Tuesday 26th February 2013 +4.0 hrs GMT: Bahrain City, Bahrain ­ The National Museum

Our last stop to the National Museum was sadly curtailed because of our sojourn in the lorry jam, which was a pity.  Our Zulu Guide, however, gave us a brief but very well explained tour.

The most famous of all Bahrain’s rich archaeological heritage are the 200,000 grave mounds discovered on the island that date back to the Bronze Age. The National Museum contains reconstructed burial mounds from the Dilmun and Tylos (About the time of Alexander the Great) civilisations. These mounds have been removed from the desert and reconstructed in the Museum.

There was also a very interesting social history section illustrating various aspects of local life form birth to marriage and beyond.  For example instead of a ‘hen do’ the old ladies met with the bride to advise her on how to behave and dress in married life and at birth the Mother would return to her Mother’s house to learn how to care for the child and only after four months was the baby presented to the father and siblings by the Grandmother showering it in sweets – scrabbled for by its siblings the new-born was endeared to them for life!!