Dubai (AFP)
On Saturday, UNESCO inscribed on the World Heritage List thousands of tombs of the Dilmoun civilization in Bahrain, built between 2050 and 1750 BC, hailed for their "unique characteristics in the world".
Located in the west of the kingdom, these tombs are grouped on 21 archaeological sites, six of which are "necropolises comprising a few tens to several thousand tumuli, a total of 11,774 graves," said UNESCO in a statement published on its website.
"Fifteen other sites include 17 royal tombs built as two-storey sepulchral towers," added the UN organization, whose World Heritage Committee met in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Unesco salutes the "unique characteristics" of the pits "by their number, density and scale but also by the presence of details such as funerary chambers with alcoves".
The civilization of Dilmoun reigned over the archipelago of Bahrain between 2500 and 1800 BC.
"The graves testify to the early Dilmun civilization around the second millennium BC, during which Bahrain became a commercial hub whose prosperity allowed the inhabitants to develop a complex burial tradition applied to the entire population", explains Unesco.
According to the Bahrain BNA news agency, this is the third site of the emirate to be on UNESCO's World Heritage List, after Qalat el Bahrain, the former port and capital of Dilmoun, and the sites of pearling activities in the city of Muharraq (north).
The tombs of the Dilmoun civilization are "tangible proof of Bahrain's outstanding cultural heritage," said the president of the Kingdom's Authority for Culture and Antiquities, Sheikha Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, according to BNA.
? 2019 AFP