The Portuguese Fort (See photo) was built in the 14th Century to protect the trade routes between Africa, Asia and Europe and was built over and from the stones of the ancient Dilmun capital. The trunks of palm trees were laid over the ancient walls so that the Fort could be built above.
In one of the old towers our guide who had been coy about her origins – but clearly not local – revealed her identify by performing a folk song in the clicking tongue of the Xhosa her ethnic origin as a Zulu from South Africa. The hall had perfect acoustics for this rendition.
Another interesting fact about this hall was that it was used to store palm dates – the staple diet in earlier times for this region. They were packed high over palm leaves to act as a filtre and over time the dates released their ‘honey oil’ which ran-off through channels to reservoir and eventually made into palm wine.
Sometimes I wonder about my fellow guests since our guide having performed this Zulu folk song and explained about the dates he asked, “I don’t understand the connection between the song and dates!” This brought forth the inevitable groan from others in the party. Luckily he left the cruise at Dubai.
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