I visited Dilmun Burial Mounds before UNESCO recognized its status. This World Heritage site was part of my private half day tour around Bahrain. Actually, It was not a part of the original tour program, but after had a fruitful discussion on ancient Dilmun civilization with my historical buff guide during our walking tour to see Pearling Heritages in Muharraq, my guild wanted to show me the Dilmun royal mounds, so after negotiated with a driver, we squeezed Dilmun Mounds in the plan. We went to city of Aali, after made a brief stop to see few remains water springs of Bahrain, it hard to believe that Bahrain was once full of water springs and very green island and was considered a heaven on earth, I found myself to be standing on the top of the Royal Mound No.1.

The large earth mound was uninspiring surrounded by the city, similar to what I saw royal tombs in Japan near Nara, a big hole show ruins of multi burial chambers and indicated that it was already excavated by archaeologists or grave robbers. My guide recommended me to go to the top of the mound to see the view of whole city, something that should not be allow anymore after UNESCO listing. From the top I saw other big royal mounds blending with the whole urban landscape, a very interesting sight. After my guide explained different styles of burial ritual of Dilmun and what I should see in the national museum tomorrow, we drove to see the fields of smaller burial mounds. The sheer amounts of burial mounds along the highway were impressive even though the sea of mounds may look like countless piles of construction debris. If those burial mounds covered by green grass, they would be exactly similar to Chinese or Korean cemeteries in East Asia and Southeast Asia.     

The mound was quite underwhelming, but collectively with its sheer numbers of burial mounds showing the long history of burial tradition in Bahrain creating the city of dead with the sea of burial mounds, Dilmun Burial Mounds became something that worth to come and see while in this small Gulf country, but to be honest except for history or archaeology interests or World Heritage enthusiasts, I would not recommend the site for casual visitors, visiting Bahrain National Museum and Bahrain Fort are enough to understand Dilmun civilization, and better to spent more time with Shaikh Isa Bin Ali House and Bahrain and Muharraq old city centers.