| The
Portuguese Fort of Qala'at al-Bahrain (Bahrain Fort), Bahrain. Remains of Qal’ At Al-Bahrain (16th c.) or
Portuguese Fort. The fort consists of three huge strongholds and the remnants of two
towers in the middle and full walls linking the three strongholds together. It is
surrounded by a trench. It lies on the northern coast of the island, in the most western
point of an open gulf close to the city of Manama.
It's on the UNESCO World Heritage list since
2005. Inscription criteria:
Qal'at al–Bahrain is a typical tell – an artificial mound created by many
successive layers of human occupation. The strata of the 300x600-metre tell testify to
continuous human presence from about 2300 B.C. to the 16th century A.D. About 25% of the
site have been excavated revealing structures of different types: residential, public,
commercial, religious and military. They testify to the importance of the site, a trading
port, over the centuries. On the top of the 12m high mound there is the impressive
Portuguese fort, which gave the whole site its name, qal'a, meaning fort. The site was the
capital of the Dilmun, one of most important ancient civilizations of the region. It
contains the richest remains inventoried of this civilization, which was hitherto only
known from written Sumerian references.
Books
on Portuguese in Bahrain
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