Jidda Island 2.77

Jidda Islands are a group of 3 small uninhabited islets in Bahrain. It lies to the west of Bahrain Island and just north of Umm an Nasan in Persian Gulf. They have a distance of 17.5km west of the capital, Manama, on Bahrain Island.Historyin 1930 Jidda became the location of one of Bahrain's prisons. Majeed Marhoon, Abdulhadi Khalaf and several other political activists spent time in the prison in the sixties and seventies. It later became the private property of Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and is currently closed from the public.GeographyThe main island is made of limestone cliffs. It is believed that blocks of rock cut from the island were used in the Barbar temple on Bahrain Island. The small Mini Bahrain is an artificial island on the south shore made to look exactly like the big Bahrain island.DemographyThe island has a palace, gardens, a helipad, a mosque and several other facilities made for the prime minister and his family, although the island is uninhabited and Sheikh Khalifa himself lives in Riffa, Bahrain Island.