The archaeological sites are located in Bat, Al-Khutm, and Al-Ayn in the Sultanate of Oman in the Al-Dhahirah region, close to the borders of the United Arab Emirates.
Located inside a palm grove, these historical sites are one of the most complete and well-preserved colonies and necropoleis from the third millennium B.C. The main site spreads on part of the modern village of Bat in the Wadi Sharsah, eastside of Ibri city, in northwestern Oman. This sumptuous heritage is a display of monumental towers, rural habitats, burial vaults, and necropoleis in an excellent state of preservation. Even though the passing of time and erosion have slightly altered some of the monuments, the archeological site remains in exceptional condition which makes it an important world cultural heritage. The sites of Bat, Al-Khutm, and Al-Ayn shelter two different groups of funeral monuments. The first one is a series of beehive tombs from the Hafit and Umm Al Nar periods. The second extends on a river terrace and includes more than a hundred dry-stone burials. With some of them rising up to 6 meters high, the early bronze age funeral towers are visible from all over the Sultanate of Oman. Bat and its surroundings are an astounding display of intact, authentic, and very ancient monuments. Although Al-Ayn is a small necropolis, it is in the best conserved of the other ones.
The sites of Bat, Al-Khutm, and Al-Ayn are a characteristic and unique testimony to the ancient populations of Oman, to the evolution of funerary practices and social mutations in the Oman peninsula.