The extreme significant wave heights and the corresponding mean wave periods were predicted for return periods of 12, 25, 50, 100 and 200 years for 38 different locations in the territorial and offshore locations of countries surrounding the Arabian Gulf. The input wave data for the study is hindcast waves obtained using a WAM model for a total period of 12 years, (1993 to 2004). The peak over threshold method (with 1.0 m as threshold value), is used for selecting the data for the extreme wave analysis. In general, a Weibull distribution is found to fit the data well compared to the Gumbel distribution for all these locations. From the joint probability of wave height and wave period, a simple polynomial relationship (Tmean = C3 (Hs)C4) is used to obtain the relationship between the significant wave height and mean wave period for all the 38 locations. The value of C3 is found to vary from 3.8 to 4.8 and the value of C4 is found to vary from 0.19 to 0.32.The mean wave period was found to be more sensitive to change in locations within the Gulf and it is less sensitive to change in return periods from 12 years to 200 years. The significant wave heights for 100 year return period varied from 3.0 to 4.5 for water depths of 9 to 16 m, whereas in the offshore sites (depths from 30 to 60 m) it varied from 5.0 to 7.0 m. A large number of coastal projects are in progress in the Arabian Gulf and many new projects are being planned in this region for the future. The results of the present study will be highly useful for optimal design of the ocean structures for these projects.