Kuwait City
— — three blue-tiled spheres on the sea wall.
Not only on a wall.
“A Gulf capital built fast on oil and rebuilt fast after 1991. The Kuwait Towers stand on a headland reaching into Kuwait Bay, their blue-green spheres clad in tens of thousands of small enamelled steel discs. Souq Mubarakiya still trades spice and dates in the old downtown grid, and the heat lifts off the corniche through much of the year.
Kuwait City, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Kuwait City is the capital and largest city of the State of Kuwait, on the southern shore of Kuwait Bay, an inlet of the Persian Gulf at the head of the Arabian Peninsula. The settlement was founded around 1716 by the Bani Utub and grew through pearl diving and Gulf trade before commercial oil was discovered in 1938. Kuwait declared independence from Britain in 1961. The metropolitan area holds roughly three million residents, most of the country's population. Summer daytime highs routinely exceed 45 degrees Celsius.
The Kuwait Towers were designed by Sune Lindström and Malene Björn and completed in 1979 on a headland into the bay. The largest tower rises 187 metres and holds a viewing platform and a revolving restaurant; the upper spheres are clad in some 41,000 enamelled steel discs in blue, green, and grey. The Grand Mosque, completed in 1986, is the country's largest and seats around ten thousand worshippers in its main hall. Liberation Tower, finished in 1993 to mark independence from Iraqi occupation, stands 372 metres tall.
The corniche runs along the Gulf for several kilometres past Souq Sharq, the Scientific Center aquarium, and the towers themselves. Souq Mubarakiya, the city's oldest covered market, trades spice, dates, textiles, and gold through narrow alleys, with most activity in the cooler evening hours after Maghrib prayer. The best months for walking outdoors are November through March, when daytime highs sit between 18 and 25 degrees Celsius. July and August routinely cross 45 degrees. Friday is the weekly day off across the country.