At some point following Alexander the Great's initial advance through the region in 331 BC or in the period 324/3 BC when he returned to Mesopotamia, the ancient Greeks colonized the island, which they named Ikaros after the Greek island in the Aegean Sea and the mythical hero Icarus, apparently in the belief that the island had a similar shape of its Aegean counterpart. Some elements of Greek mythology were mixed with the local cults. The sewage system was destroyed and has yet to be fully repaired. Also, many old homes continue to sit empty and decaying; bullet holes can still be seen.
After the war, Failaka was cleared of mines, but it remains under military use. Nevertheless, Failaka Island is becoming a popular holiday destination from Kuwait City. The ferry Ikarus takes passengers out to the island.
Several of the captives held in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo faced the allegation that their name had been found on a list recovered from a hard drive of a computer of an al Qaeda terrorist suspected of involvement with an October 2002 attack on US Marines stationed on Faylaka Island. The Marines were training with blank ammunition when two terrorists drove by and fired AK47 rifles, killing one Marine and wounding another. Several Marines responded by killing the two attackers with pistols that were on hand for security.
The few remaining local residents are mostly those Failakawans who lived with their families on the island prior to the Iraqi Invasion of 1990. Most Failakawans have their own boats and some are involved in tourism, but many are reticent about letting tourism detract from the quiet island life. Some Failakawan families, although now living in mainland Kuwait, regularly go to the island on weekends.
On the mainland, in Kuwait city, there have been various schemes to build a bridge to the island and make it a vacation paradise, as has been done in Bahrain.
The museum and archaeological sites (the Ikarus and Azuk temple sites) are planned to re-open. In July 2007, Kuwait and Greece signed an agreement allowing Greek archaeologists to continue their work on the island under the aegis of Angeliki Kottaridou and Panagiotis Hadzidakis. Other sporadic archaeological work has restarted on the island, with the discovery of 18th-century Portuguese, and later British, fortifications. A new hotel resort has encouraged many of the improvements.
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