Doha

At first you might be thinking, where in the world is Doha? Well, if you back up 200 years, it was not even a city on a map. About 100 years ago, pearl divers set up camp, off a bay, on the east side of the Arabian Peninsula. Today Doha stands where the pearl divers lived.

New Doha Skyline

Doha is the capitol of Qatar (kaa-tar), a small country that juts out of the Arabian Peninsula like a thumb. It sits between the Arabian Gulf (or the Persian Gulf, depending on which side you are on) and Saudi Arabia to the south. The original people that inhabited Qatar were Sunni Bedouins from what is now Saudi Arabia, thus the language, Arabic.

On the Corniche. Its where locals come in the evening to walk and relax.

When I visited Doha, I was amazed at the contrast of the old historical east side and the new high-rise west side of the city. The skyline that is there now was built in only six years beginning in 2005 and is still being developed! The east side is the historical side with the grand mosque, the souq wafiq (the market), the governmental buildings and the airport. Most of the people live on the east side of the bay and the financial district is on the west side of the bay.

My favorite place is the souq. The souq is a traditional Arab market with many different buildings with stalls crammed into nooks and crannies. The souq has everything from old Omani daggers to dried fruits and nuts, and Lebanese to Persian food. My favorite thing about the souq is when you walk in it is like stepping back in history. You see the Qatari men in formal dress, a white tunic styled floor lenght collared shirt-dress and a turban walking into little alleyways with their wives coverd from head to toe in a black abya.

The Souq

The shops have tons of antiques, carpets and swords. When you walk in you snif a faint smell of someone smoking a shisha pipe deep inside the shop. The souq is a melting pot of North African, Turkish, Egyptian, Persian, Arabian, Syrian, and Lebanese culture. You could be in a Persian restaurant eating under Persian stained glass and paintings, yet be looking across the alley at a Moroccan cafe.

Qatari smoking a shisha pipe

I also liked the Islamic Museum of Art. It takes you through the ages of the Islamic Empire all in one building. I learned so much, like Isfahan Persia (Iran) was regarded as one of the biggest cities on the earth by the time of the crusades. The museum also had some incredible artifacts like an 11/2 kilogram solid gold bird with rubies, sapphires and emeralds studded into it. I saw incredible coins and stamps that were held by kings hundreds of years ago!

Muesum of Islamic Art

Persian gold and sivler mask worn for battle.

Doha used to only be a small city in the United Arab Emirates but when Qatar broke from the UAE in the 1970's (before the 1970's the UAE consisted of Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and modern UAE) Doha became the new capitol. After being in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai, Doha is my favorite place in the middle east. Let's see how it holds up to the rest of the Arab world.

The Souq