Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Manama
The fort and Muharraq in six hours
Four thousand years of tell at Qal'at al-Bahrain, then the pearling houses across the causeway.
The three-hour route covers the souq and the grand mosque. This is the older island and the older story: a fort mound at Qal'at al-Bahrain occupied continuously since 2300 BC and the capital of the Dilmun civilisation, and then Muharraq, where the pearling economy that built Bahrain has left a UNESCO-listed trail of merchants' houses. Both are short taxi rides and neither is crowded.
The route, stop by stop
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Qal'at al-Bahrain
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
A tell 12 metres high and 300 across, built up over 4,000 years of occupation, with a Portuguese fort on top as the most recent layer of many. The site museum beside it holds what came out of the mound, including a 3rd-millennium burial, and faces the excavation through a glass wall.
110 min here Walk here → -
Siyadi House
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
A pearl merchant's house of 1850 on the UNESCO-listed Pearling Path, with stained glass and carved gypsum, and the clearest surviving record of where the money went.
55 min here Walk here → -
Bu Maher Fort
The small fort at the end of the pearling path, on the point where the pearling fleet put to sea. Reached by a short boat ride.
45 min here Walk here → -
Arad Fort
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
A 15th-century Arab fort in the classic Islamic square plan, floodlit at night and standing in shallow water at high tide.
50 min here Walk here →
More in Manama
Every walking route in Manama, or the full Manama guide for where to stay and what a day costs.