A'ali ( ar, عالي) is a major town in northern
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
. It is a part of the
Northern Governorate
The Northern Governorate ( ar, المحافظة الشمالية , translit=Al-Muḥāfaẓat aš-Šamālīyah) is one of the four governorates of Bahrain. It includes parts of the former municipalities of Al Mintaqah al Gharbiyah, Al Mint ...
, although from 2001 to 2014 it lay within the
Central Governorate. A'ali is famous for its
ancient burial mounds, especially several very large burial mounds in the city centre.
A'ali is also famous for its traditional handcrafted
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...
, which can be seen and bought from different potters and boutiques in the whole town.
History
Dilmun era
![Burial Mounds in Bahrain 1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Burial_Mounds_in_Bahrain_1918.jpg)
The
burial mounds
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...
date to the
Dilmun
Dilmun, or Telmun, ( Sumerian: , later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠), ni.tukki = DILMUNki; ar, دلمون) was an ancient East Semitic-speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the 3rd millennium BC onwards.
Based on contextual evidence, it was ...
era (3200 BC-330 BC). In February 1889 some of the mounds were investigated by the British explorer
J. Theodore Bent and his wife
Mabel. The site was then excavated by many foreign archaeological teams throughout the 20th century. An important group of artifacts was excavated by the British archaeologist
Ernest Mackay
Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include:
People
* Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
* Ernest, ...
and can now be found in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, London. It includes an unusual statuette of a nude woman with a curvaceous body dating from between 2000 and 1500 BC. The discovery of a "new and rare type of burial mound encircled by an outer ring wall" has led
archaeologists to believe that specific mounds were made for the
social elite, indicating that early Dilmun culture had a class system.
20th century
According to
J. G. Lorimer's 1908
Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf
The ''Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia'' (nicknamed ''Lorimer'') is a two-volume encyclopedia compiled by John Gordon Lorimer. The ''Gazetteer'' was published in secret by the British government in India in 1908 and 1915 a ...
, A'ali was a considerable village situated 6 miles southwest of the
Manama
Manama ( ar, المنامة ', Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is home to a very di ...
fort. The town consisted of 200 houses populated by the
Baharna
The Baharna ( ar, بحارنة) are the indigenous Shia Muslim inhabitants of Bahrain who inhabited the area before the arrival of Sunni Muslim Arab tribes from Najd, particularly by Banu Utbah in the 18th century which the Bahraini royal fami ...
, who were primarily pottery-makers and date palm cultivators. There were an estimated 8,250 date palms in the village and livestock included 35 donkeys & 10 cattle. Lorimer also mentions that the village was the site of the largest
tumuli
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...
on the island
Geography
A'ali is located in the middle of
Bahrain Island
Bahrain Island ( ar, جزيرة البحرين ''Jazīrah al-Baḥrayn''), also known as al-Awal Island and formerly as Bahrein, is the largest island within the archipelago of Bahrain, and forms the bulk of the country's land mass while hosting ...
(al-awal island), south of
Isa Town and north of
Riffa. Its name (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
: عالي) translates to “high” in English and refers to the town’s high elevation from sea level. It lays approximately 15 km (9.3 miles) southwest of the capital
Manama
Manama ( ar, المنامة ', Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is home to a very di ...
.
Controversy
The mounds have been a source of controversy in
Bahraini politics; in July 2008, the municipal council chairman of the
central governorate called for the demolition of 62 ancient burial mounds to make way for the construction of a nearby
junction
Junction may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Junction'' (film), a 2012 American film
* Jjunction, a 2002 Indian film
* Junction (album), a 1976 album by Andrew Cyrille
* Junction (EP), by Basement Jaxx, 2002
* Junction (manga), or ''Hot ...
. In 2009, the construction of a
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
dedicated to the history of the mounds and of A'ali was announced.
See also
*
Bahrain Fort
The Qal'at al-Bahrain ( ar, قلعة البحرين; pt, 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 antiqui ...
*
Arad Fort
__NOTOC__
Arad Fort ( ar, قلعة عراد, ''Qal'at 'Arad'') is a 15th-century fort in Arad, Bahrain. Formerly guarding a separate island of its own, the fort and its surroundings have since been joined to Muharraq Island.
Arad Fort was built ...
*
Riffa Fort
Riffa Fort ( ar, قلعة الرفاع, Qal'at ar-Rifa') is a fort in Riffa, Bahrain.
History
It was built during the reign of Sheikh Salman bin Ahmed Al Fateh Al Khalifa in 1812. In the 19th century the fort was a residence for Sheikh Sa ...
*
List of cities in Bahrain
References
{{Reflist
Populated places in Bahrain
Populated places established in the 1970s