Aali
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A'ali عالي |
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| Town | |
 A'ali
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| Coordinates: 26°09′07″N 50°31′32″E / 26.15194°N 50.52556°ECoordinates: 26°09′07″N 50°31′32″E / 26.15194°N 50.52556°E | |
| Country | Bahrain |
| Population | |
| • Total | 100,553 |
A'ali (Arabic: عالي) is one of the biggest towns in Bahrain. It was formerly a part of the municipality of Mintaqah but since 2001 lies within the Central Governorate. A'ali is famous for its ancient burial mounds, especially several very large burial mounds in the city centre. A'ali is also famous for its traditional handcrafted pottery, which can be seen and bought from different potters and boutiques in the town.
According to J. G. Lorimer's 1908 Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Aali was a considerable village situated 6 miles southwest of the Manama fort. The town consisted of 200 houses populated by the Baharna, whom were primarily pottery-makers and date palm cultivators. There were an estimated 8,250 date palms in the village and livestock included 35 donkeys & 10 cattle. Lorimer also mentions that the village was the site of the largest tumuli on the island
The burial mounds date to the Dilmun era (3200 BC-330 BC). The site was excavated by many foreign archaeological teams throughout the 20th century. An important group of artifacts was excavated by the British archaeologist Ernest Mackay and can now be found in the British Museum, London. It includes an unusual statuette of a nude women with curvaceous body dating from between 2000 and 1500 BC. The discovery of a "new and rare type of burial mound encircled by an outer ring wall" has led archaeologists to believe that specific mounds were made for the social elite, indicating that early Dilmun culture had a class system.
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Wikipedia