Significant Features
Dilmun Town:
Al Hakim Palace:
Tower Temple:
Hellenistic Fortress:
Al Khan or Dar Al Defaya:
Hellenistic Sanctuary:
- It is situated around Tell Sa'ad, a high hill which is south west of the island.
- Many houses are made of mud and rock with fairly small side by side rooms.
- These homes are painted in red and outside them ovens and water wells were found.
Al Hakim Palace:
- Al Hakim Palace is a very old palace uncovered only recently, it has pillars and rooms that are used as administrative offices.
- It is a beautifully structured place, with a workshop towards the west of the palace.
Tower Temple:
- The Tower Temple is east from the Hakim Palace and is also similarly square shaped and is made up of stone, it is even surrounded with a stone built drainage channel.
- This temple is filled with archeological finds such as knives, accessories and pottery.
- The Tower Temple and the Hakim Palace were also known as the central administration at that period in time.
Hellenistic Fortress:
- The Hellenistic Fortress is a semi square shaped fortress that dates back to the 3rd century BC, this fortress contains two temples known as Temple A and Temple B.
- Temple A is mainly used to worship the god Artemis, as you enter you see a 44 latin line stone slab scripted with the island's first name Ikaros.
- It was said that there were five stages of occupation in the fortress.
- The first two show the residence of mud and rock homes and two temples. Following these are the third and four stages in which lots of expansion took place, specifically in the northern side in which a new defines shelter and wall were built.
- Many new houses were added at this time, eternally attracting more residents and an increase in population.
- Finally in the fifth stage many military and defense buildings were abandoned, making the castle highly populated till the 1st Century BC.
Al Khan or Dar Al Defaya:
- Al Khan is a Tell located in between Sa'ad and Sae'ed.
- It is a building/structure with 12 rooms made up of mud-brick, one room was even used as a workshop for moulding statues and storing moulding tools.
- The purpose of this building was thought to be relaxation for the ship captains and sailors back then.
Hellenistic Sanctuary:
- The Hellenistic Sanctuary is on the north eastern side from the fortress.
- The building contains two rooms with a yard and it seems to be constructed in a manner in which religious activities seemed to have taken place.
- Lots of artifacts such as metal products, pottery products, stone products and such were found in this building, however its structure was not strong enough to stand the seas high waves and so was destroyed very easily.