Al Zubarah Archaeological Site
Location: Al Shamal Date of Inscription: 2013
Al Zubarah is a walled coastal town founded by merchants from Kuwait and had trading links across the Indian Ocean, Arabia and Western Asia. It flourished as a pearling and trading centre from the late 18th century to the early 19th century before being destroyed in 1811 and abandoned in the early 1900s. The town was one of the many prosperous fortified trading towns developed in the Persian Gulf around the 9th century AD. The remains of the site have been well-preserved by a layer of sand blown over from the nearby desert and is the only remaining complete urban plan of an Arabian pearling town; the site stands as an exceptional testimony to the trading activities that sustained the coastal towns and exemplifies the foundations that eventually led to the creation of modern-day Gulf states. Only a small part of the town has been excavated and among the remains are palaces, streets, courtyard houses, mosques, fishermen’s huts, a harbour, double defence walls, a canal, walls and cemeteries. Remains of Zubarah Fort, built by Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani in 1938 to serve as a coast guard station, was later restored as a musuem to display findings uncovered in the nearby Al Zubarah archaeological site.