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The rebuilding stayed faithful to the original design of the fort. The arrows slits were
remade, wherever it was necessary, in exactly the same location as the hcllcnistic arrow slits.
The defenses were strengthened by the building of a bastion wall which, extending out from
the North-West angle of the fortress, followed the coastal defenses westward. From this
period, a stock of naphtha-covered pebbles have been found, intended as projectiles against
attackers coming from the sea. A small celadon pot, found among these projectiles, dates them
to the end of the 13th Century.

Despite the care lavished on the construction of the fort at Bahain, at the date which can be
placed between the end of the 11 thand the beginning of the 13th Century, the building was not
used for any length of time. Perhaps it was considered to be too small or too old. Above all, it
suffered from being situated too close to the sea. Indeed its North-East tower, when it was
excavated in 1976-77, already appeared to have been badly damaged by marine erosion at an
earlier date.

It is known that the height of sea level was a little lower during the hcllcnistic period, and
that the level has continued to increase since that time. One might therefore suppose that,
when the fort was constructed in the 3rd Century BC., it was placed well away from the
shoreline so as not to be exposed to severe storms or very high tides. Sixteen centuries later
this was no longer the ease, and doubtless the collapse of the North-East tower of the building
before the attack of the sea led to the fort being abandoned, and the construction of a new fort
some distance inland.

■vt

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The lslamico - Portuguese fortress at Qal’at al-Bahrain

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