Bahrain National Museum
The Bahrain National Museum was officially inaugurated by the late Amir H.H. Shaikh Isa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa on 15 December 1988. It was considered one of the finest museums of its kind in the Gulf region. Today, the Bahrain National Museum is one of the island’s main cultural landmarks. Conceived and designed by Krohn and Hartvig Rasmussen, the outstanding building is characterized by its white travertine marble facade and is centrally located on an artificial peninsula overlooking the island of Muharraq. The museum complex is composed of two connected buildings with approximately 20,000 square meters of floor space. The main building houses the permanent exhibition area, temporary exhibition halls, an art gallery, a lecture hall, a gift shop, and a café. The administrative offices, curatorial research areas, conservation laboratories, exhibition construction, and collection storage areas are located in the administrative building. The Museum is the repository of 6000 years of Bahrain’s history. The story of Bahrain comes to life in the Halls of Graves, Dilmun, Tylos and Islam, Customs and Traditions, Traditional Trades and Crafts, and Documents and Manuscripts. The exhibition halls, located on the ground and first floors, are accessed by the grand foyer, a large dramatic space accented by shafts of natural light, which hosts the exhibition, “Investing in Culture”.
The Qal'at al-Bahrain (Arabic: قلعة البحرين; Portuguese: Forte de Barém), also known as the Bahrain Fort or Portuguese Fort, is an archaeological site located in Bahrain. Archaeological excavations carried out since 1954 have unearthed antiquities from an artificial mound of 12 m (39 ft) height containing seven stratified layers, created by various occupants from 2300 BC up to the 18th century, including Kassites, Greeks, Portuguese and Persians. It was once the capital of the Dilmun civilization and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. The fort and the tell Qal'at al-Bahrain is built on, are located on the Bahrain island, on the northern seashore. On a clear day it is also seen from Saar. It stands like a "sentinel" near Manama, the capital of Bahrain; it is 6 km (4 mi) away from Manama on the fertile north coast. The tell is the largest in the Persian Gulf region and was built close to the port and by reclamation of seashore land. The archaeological findings, which are unearthed in the fort,reveal much about the history of the country. The area is thought to have been occupied for about 5000 years and contains a valuable insight into the Copper and Bronze Ages of Bahrain.
