Light is the thing here, so plan around it. In the middle of the day the plateau at A'ali is a flat white glare, the mounds melt into the gravel and the heat presses down. At sunrise and the last hour before sunset, though, the low sun rakes across the surface, throwing every ridge and hollow into relief, and Royal Mound 1 turns a warm honey colour against a pale sky. Photographers know this, and you may find one or two waiting.
The mound is the first of the numbered royal tombs, part of a group of seventeen or so large mounds at the northern end of the A'ali cemetery. It is built of limestone slabs and rubble, and its dome has weathered over four thousand years into a rounded hill. At the base, you can still see the remains of the retaining wall that held the structure together. A modern fence and a low path mark the edge of the protected area, and on a quiet day the only sound is the wind.
Riding here is straightforward. The roads in and out are paved and flat, with the occasional sandy shoulder where cars have pulled off, and the nearby housing estates of Madinat Isa mean there are few long empty stretches. In the early morning the air can feel cool and damp near the coast, and a thin haze often hangs over the plateau until the sun burns it away. In winter, when the temperature falls to the low teens at night, a jacket liner is welcome.
For fuel, food and anything else, Madinat Isa is minutes away, and Bahrain's compact size means nowhere on the island is more than half an hour from a petrol station. The king's palace and the Riffa district lie to the south, and the old pearling town of Muharraq, with its traditional merchant houses, is a short ride north.