A quick trip into Bahrain's past

In the old city of Muharraq, which is on the same island as Bahrain's international airport just off the coast of Manama, the capital, you can find a charming, relaxed community. And a number of things worth having a look at - which I did on my visit to Bahrain over Easter.

There is, for instance, Shaikh Isa's House, the restored birthplace of former Amir, Shaikh Isa bin Sulman Al Khalifa. It was from here that Bahrain was governed from 1869 to 1932, before Manama became the capital, according to what I was told.

It's a quite beautiful little palace. There are dozens of rooms grouped around small courtyards, and the building features a magnificent wind tower - the first I saw which actually works, as others were sealed off! The cooling effect was really remarkable if you stood right below it. There were separate areas for family, servants, and for receiving guests. The building is full of beautifully carved archways and doors, space and light. The windows were mostly carved gypsum screens, and the roofs were made of date palms and reeds.

The day before, I had been travelling around the island, digging deep into the country's history - the place to the left is one I was done with in about two minutes, though. The A'ali Burial Mounds. It's really just that: little hills next to living areas, quite barren. But they are incredibly old, dating to around 4100 to 3700 BC. This is older than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is believed to have been constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC! The mounds are part of the heritage of the ancient culture of Dilmun. BUT you needed a lot of imagination to make the mere sight of these burial mounds even only a bit exciting, to be honest. Maybe the burial site of Sar, also in the North of Bahrain, are more interesting to look at - I don't know, I didn't feel like looking at more graves then.

The next place I went to was similarly not very strong on the visual side, while it is one of the most important archeological sites in Bahrain: the Barbar temples in the North of the island, of which you see a small impression in the picture. Over the years, three temples were built in this place, at different times - and on top of each other! But if you're there, there's not too much to be seen and it takes you only a couple of minutes to walk around the site once.

The interesting thing about the temple site is again in what represents, or rather what it is a remainder of: it is considered to be a site of worship of the Dilmun, with the oldest temple dating back to 3000 BC.

This highly developed civilisation appears in writings as a partner of Mesopotamian Civilisations, and may have lived in Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the Iranian coast. The Dilmun have an appearance in the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, and their lands may indeed be the place of the true Garden Eden, as some think. Which would not be surprising, as, uniquely in that area, Bahrain has a number of fresh water sources - which are also responsible for the high quality of the country's pearls, one of the sources of income for centuries.

It’s thought that the three temples were constructed to worship the god Enki, the god of wisdom and fresh water, and his wife Nankhur Sak. I saw some of the excavated tools, weapons, pottery and pieces of gold in the Bahrain National Museum.

After so much history, I found myself a nice little Asian restaurant in the evening and enjoyed both a glass of wine and the mild evening air.