During the Dilmun period (pre-500BC), people who died were buried in chambers and mounds of dirt were piled on top of them creating these burial mounds all over the country. I read about these early in studying about the country, then when I was at the Museum yesterday, saw all the history on it regarding the excavations and details of how and why they are there. As a huge fan of old cemeteries, I was excited to learn about these, and really wanted to try to go visit them at some point during our trip, but hadn't made it yet.
When we were driving back from the show today, we saw these on the side of the freeway, in between regular housing areas. I snapped a few quick pics with my cell phone. It is weird how they are just in the midst of the city, unprotected, unmarked, and accessible. For the most part. people do not mess with them - as it is in all senses a cemetery. However there has been some controversy about what to do with them. Unfortunately, the mounds are not respected by many in the country.
I found this blurp on Wikipedia about them:
Attempts to protect the burial mounds have run into opposition by religious fundamentalists who consider them unIslamic and have called for them to be concreted over for housing. During a parliamentary debate on 17 July 2005, the leader of the Salafist al Asalah party, Sheikh Adel Mouwda, said "Housing for the living is better than the graves for the dead. We must have pride in our Islamic roots and not some ancient civilization from another place and time, which has only given us a jar here and a bone there".
It seems pretty harsh the way it is worded and the blatant disrespect for gravesites that are over 2000 years old makes me sad, no matter the religion!
