An old, long-aban­­doned Por­tuguese citadel. But it is not the fortress itself that is of inter­est, but the hill on which it stands. Archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tions that began in the mid-20th cen­tu­ry showed that the hill is a com­bi­na­tion of cul­tur­al lay­ers, i.e. essen­tial­ly the result of human activ­i­ty over sev­er­al mil­len­nia.

Sci­en­tists have con­firmed the pre­vi­ous­ly put for­ward assump­tion that it was here that the cap­i­tal of Dil­mun was locat­ed — an ancient civ­i­liza­tion that exist­ed already in the third mil­len­ni­um BC. Archae­ol­o­gists are dig­ging up res­i­den­tial, pub­lic and reli­gious build­ings, expos­ing civ­i­liza­tion lay­ers one after anoth­er.

To plunge into the depths of cen­turies, to see struc­tures erect­ed back in the 2300s BC — such a prospect has a mes­mer­iz­ing effect even on those tourists who are not par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in ancient his­to­ry.