Tarout Island

If you would like to look at the deep past of Eastern Saudi Arabia, I recommend you to visit the castle.  Tarut or Tarout means goodness and beauty in the Semitic languages. Historians differ on the correct name for it. The name variations include "TARO","THARRO" or "TWARO" in Greek literature, including the famous "Ptolemy’s Geography". Additionally, the town’s name is recorded as "TARU" in historical Chinese texts and "Ashtarut" in Arabic history. Today, however, most of the new researchers argue that the correct name is "Ashtarut" because the Canaanites and Phoenicians, who originally lived there, idolized the beauty of the town and called it Ashtarut. The term Ashtarut is also very similar to the new name Tarut , if we delete the first syllable.   Tarut Island has survived for thousands of years and its antiquities prove that it was inhabited since the Stone Age, approximately 5000 B.C. It died several civilizations ago and was part of many Empires and countries. Some of them were before Christ, such as Dilmun, the Akkadian country, theAssyrian country, and the Persian Empire. Others were after Christ such as the Persian Empire, the Islamic country, the Portuguese Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Now, Tarut Island belongs to Qatif city in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. It was a place of economic migration because of its important strategic location and it was a trade center between Indian contraries, the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq. In addition, it has a lot of natural resources, including pearl fisheries and date farms.   Tarut Castle is the most famous castle in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and the oldest castle in the Persian Gulf. Tarut castle was built by the Portuguese in the 16th century, on the rubble from an event 5 thousand years before. It is located in the center of Tarut Island in Ishtarut near a waterhole known as Al-Awda in the sixteenth century. Later, it was fenced in. Moreover, it is located on beautiful main streets near shops and main services. It is even now fighting Nature’s force, age, and negligence to remain an important emblem of antiquities and heritage not only in our valuable country but worldwide. On the towers of the castle, the viewer can see most of the island, its shores and gardens from every direction, and can see where the blue of the sky meets the blueness of the sea and the greenness of the land.