Artefacts found during excavation of this settlement indicate that it was established around AD 1000 AD, occupied 120 hectares and was abandoned around 1600. Its residents made their living mainly through fishing and pearl diving. The site – now referred to as Harireh Ancient City – comprises the remains of a large house with private qanat (underground water channel), a public hammam and a congregational mosque. It was originally positioned next to a busy commercial port; you can still see access stairs cut into the rocky cliff, as well as rock-cut wells and channels that were part of workshops producing date nectar, once one of the island’s major exports.
Harireh is an easy bicycle ride west of the port; to get here by minibus alight at Olympic Sq and walk north.
