To avoid the unbearable afternoon heat of Middle East, I decided to visit the first Bahraini World Heritage Site, Qal’at al-Bahrain fort, in the late afternoon, a nice recommendation by locals but unfortunately not a good way to appreciate the site’s experience. I arrived the fort around 4 PM, forget that in November the sunset will be around 5 PM. The entrance is free, so I walked directly to the fort. The complex is indeed a very large archaeological site that has many layers of history from Dilmun, Greek, Arab and Portuguese.

The first site I saw was the ruin of small water channel that once was the most important harbor of Dilmun Civilization. Then I saw the ruins of Dilmun city which easily recognizable by large stones for construction. The Greek city was just next to the Dilmun counterpart and was built by much smaller stones and mortar. It was already twilight; I felt sad that I could not see any details of the Arab city. Since it was too dark to see historical ruins, I went to see the most impressive part of this complex, the Portuguese fort which was brilliantly illuminated by floodlights. The fort was once the Arabic fort and then Portuguese built European styled fort on top of it, so the fort is the melting pot of two styled military architecture. But to be honest there is nothing much interesting on the design of the fort. The most unique elements I found on this fort are there were many rooms dedicated to make date honey which was once an expensive export and there was a large spring that could supply the whole complex, something hardly to be believed that Bahrain in ancient time was the land of springs and honey.

The fort is maybe the best place in Bahrain, for tourist facilities with air-conditioned nice café, interpretive center, proper car park and good toilets. The complex also the most famous tourist attraction of Bahrain and popular among locals and tourists. Here I found more tourists than any places in this tiny kingdom. While there is no question for its outstanding universal value; the whole experience from the site is not quite match for its reputation. Maybe in my opinion, the fort is too much European than my original thought with only few elements of Arabic, so it was lacked exotic feel of Middle East, like I found in Nizwa or Bahla Forts in Oman.