Gerrha

Gerrha (Arabic جرحاء), was an ancient city of Arabia, on the west side of the Persian Gulf. More accurately, the ancient city of Gerrha has been determined to have existed near or under the present fort of Uqair. This fort is 50 miles northeast of Al-Hasa in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. This site was first proposed by Major R. E. Cheesman CBE in 1924. Gerrha and Uqair are archaeological sites on the eastern coast of the Arabian peninsula only 60 miles from the ancient burial grounds of Dilmun on the island of Bahrain. (The Gulf in Antiquity, Vol. II. Potts, p. 56, Looking for Dilmun, Geoffrey Bibby, p. 7).

Prior to Gerrha, the area belonged to the Dilmun civilization, which was conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 709 BC. Gerrha was the center of an Arab kingdom from approximately 650 BC to circa 300 AD (See references). The kingdom was attacked by Antiochus III the Great in 205-204 BC, though it seems to have survived. It's currently unknown exactly when Gerrha fell, but the area was under Sassanid Persian control after 300 AD.

Gerrha was described by Strabo (Bk. xvi.) as inhabited by Chaldean exiles from Babylon, who built their houses of salt and repaired them by the application of salt water. Pliny (lust. Nat. vi. 32) says it was 5 miles in circumference with towers built of square blocks of salt.

Various identifications of the site have been attempted, JPB D'Anville choosing El Katif, Carsten Niebuhr preferring Kuwait and C Forster suggesting the ruins at the head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrain.

References