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Failaka Island

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Also known as Failaka

Kuwaiti island

Key facts

Etymology
< Ancient Greek φυλάκιο(ν) fylakio(n) "outpost"
Location
Persian Gulf
Length
14 km (8.7 mi)
Width
6.5 km (4.04 mi)
Highest point
Rās Sibīcha
Governorate
Capital
Population
147 (2011)
Time zone
Arabia Standard Time ( UTC+3 )

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
island
Official name
جزيرة فيلكا
Country
Kuwait
Population
5832
Area
43
Elevation
10
Time zone
UTC+03:00
Body of water
Persian Gulf
Image
Failaka Island 2.JPG
Width
5.0
Length
13.8
Show 3 more facts
Commons category
Failaka Island
native label
فيلكا
heritage designation
Tentative World Heritage Site
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~17 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Failaka Island (Arabic: فيلكا Faylakah / Fēlaka; Kuwaiti Arabic:فيلچه /fe:lɪt͡ʃə/) is a Kuwaiti Island in the Persian Gulf. The island is 20 km off the coast of Kuwait City in the Persian Gulf.

Failaka Island is located 50 km southeast of the spot where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers empty into the Persian Gulf. For thousands of years, the island has been a strategic prize to control the lucrative trade that passed up and down the Persian Gulf. Failaka Island has been a strategic location since the rise of the Sumerian city-state of Ur. Due to its strategic location, Failaka Island has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Up until the Gulf War, it was the longest continuously inhabited place in Kuwait.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Failaka Island” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map