Qal'at al-Bahrain

I visited the Qal’at al-Bahrain fort on january the 23rd just after returning from the A'ali burial mounds. Public transport in Bahrain is quite good and even excellent when compared with the one in some neighbouring countries. I just took a bus from Manama's central bus station to the Seef mall from where I walked more or less 15-20 min to the fort. First I visited the museum there which is certainly not the most interesting museum out there. Then I went over to the fort which I visited for more or less an hour. After that I had a coffee in the restaurant next to the museum.

A very pleasant visit and an interesting fort,but nothing from another dimension. I walked back to the Seef mall,had an indian dish in the food court there,and then took a bus back to Manama.

To avoid the unbearable afternoon heat of Middle East, I decided to visit the first Bahraini World Heritage Site, Qal’at al-Bahrain fort, in the late afternoon, a nice recommendation by locals but unfortunately not a good way to appreciate the site’s experience. I arrived the fort around 4 PM, forget that in November the sunset will be around 5 PM. The entrance is free, so I walked directly to the fort. The complex is indeed a very large archaeological site that has many layers of history from Dilmun, Greek, Arab and Portuguese.

The first site I saw was the ruin of small water channel that once was the most important harbor of Dilmun Civilization. Then I saw the ruins of Dilmun city which easily recognizable by large stones for construction. The Greek city was just next to the Dilmun counterpart and was built by much smaller stones and mortar. It was already twilight; I felt sad that I could not see any details of the Arab city. Since it was too dark to see historical ruins, I went to see the most impressive part of this complex, the Portuguese fort which was brilliantly illuminated by floodlights. The fort was once the Arabic fort and then Portuguese built European styled fort on top of it, so the fort is the melting pot of two styled military architecture. But to be honest there is nothing much interesting on the design of the fort. The most unique elements I found on this …

I remember what we called the Portuguese fort from my childhood as my father was stationed in Bahrein in the late 1960s and the archeologist Geffrey Bibby and his Danish team were exploring sites in both Bahrein and on the mainland.As teenagers we would go out either to the fort or to the burial mounds and do what was called 'pottery picking' returning with jars of broken bangle, beads, pottery shards and 3 stone 'dilmun weights' which turned out to be portuguese cannon balls of a much later period.Also visited the Tree of Life on several occasions. The freedom to roam and pick up whatever you found in those days are long gone and the fort itself is unrecognisable now but my facination with the country remains.

Bahrain Fort is located on the outskirts of Manama, with good views over the sea and the highrise buildings of the Bahraini capital. To my surprise, there were dozens of other European tourists around. Mostly Germans, busloads full of them, maybe they came from a cruise ship. They however did only a quick tour of the site, so I had most of it to myself anyway. I started with a circular walk outside of the walls. The edges of the terrain are covered with some pretty palm groves, which have been in use since ancient times.

The fort itself looks almost over-restored. Compare my photos for example with the one taken by Solivagant in 2005 (see his review below). It seems that it has been white-washed during the final phase of restoration. The fortifications look like they always do (I do like the straight lines of the walls and the shape of the turrets). The interior holds a remarkably large open courtyard. The surrounding structures are in ruins and one can only guess what they were used for.

There's a small museum on-site, that displays a lot of items (pottery, stamp seals) that I had already seen earlier in the day in the more extensive National Museum of Bahrain. It was only there that I found out that there is an entrance fee to the Fort - after arriving I had just walked up and around it without being bothered by anyone (the ticket lady hides in the …

During my first visit in Bahrain (I am from Spain) my husband, Bahraini, brought me here. He told me about its history-I had no idea that the Portuguese had been in Bahrain. I found it amazing. There were many tourists, both foreigners and locals, so I imagine is quite an important spot in the region. What amazed me the most whas the fact that there is no entrance fee and that it was very clean and well preserved. It is a must-see in Bahrain. The views from the fort are awesome! Thank you Abbas for such a wonderful day!

When we were visiting Bahrain in early 2005 the fort was undergoing the final touches to a refurbishment so it was not totally surprising to see it receiving inscription in that July as Bahrain’s first WHS. In the (very fine and “not to be missed”!!) Bahrain National Museum we saw earlier photos of the fort and “reconstruction” might be a better word to describe the activity. Large car parks, “interpretive signs” and pathways designed for disabled access show that the government intends this to be a significant “visitor attraction”.

In fact tiny Bahrain has a number of interesting historical sights and is well worth a couple of days with rent-a-car to explore them (don’t even think of bothering with taxis or public transport as rent-a-car from the airport is so cheap and easy). In our opinion the Fort is not the best of these but it is pleasantly situated on the coast a few kms away from the centre of Manama on a spot which has been inhabited for over 4000 years and should certainly be visited if you are in Bahrain. As well as the heavily reconstructed Portuguese fort there are on the same site excavated remains (albeit not very extensive) of “cities” going back to the Bronze Age “Dilmun” civilisation which was centred on Bahrain. Bahrain Island is well served with underground springs and was regarded as a “paradise” in ancient times. The religion of Dilmun was centred on the Sumerian god “Enki” - “god of sweet waters …