Explore Bahrain!

As the weather cools down, visitors have the opportunity to enjoy some of the island’s lesser-known heritage sites. Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (Baca) encourages the public to visit the sites, but stresses the importance of personal responsibility and respect for national heritage. Baca’s visiting guidelines prohibit climbing, sitting or standing on the remains. Littering and bringing pets are also prohibited. Removing or moving anything at the site is a punishable offence by law.

1) Saar Archaeological Site

A trove of impressively-constructed and well-preserved ancient structures, each from a different epoch, make up the Saar Archaeological Site. It is the country’s second most significant one after Qal’at al-Bahrain, according to Baca antiquities and museums director Dr Salman Al Mahari.  The ancient multi-era remains were uncovered during a 1977 land survey to clear the area for the construction of the King Fahad Causeway. 

Once called ‘Saar desert,’ this arid expanse in north-western Bahrain was full of burial mounds, a small fraction of which are still protected in the Saar site. Most of the site now lies on the southern side of the highway, unnoticed by cars driving by every day.

Dilmunian Town

In the middle of the site sits a sophisticated Dilmunian town settled 4,000 years ago. With complex buildings, plazas, main streets, alleyways, houses, shops and a place of worship, it bears the signs of any modern town. It remained populated for three centuries and older structures can be found under the foundations of the buildings still standing.

Saar Temple

Located on the settlement’s highest point, the temple can be found in the heart of the town. Although not much is known about the deities worshipped there, the temple features an altar for animal sacrifice and pillars for divine statues.   A triangular chamber lies in the temple’s corner, which Saudi archaeologist Nabiel Al Shaikh believes is a large sun-dial engineered to indicate the annual summer solstice on June 21.   In 2018, the GDN reported his claims that the annual celestial event marked the Dilmun New Year. If true, the temple might have been used to worship the Mesopotamian sun god Utu.

Cemeteries and Fire Temple

A short distance from the town is the burial complex, made up of two Dilmun-period cemeteries. Northward, intricate graves built in a honeycomb pattern are flanked by a reconstructed circular tomb, like the ones found in A’ali and Janabiya. On top of the southern cemetery’s intertwined graves sits a building from the Late Dilmun or Tylos periods, theorised to be a Fire Temple in the 1990s by archaeologists Harriet Crawford and Jane Moon in the 1990s.

Treasures yet to be found

The Saar Archaeological Site contains even more significant finds that have not yet been excavated, notwithstanding the concentration of relics already found there. These include another early-Dilmun settlement on the other side of the highway, and two Islamic settlements in the Saar Cemetery, which villagers still use today. 

2) Tylos Cemetery Abu Saiba

This low, partially-excavated mound is part of a special concentration of Tylos necropolises in Northern Bahrain between Maqabah, Hajar and Shakhura. It is thought to be constructed between the 1st century BCE and 1st century CE, topped with long-eroded stone pavement.  Despite being looted not long after interment, breathtaking treasures from the graves, including beautiful gold jewellery and small Hellenistic sculptures can now be found at the Bahrain National Museum.  “All the burial practices of Tylos revolve around the notion of a journey to the afterlife,” said French Archaeological mission leader Dr Pierre Lombard.

Intriguingly, Dilmun-period pottery and seals were found scattered between these Tylos graves. Dr Lombard noted that there could be a Dilmunian cemetery below the mound.

3) Ain Huwais – Buri

Surrounded by Buri’s palm groves and historical mosques, Ain Huwais is a rare getaway from the car-overrun concrete jungle.   Inscribed stones found at the Khamis mosque suggest that the ancient spring has been in use since at least the 12th century. Historian Jassim Al Abbas claims that its foundation stones belong to Dilmun times, but scientific research needs to be done to confirm this theory.  Fresh water from Ain Huwais once fed underground irrigation channels all over Bahrain, some of which can still be found in Saar.

In 2017, Ain Huwais was brought back into public use by the Northern Governorate Municipal council and added to the list of national heritage sites safeguarded by the 1995 Antiquities Protection Law.