Failaka

views updated

Failaka or Feilaka (fīlä´kä), island, 15 sq mi (39 sq km), Kuwait, in Persian Gulf 17 mi (27 km) E of Kuwait City. Inhabited since the Bronze Age, it was the site of an outpost established by Alexander the Great's general Nearchus. Most of the modern population, which was concentrated in the village of Az Zor (or Az Zaur) on the NW coast, fled when the Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Greek ruins have been excavated on the island.

More From encyclopedia.com