[1] It is located 50 kilometres (31 mi) southeast of the spot where the Tigris and Euphrates empty into the Persian Gulf.

[2] For thousands of years, the island served as a strategic point in the Persian Gulf that would enable its ruler to control the lucrative trade that passed through the area;[3][2] the island has been a strategic location since the rise of the Sumerian city-state of Ur in Mesopotamia.

[4] This was likely a Hellenized version of the local name, Akar (Aramaic: ´KR), derived from the ancient Bronze-Age toponym Agarum.

[5] 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.