DUBAI: The UNESCO World Heritage Committee added Bahrain’s Dilmun Burial Mounds to the World Heritage List on Saturday for its “globally unique characteristics.”
The burial grounds, located in the western part of the island nation, include 21 archeological sites built between 2050 and 1750 BC, which demonstrate evidence of the early Dilmun civilization, when Bahrain became a trade hub.
“These tombs illustrate globally unique characteristics, not only in terms of their number, density and scale, but also in terms of details such as burial chambers equipped with alcoves,” UNESCO said in a statement.
Sheikha Mai bint Mohammed Al-Khalifa, president of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, said “that the Dilmun Burial Mounds is a living proof of Bahrain’s distinguished cultural heritage,” the Bahrain News Agency reported.
The landmark includes six burial mound fields that consist of a few dozen to a several thousand tumuli. The other 15 include 13 single royal mounds and two pairs of royal mounds spread across various towns in Madinat Hamad, Janabiyah and A’ali.
The Dilmun Burial Mounds is Bahrain’s third World Heritage Site, after Ancient Qal’at al-Bahrain Harbor City and Capital of Dilmun in 2005 and the Offshore Pearling Sites in Muharraq in 2012.
