Took what ended up being a really cool (and unintentionally private) tour around Manama today to soak in a little culture, starting with the Qal’at Al-Bahrain fort right in the edge of town. This fort was created by the Dilmun people circa 2250 BC when it was a village housing traders, morphed into an urban center on the Hellenic trade routes around 325 BC, was re-populated and purposed as a date molasses/exports hub in the Islamic period circa 1250 AD, and finally ended up as a Portuguese fortified fort in 1561 AD. This span of land has been busy.