What you will find in this article:
Qatar was the first destination of 2022, I traveled from December 31st to January 7th (spending New Year’s Eve at the airport!).
I flew Qatar Airways, departing from Malpensa.
Some introductory notes…
Qatar originates from Bedouin tribes who fought among themselves for supremacy. In 1800, the British elected one tribe among many to become a royal family, the Al-Thani, who still lead the country today.
Pearl fishing, a thousand-year-old activity, is inextricably linked to the country, in fact it was the main profession in Qatar until the discovery of oil. One of the most famous pearl merchants is Al-Fardan, a relative of the Emir, who founded the “The Pearl” neighborhood, inhabited by expats.
After the crisis of 1920, caused by the loss of the pearl business, Qatar discovered oil deposits and thus created a new business that would bring it to its current wealth and continued competition with other Gulf countries.
The main difference between the Emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Qatar is that the latter seeks to maintain its culture, despite the constant projection towards the future.
Qatar’s main roads were built in 2010, there was nothing there before. Most of the major construction work carried out in recent years is due to the country’s hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Seven stadiums were built, some of which were designed to be dismantled after the match and rebuilt in other, poorer countries.
As mentioned, the Al-Thani royal family has ruled the country for centuries, and the parents of the current Emir in particular are credited with leading Qatar to modernity: their mother, Mozah, has made a significant contribution to improving the status of women in the country, giving them access to education and choosing to remove her veil.
At the social level, the middle range does not exist: there are the high range, the low range and expats (Europeans and Americans who moved to Qatar for work).
Almost all high-end Qatari families have a holiday home, called a “farm”; these dwellings are large and conspicuous; the closer you get to the royal palace, the more majestic they are.
Qataris usually spend weekends with their families in the desert, and each child has a personal nanny. Servitude doesn’t cost much here, around 300-400 euros a month.
The symbol of Qatar is the orix, a typical desert animal, also the symbol of Qatar Airways.
What to see in Doha:
- Souq Waqif
- Falcon Hospital
- Horses Stables
- Camel Pen
- Corniche
- Museum of Islamic Art (MIA)
- Qatar National Museum
- The Pearl
- Katara Village
- Education City
What to see in the surroundings:
- Sheik Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum
- Al Jumail, the abandoned fishing village
- Al Zubarah fort
- Mangrove Forest and Purple Island
- Camel Race Track
- East–West/ West–East by Richard Serra
- Fort Zekreet ruins
- Khor Al Udaid desert and Inland Sea
DOHA…
Souq Waqif
This is the typical Arab market in the capital, traditional for the merchants’ guilds that display their goods but unique for the beauty of its alleys, you feel safe walking through them, which I cannot say of other souks visited. The Souq has been renovated on several occasions, most recently in 1950, when it was partially destroyed by fire.
Here you can find food products, typical dishes, fragrant and colorful spices, fabrics, carpets, perfumes, trunks, ceramics but also more commercial souvenirs. The Souq is also home to a pet section, ranging from chickens, birds, and bunnies to hawks and camels.
Souq Waqif is very popular with locals, as well as tourists, who populate quaint restaurants and cafes. The tourist can then immerse himself in the daily life of the city.
Falcon Hospital
Inside the Souq you will find this singular structure dedicated to the care of falcons, animals beloved by the Qatari people.
In Qatar, hawks are traditionally donated by parents to their sons to celebrate reaching adolescence, as the falcon is a symbol of power. In ancient times, falcons were used for hunting, and nobles still practice it today.
Falcon Hospital was founded in 2008, provides H24 care and can accommodate up to 150 specimens per day.
Horses Stables and Camel Pen
Near Souq Waqif there are also the Emir’s stables with elegant Arabian horses, always open to the public, and the enclosure of friendly camels.
Corniche
The beautiful seaside promenade that connects West Bay, the city’s financial center, to the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) is called “Corniche.”
The sunset is striking, with the view of the dhows, traditional wooden boats moored along the route, in the background the ultra-modern skyscrapers of West Bay, all lulled by the blue waters of Doha Bay.
The dhow was the boat used for pearl fishing, an activity to which Qatar owes its wealth, practiced until the discovery of oil. At the National Museum of Qatar there is an area dedicated to the history and evolution of this important Qatari tradition.
At the ancient port, located along the Corniche, a sculpture in the shape of a giant oyster with a pearl inside was created, precisely to pay homage to the city’s past.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to cover the full 7 km because roadworks were underway ahead of the 2023 World Championships.
If you have the chance, I recommend renting a dhow at sunset and sailing in the bay with the skyscrapers in the background, the spectacle is breathtaking.
Museum of Islamic Art (MIA)
The MIA is the work of architect Ieoh Ming Pei, who also designed the glass pyramid in the Louvre. The structure, an interlocking of geometric volumes, was designed with the aim of paying homage to the mosque in Cairo and the Alhambra in Granada.
