While living in Kuwait, I loved to learn about the history of the country by visiting historic sites and museums, but one of my other favorite things to do was urban exploring. Here are some of the abandoned places around Kuwait. Down near the border with Saudi, near the Aquamarine Hotel, there is an abandoned chalet along the water.

Kindergarten from the 1960s in Al Jahra

Old Amiri Hospital in Kuwait City

Failaka Island! Largely uninhabited since the 1990 invasion

Part of the Al Nugra complex in Hawally

Directly next to the Kuwait National English School in Hawally is an old looking building, parts of which are being torn down as of the summer of 2022 (as seen below). The image looking down on the building was taken in 2009 and comes from this flickr account.

An old museum and homes in Shuwaikh

Ahmadi Market, which the photographer Huda Abdulmughni documented in a 2015 project

Abandoned complex across the street from the Kuwait Towers

Spago Restaurant on Gulf Road

A hotel behind the Kuwait Disabled Sports Club in Hawally

An unfinished hotel (?) in Bneid Al Gar

Kuwait Shipping Company Headquarters in Shuwaikh

Abandoned site in Al Salmi desert, near the border with Saudi Arabia

“Ship Graveyard” in Doha

The “Rainbow House” in Sharq and other abandoned houses nearby

The House of Amin in Sharq

Along Mubarak Al Kabeer Street

Older homes in Bneid Al Gar

Old apartment complex across the street from the American International School in Maidan Hawalli

Older home in Qadisiyah

Older home in Dasma

Old home attached to Abou Johny restaurant In Salmiya

Older (not necessarily abandoned) homes in Hawally

Abandoned homes near Marina Mall in Salmiya

Across the street from this beach in Salmiya is an abandoned apartment complex

Across the street from Palm Palace in Salmiya

(Demolished) In Jabriya, next to Hadi Clinic, used to stand this abandoned house. It has since been torn down. Paintings from a now demolished abandoned shopping complex in Hawally.

(Partly Demolished) Mishref Palace

(Demolished) Al Shaab Park was an amusement park that closed down in 2017 and was demolished in 2021. Here are some photographs taken in the fall of 2020 when it was abandoned

(Demolished) Anwar Al Sabah Complex, built in the 1960s, along Fahad Al Salem Street

(Demolished) In Hawally along Ibn Khaldun used to stand this building

(Demolished) The Gazelle Club opened in the early 1960s in Abu Halifa

The club, “included many activities such as horseback riding, water skiing, swimming, sports and mental games. The club also contained a cinema, snooker hall and a ballroom.” In 1969, National Geographic published an article about Kuwait entitled “Aladdin’s Lamp of the Middle East” where they mentioned the club as a popular place for wealthy foreigners and well-to-do Kuwaitis. A 1971 New York Times article entitled “Kuwait Finds Money Isn’t Everything; Idle College Graduates Pose Problem” mentions that, “at the Gazelle Beach Club, which offers Parisian cuisine and American fountain specialities along with waterskiing and horseback riding, a few of the most affluent older Kuwaitis are learning to play the way some rich Europeans and Americans do.” The building was damaged during the invasion and never reopened. The photos above come from this website. The building has since been torn down, you can see more photos of the abandoned building here, photos of the club when it was active here, and a video compilation here.