Ikaros (Failaka Island)
Having returned to Persia after his Indian campaign, an order was issued by Alexander the Great that called for the island to be named Icarus on the namesake of the Greek island in the Aegean Sea. This was likely a Hellenized version of the local name, Akar (Aramaic: ´KR), derived from the ancient Bronze-Age toponym Agarum. Another suggestion is that the name Ikaros was influenced by the local É-kara temple, dedicated to the Babylonian sun-god Shamash. That both Failaka in the Persian Gulf and Icarus in the Aegean Sea housed bull cults would have made the identification all the more tempting.
During the Hellenistic era, there was a temple dedicated to Artemis on the island; the wild animals of the island were dedicated to the goddess with a decree for their protection. Strabo wrote that there was a temple of Apollo and an oracle of Artemis (μαντεῖον Ταυροπόλου; Tauropolus). The island is also mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium and Ptolemaeus.
Remains of the settlement include a large Hellenistic fort and two Greek temples. Failaka was also a trading post (emporion) of the Parthian kingdom of Characene.