Symbolically, the cube at the top represents the eyes of a woman with the typical veil on her head looking to the future with the past behind her, in fact her gaze is turned towards the new city, with her back to the old city.
The museum is located at the end of the Corniche, and houses ancient and modern Islamic cultural artifacts.
Unfortunately, I was unable to visit it because it was temporarily closed.
Qatar National Museum
The National Museum of Qatar, also known as the “Rose in the Desert” for its shape that reproduces the characteristic rock formations, was designed by Jean Nouvel and its peculiarity, in addition to its shape, is that the structure is made up of more than 76 thousand panels of different shapes.
Inside, the museum narrates the history of Qatar from prehistoric times to the present day. Among the most precious objects on display are the oldest Quran and a pearl-embroidered carpet worth over €1.7 million. As mentioned, an area within the museum is dedicated to pearl fishing, a traditional Qatari activity that has marked the nation’s economic development. The exhibition spaces are highly technological and interactive, I think it is one of the best organized museums I have ever visited.
The museum’s goal is to enhance the town’s potential and wealth, starting from its origins.
The Pearl
It is an artificial island, built at the behest of Al Fardan, a relative of the emir, starting in 2004, whose shape recalls that of a pearl. It is one of the most luxurious areas of the city, with futuristic skyscrapers, Renaissance-style villas, exclusive restaurants and boutiques of big names, such as the Ferrari dealership. You will even find the reproduction of the canals of Venice.
European and American expats live here, and there are green spaces, pedestrian areas, and cycling areas, unlike the rest of the city.
Katara Cultural Village
Katara Cultural Village is a multicultural center founded in 2010 by Sheikh Mozah, mother of the current Emir of Qatar, to promote the country’s culture and tradition. The name “Katara” is due to the fact that Qatar was formerly called “Catara”, later distorted by the French into “Katara”.
Inside the village you will find shops, delicious restaurants, trendy places to frequent especially in the evening, with a particular atmosphere. Among the main attractions is an open-air amphitheater where numerous cultural events such as concerts, shows, film screenings and documentaries take place.
In the square located to the left of the antifitheater you will see three faces of soldiers reproducing the famous “I don’t see, I don’t hear, I don’t speak” monkeys, sculptures made with kitchen utensils, a permanent exhibition of an artist who wanted to represent the horrors of war. Instead the statue in front of the fountains represents Mother Nature overcoming catastrophes.
The village has several mosques, I recommend visiting the Katara Mosque, inspired by the most famous mosques in the world, characterized by blue and gold tiles, designed by Zeynep Fadilloglu, a young Turkish architect, the first to specialize in this type of religious building. Next to the mosque you will find two unusual tower structures, the Pigeon Towers, with holes and supports to house pigeons.
Education City
Education City is Doha’s main university complex, built with funding from the Qatar Foundation and home to various branches of U.S., British, and French universities as well as local educational and research institutions.
In 1995, the royal family created the Qatar Foundation: the foundation aims to achieve economic sustainability through innovation in training and research.
Education City opened in 2003 with the opening of the first Qatar Foundation university, the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar.
With the recent construction of the Education City Stadium and in light of the various initiatives it has participated in, the city is becoming a greener and more sustainable place. Education City Stadium will be one of the venues for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Two buildings that certainly deserve a mention are the Qatar National Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas’ OMA, which measures 45,000 square meters and is among the most technological in the world, and the Education City Mosque, located in the Minaretein Building, part of the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, the building that rests on five large columns representing the five pillars of Islam, the spiral plan and the different paths that connect the school to the mosque suggest the idea that all knowledge comes fundamentally from faith.
… AND SURROUNDINGS
Sheik Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum
This is the house-museum of the emir’s uncle, Sheik Faisal Bin Qassim, who wanted to make it accessible to the public. All prominent Qataris traditionally own a house outside the city, a sort of holiday home.
The building houses the personal collection of the sheikh, who had begun collecting objects since the age of 13.
The museum was founded in 1998 and houses over 15,000 artifacts dating from the Jurassic period to the present day.
Among the most famous pieces we find the carpet that for a time covered the sacred stone of Mecca, the largest Quran in the world and also the smallest one (in the section dedicated to Islamic Sacred Art), a wing of the building dedicated to wooden inlaid furniture from Sri Lanka and India, traditional clothing (note that in the past the clothes were colorful, today, however, men wear white tunic and women wear black dress), the paleontology area with dinosaur skeletons, classic cars and the first Qatar Airways plane.
Also not to be missed are a traditional Syrian house specially transported from Damascus and recreated and two models of Qatari houses containing objects from the home of Sheikh Faisal himself.
Al Jumail, the abandoned fishing village
Not much is known about this village, except that it dates back to the early 18th century and was inhabited until 1935, when pearl fishing was abandoned due to the discovery of oil. Until then, fishing had been practiced, particularly pearl fishing, an activity that, however, was only aimed at the wealthy, as it required possession of a dhow.
