ABU DHABI // Experts have found the key they believe could unlock the secret history of Abu Dhabi’s oldest building.
The conservation team restoring the outer walls of Qasr Al Hosn have uncovered structural remains that may be the foundations of an early part of the palace fort, as well as pieces of pottery.
The finds are particularly important because there are so few written records of Qasr Al Hosn’s past.
“Conservation is not just about the building above ground,” said Peter Sheehan, historic buildings manager at Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority.
The restoration team has been working on the project for six years. They are still in the stages of evaluating and investigating how best to preserve the fort and searching for archaeological evidence of its history.
Visitors to the Qasr Al Hosn Festival next month will be able to see parts of the conservation work in guided tours, for the first time in years.
Qasr Al Hosn’s shimmering coral, sea stone and seashell walls once led mariners centuries ago to nickname it the White Fort, said Mark Powell Kyffin, head of architecture at the authority, who has led the restoration process.
And though it is now a brighter white, the team hope to remove the outer facade to restore and better preserve the structure for future generations.
Qasr Al Hosn’s location made it ideal as the base watchtower to protect Abu Dhabi island and its water sources. The local Bani Yas tribes of Liwa Oasis built the watchtower around 1761.
The tribes used coral and sea stone to build the wall’s bricks, then crushed seashells and other materials to make mortar. A rope was used to reach the top.
Outer walls were added in about 1800 to form the fort. Throughout the following centuries, the ruling Al Nahyan family used the fort for administration and as a residence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan, during his rule, added further renovations to what had become a palace. Sheikh Zayed, the founder of the UAE, then ordered the grounds to be used only for administration in the 1960s. The fort grounds would later house the police and the Centre for Documentation and Research.
“The building is a physical timeline of the history of Abu Dhabi,” Mr Kyffin said.
In the 1980s, the inner fort was renovated and layers of cement and thick, white gypsum were added to cover the walls for aesthetic purposes.
But the team worry that the outer render is suffocating the 250-year-old structure’s walls in a way that traps moisture inside and causes corrosion, particularly with the water table only about a metre below. The original building materials were porous and could more easily absorb humidity and heat from the sun, Mr Sheehan said.
He said the team had to remove the white covering in some areas, but not all. Then they will try to restore the original walls, a process they are still researching.
The Bani Yas had used local materials that were readily available to them. But today, procuring coral from the nearby reefs would be an ethical problem, as environmental stresses such as pollution and runoff have threatened coral colonies.
Mr Sheehan said they could still use sea stone, though the team have not yet settled on a plan for what exact materials to use.
They also hope that from their investigations they can learn more about Abu Dhabi and Qasr Al Hosn’s history. Written records from the period are scarce, though Mr Kyffin said they have consulted oil company archives and Trucial Oman scouts to gather primary sources for their research.
The efforts underline the importance of Qasr Al Hosn to the modern city’s history, team members said.
“It’s not an exaggeration to see Qasr Al Hosn as the soul of Abu Dhabi or the core from which it grew,” Mr Sheehan said.
lcarroll@thenational.ae
