Kuwait's history is inextricably linked with the sea.

Dhows from the Arabian Gulf region have plied their trade around the Gulf, India and the East Coast of Africa from hundreds of years. Indeed the world dhow is a Swahili word meaning, Arabian wooden ship.

Kuwait builds up one of the most impressive fleets of dhows in the region, and as recently as forty-five years ago, many of them were still in service.

KUWAIT'S MARITIME HISTORY

No one knows when the first fleet of stately deep-ocean going ships first sailed with the northeast monsoon from the Arabian Gulf to India and Africa. The origins of the dhow are clouded in ancient history. Some claim that the Arabian sailing ships are direct descendants of Phoenicians vessels. One of the first early texts in which they are mentioned is the periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written in the first century by the Greek, Hippalus. Even at the time, the dhows followed a long-established pattern of trade.