Al Zubarah fort
Al Zubarah was a popular pearl fishing spot and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fort was built in 1938 for the coast guard and was used until the 1980s.
Mangrove Forest and Purple Island
In northeastern Qatar lies a natural area in stark contrast to the surrounding desert, a dense mangrove forest that can be visited by kayak, inhabited by herons and flamingos.
From the Mangroves Forest, by kayak you can reach Purple Island, a small island within Al Khor Bay famous for being home to snails that extracted the purple dye, from which the island takes its name.
Camel Race Track
Camel racing is the national sport of Qatar.
The tradition of camel racing began at weddings as a form of entertainment, but today it has been a multimillion-dollar business since running became a professional sport in Qatar in the early 1970s.
People come from all over Qatar, the Gulf region, and around the world to participate in camel races or simply to enjoy this competitive sport, which takes place at Qatar’s famous camel track located in Al Shahaniya, an hour’s drive from Doha in the desert to the north of the country.
National and international tournaments are held here every Friday, between October and February, as well as major events such as the Emir’s Race, which takes place between March and April.
Until 2004, jockeys were malnourished Sudanese children, raised in the desert in poor conditions, used due to their size and weight. Qatar has banned the use of child jockeys since 2005, and remote-controlled robot jockeys have since been used to entertain the public by riding camels along the sandy circuit. Racing camels are small, running at speeds of up to 65 km/h and can continue running at 48 km/h for up to an hour. The operator remote controls the jockey so that he pulls the reins and encourages the camel by screaming through a built-in speaker.
Near the track, about 8km long, is the three-lane road: the closest to the track is occupied by the press, the central one by the royal family and the outermost one by other spectators.
Winning consists of prizes, such as cars, as Islam does not allow betting.
East–West/ West–East by Richard Serra
In the Zekreet Desert you can admire the imposing work of the sculptor Richard Serra: a sculpture composed of four enormous steel structures, each over fourteen meters high, forming a straight line across the desert over a kilometer long, in complete harmony with the topography of the place.
Ruins of Zekreet Fort
Dating back to the 19th century, Zeekret Fort contains remains of old settlements, in a magical setting, deserted with the sea in the background.
Khor Al Udaid desert and Inland Sea
In the south of the country, about 100 km from Doha, there is a wonderful nature reserve where the desert meets the water, in fact here is what is called the “Inland Sea”, inland sea, a large salt lagoon immersed in a unique tropical environment.
The most common way to reach this area is via a 4×4 excursion with a driver. Along the way, you can dune bash your Jeep in the desert and reach the point where you can see Saudi Arabia on the other side of the Persian Gulf.
I opted for the night in the desert and when I arrived in the tented camp I had the opportunity to try sand boarding (even if the slope of the dunes at the camp was shallow and consequently the speed of sliding), watch the hawk show and enjoy a good dinner, before sleeping under the stars.
Seven-Day Qatar Tour
I illustrate the route day by day below, hoping it will be a useful starting point for anyone who wants to embark on this journey. Seven days is more than enough to discover the country without any worries, especially if you travel in winter, when it is too cold to bathe.
Day 1
A) Souq Waqif
B) Falcon hospital
C) Horses stables
D) Camel pen
E) Corniche and dhow
F) Islamic Art Museum (MIA)
G) Qatar National Museum
H) The Pearl
From A to G the route is walkable, while to reach H you can use the metro, or a taxi.
Day 2
A) Katara village
B) The Pearl
C) Education city: Qatar National library
D) Education city Mosque
The metro can be used for travel from one point to another.
Day 3
A) Sheik Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum
B) Abandoned fishing village of Al Jumail, near Al Jamil
C) Al Zubarah Fort
D) Mangrove forest and Purple Island
For this route, you need to rent a vehicle, as Qatar is not served by public transport outside Doha.
Day 4
A) Camel Race Track
B) East–West/ West–East by Richard Serra
C) Ruins of Zekreet Fort
D) Corniche: dhow cruise
As with day 3, in this case too it is necessary to rent a vehicle, preferably a 4X4 jeep with a driver, because there are sections of the route right in the middle of the desert.
Days 5 – 6
A) Souk Waqif
B) Khor Al Udaid desert with dune bashing
C) Inland sea: night on tented pitch and sand boarding
On this route, it is essential to rent a jeep with a driver, because almost the entire route is in the desert.
In conclusion
I’ll leave you just a few photos of the excellent food I tasted…
… and a curiosity: these are photographs taken on the metro (the one showing me under the sign with the name of the stop reminds me that in the past I collaborated in the design of this station 🙂 ), as you can see, there are carriages intended for men only, defined as “standard”, while all the other people fall into the “family” (single women, married women accompanied by their husband, women with children…). I’ll leave the comments to you!
