to Al Sharq Arabic daily, a leading travel website stated that Bin Ghannam Island ranks 14th among the 50 most beautiful tourist islands in the world, and indicated that the island is qualified to become the most beautiful cultural and environmental tourist destination in the region.
The island is about 60 kilometers away from the city of Doha, and can be reached by road. It extends from Al Dhakhira Street to Ras Matbakh Beach and includes a bridge between the two banks, which facilitates access to it.
Historical discoveries
According to Qatar News Agency, the island was a site for the production of red-purple dye from seashells during previous times, and a fishing center in the late Islamic era.
Several missions from the middle of the last century referred to it, and several discoveries were made, such as building units and fire hearths. Huge quantities of certain snails were found, from which the purple dye was produced.
Natural heritage
The island is rich in natural heritage and is home to large areas of mangrove trees, which live in the shallow salt lakes with small fish, and the island attracts a large number of migratory birds, such as flamingos and egrets, that visit the island during the winter months.
Bin Ghannam Island is a great place for paddling and discovering the exotic diversity of flora and fauna through its famous mangrove plantations.
According to the Qatar Tourism and Qatar Museums website, the name of the island dates back to the era in which it was the main site of the purple dye industry, which was controlled by the Kassites in the second millennium BC.
It was a thriving industry at the time, as the colour purple was traditionally associated with royalty.
With its stunning natural beauty, the island is an ideal destination for bird watching, hiking and enjoying nature, spotting a variety of marine animals, trying kayaking through the mangrove forests or crossing the wooden bridge that connects the island to small hills and the Purple Island Beach.
(Source: Al Sharq)
