Mleiha Archaeological Centre

The archaeological abbreviation given to the Mleiha Fort, the landmark of the ancient city which is visible from the Mleiha-Madam road. The site was first discovered in 1990 during digging to create trenches for a water pipeline installation. Before excavation the fort had been hidden under a road’s embankments.

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The famous Horse with the Golden Disks was discovered in the corridor to this grave site. To date, this has been the most valuable finds from the entire Mleiha site as it was one of the first to display traits of the famous breed of Arabian horse. The camels buried at this site were a hybrid between a dromedary and a two-humped camel, known for their superior strength.

A large complex, built of mud-brick walls, situated 250m south-east of the Mleiha fort. The site was partially reconstructed and covers a total area of 35m x 25m. At first glance it appears to be a single large building but in fact MLH-4 comprises five residential units with separate entrances. Each of the five units at MLH-4 contains a number of different sized rooms.

Building Unit No.5

This unit is located on the south-western corner of the complex and comprises eight rooms of various shapes and dimensions. The largest room was found to contain a large number of pottery shards and grinding stones.

Objects found in these units suggest the whole building was used for domestic purposes. Excavation uncovered a large number of pottery shards as well as some jars but perhaps most interesting were the personal adornments discovered. These included a small pendant made of a rectangular piece of dark soft-stone and wrapped with two bands of gold foil, another pendant made of bronze in the shape of a human hand and a pendant made of frit in the shape of a standing human.