B@hrain has Forts too

The last thing I expect of B@hrain is to have a fort of its own. I was proven wrong!

We went to a fort on our way back to Khobar. The fort is on the route.



Apparently B@hrain has always been an important trading point even in the older days. Because of its location along the sea trade routes linking Mesopotamia (modern day iraq and southern Turkey) with the Indus Valley Civilization (modern day north of india), B@hrain developed in the Bronze Age, from ca. 3000 BC, into one of the greatest entrepôts (word copied exactly from wikipedia) of trade of the ancient world.

The Dilmuns,(sometimes transliterated Telmun) is an ancient civilization usually associated with archaeological sites on the islands of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf and the nearby coast, including Qatif. Qatif is a small town in Saudi, in case you are wondering.

It just made me wonder, B@hrain and Q@tif and Ir@n and many Ir@qis (older days of Mesopotamia) are mostly Shias. through trading, import export, ideologies are shared and used and assimilated. They probably did not bother with Qtar since, what I know, Qtar has more pirates than anything else but I am not sure the period of time. Shias in Qtar is also a minority.

Anyway, if this area has become important, it is logical that there is a need to protect it. So there was a port facing the northern Persian Gulf, called Qal`at al-Bahrain, Fort of Bahrain. Due to once upon a time importance and it has been serving as the capital of the Dilmun Civilisation, but later became a Portuguese (lagi lagi dia orang ni) it is now under the UNESCO World heritage 2005.

About 25% of the site has been excavated revealing structures of different types: residential, public, commercial, religious and military. They testify to the importance of the site as a trading port over the centuries.

It was gloomy and cold when we went there. The wind was blowing hard. the kids were freezing and Jack was in a bad mood. I should not let this interfere with taking photos of course, but it did. So gambar pun melepas batuk di tepi tangga aje.



More pictures HERE