The Diraz Temple
- Category
- Archeology & Heritage
- Area
- Diraz
- Timing:
- -
The important site of Diraz was an extensive Dilmun settlement before the rapid urbanisation in Bahrain since the 1980s. This archaeological site is today only preserved in its southwestern corner, and reduced to a remnant of about 700 sq. meters. It is located just to the north of Budaiya Highway. It was partly explored by a British Expedition in 1973-75, in cooperation with the Direction of Archaeology of Bahrain. This area has revealed a temple from the Dilmun period, probably built in the early 2nd millennium BCE. Its architectural elements differ not only from the temples of Mesopotamia but also from the nearby temple of Barbar.
The Diraz temple is not preserved in totality and it is almost impossible to define its original shape. A central part stood on cylindrical columns with a diameter of 120 cm, arranged in two rows. Nine of them still exist, preserved to a height of 60 cm. A square base is visible in the middle of the second row and could have been a statue base (?). At the East of this columned hall, a small quadrangular room was likely the worship room (cella) of the temple, equipped with a possible altar. A large rectangular room, which opened at the west of the columned hall, may also have been included in the temple building. Fragmentary clay vessels and two stamp seals in the classical Dilmun style were found at the Diraz site. Just to the east of the temple a later subterranean tomb was found, dated to the Kassite period with ongoing use in the Iron Age.
