Qatar Guide

Qatar Overview

Climate - very hot in the summer, mild in the winters. Rainfall less than a centimetre a year.

Terrain - mostly desert, with some mangrove swamps.

Political system - Qatar is ruled by an Emir who has introduced democratic elements into the system and has reduced censorship within the country.

Religion - Islam. Officially Wahabbi, in practise the country practises a gentler version of the religion than neighbour Saudi Arabia. See the Five Pillars of Islam.

Population - no-one really agrees, but there are upwards of 800,000 people in Qatar. Incredibly, only about 150,000 of these are Qatari. The rest are expat workers and their families.

Economy - Originally Qatar survived on pearl fishing. Nowadays, the main industry is oil and gas - and they do more than just survive! Currently, Qatar is making major efforts to diversify its economy, and is wisely investing its wealth abroad. They are currently attempting to takeover Sainsbury's, the British supermarket, and to buy a large stake in the London Stock Exchange.

Airline - Qatar Airways (which proudly calls itself a five star airline) is expanding recently, and as a result Qatar is becoming an increasingly popular stop-over.

Health - Qatar has an excellent health service. It's emergency services prides itself on responding to all cases, regardless of nationality, religion or ability to pay. See Experiences in Doha hospitals for more information.

Education Qatar is currently trying to improve its poor primary and secondary education system with the introduction of independent schools. However, most expatriates choose to send their children to private schools. See our list of Private Schools in Qatar.

Qatar is also keen to develop its university system, and many American universities have opened up branches in Qatar's superb Education City. See Further Education in Qatar for more information.

Sport - Qatar is very keen on holding sports activities, and successfully held a very impressive Asian games. Not content with this, their ambitious Olympic committee is now bidding for the Olympic Games: see Qatar's Olympic Hopes on this module.

When to go - Avoid the summer months, from mid June to Mid September, as the weather is almost unbearable hot - sometimes reaching 50 degrees Celsius.

Conclusion

Unlike many countries, Qatar likes to show off through spectacular buildings, huge sports events and its controversial news service Al Jazeera rather than through military accomplishments and equipment.

The latest addition to the website is our interactive Qatar Map. Follow the instructions to enable active x controls which will allow you to zoom in or out and pan around the nation of Qatar.

Qatar Visitor now has its own Qatar forum for guests to find the answers to their Qatar related questions, give their opinions and make friends. Although originally conceived as an easy way for people to find answers to their questions, the forum has taken a life on its own, with members now using to organise nights out on the town.

Qatar's wildlife has to deal harsh desert climate and often a severe lack of water (Qatar has only 81 millimetres of rainfall a year). However, there is still a superb range of wildlife for the natural history enthusiast.

On land you can find honey badgers, hedgehogs and foxes. Because of the desert heat, the majority of the creatures are nocturnal. Meanwhile, in the sea, in addition to a huge range of fish and the dolphins and sharks they support, you will find the world's second largest breeding colony of dugongs. As Qatar slowly becomes more green, there is also an increasing number of birds - some of which are migrants, while others have adopted Qatar as their new home.

In our article on Qatar Natural History, Frances Gillespie, author of Discovering Qatar, has an in-depth look at Qatar's terrain and wildlife. The article is accompanied throughout by superb photographs.

(Photograph by David Gillespie.)

Qatar's Marine Life

Think of the Arabian desert and you may think of a dry and arid land, where only the hardiest camel can survive. However, when you venture into Qatar's warms sea it is a different matter. Corals and sea life open up in an array of colours, and you may also see a dugong - for Qatar has the second largest population of these shy and rare creatures in the world.

In Qatar Seas, Francis Gillespie, author of Discovering Qatar and natural history journalist, takes an in-depth look at this marine life. The article is accompanied by vivid underwater photography.

High above the desert a Peregrine falcon flies alone, keen eyes fixed on its prey below. Then it plunges towards its prey, a large brown bird the size of a heron. The chase ensues, but the larger bird cannot outrun the fastest creature on earth. The falcon reaches a speed of over 200 mph before...

Read more on Qatar Falconry: article, images, sounds and movie

I think we are the only website in Qatar to do sounds, but in this latest podcast we decided to do something a little different. We recorded our guide to driving in Qatar in a car for greater authenticity, but as you can tell from the podcast, not everything went to plan...

Qatar Visitor's Driving Tips

Visit the gold souk and nag a shop owner, and he will eventually put away his prefect cultivated Japanese pearls and bring out some old and irregular Qatar ones.

This is the remains of a huge industry, killed by the combination of the Japanese pearls mentioned above and the inflow of easy oil money.

Whether you should mourn its demise is another matter. This was a hard life, in a sea the pearl diver shared with sharks, barracuda, sword fish and jelly fish.

Hallucinations, ear aches and decompression sickness, attributed by the pearl fishermen to evil djinn, were treated by covering the poor man with a sail, sitting on him, reading him the Koran and burning incense. Despite all the hardships, after a bad season the pearl divers could end up in debt.

Nowadays, the only remnants of the pearl industry are the statues of oysters and pearls in Doha and Qatar and in the shops of the Gold Soukh.

(Note - this is a synopsis of a longer article I have published on Qatar Visitor.)

Ramadan in Qatar

I'm just back from the shops, where I was dragged kicking and screaming. Nightmare impressions still crowd my head: kids screeching, choosing their presents; stressed parents, buying ingredients. Though multi coloured lights and tinsel decorate the door, the aisles are crammed, and queues dribble slowly back from the counters. (Needless to say, my wife thinks I am exaggerating).

Christmas? No, it is Ramadan in Qatar, coming up to Eid.

Most people are still fasting, though. They don't just go without food, but without water. No joke, you might think, in the middle of the desert. Not according to a colleague of mine from the Sudan.

"The people here are playing at fasting. They have easy jobs, and air-conditioning. They should try it in the Sudan, where people labour all day in the sun, then go back to their hot huts."

Easy or not, there is a serious point to Ramadan. One of the reasons giving for fasting is to feel empathy for people who are not as lucky as us, people who don't have water and food to drink whenever they want.

So do I join in? Well, only at Iftar - the breaking of the fast!

Also see: Ramadan in Qatar: Fasting and Health

Aiming High

In November 2006 Asia came to Doha as Qatar held the Asian Olympic Games. The events were widely regarded as a huge success, and perhaps the highlight for Qatar was when their football team took the Gold Cup, beating Iraq in front of a packed Al Sadd Stadium. Not content with resting on their laurels for long, Qatar has now announced its bid for the 2016 Olympics. To do so they will have to overcome a number of challenges, including dealing with the searing heat of the Qatar summer, improving infrastructure and public transport and simply providing enough accomodation.

Qatar Camels

The Qatari Bedouin alternatively caused these huge ungainly creatures Ships of the Desert or Attah Allah - God's Gift.

They were indeed God's Gift to the Bedouin, because life in the desert without these superbly adapted creatures would have been hard indeed. Not only were they used for transport, their faeces were used for fuel and nappy lining, their urine for washing hair and tanning leather and their hair for weaving, while their milk was richer and more nutritious than that of a cow.

To this day the Bedouin in Qatar retain great affection for their camel, keeping herds in the desert and racing them at the camel racing track in Shahinaya.

Read more about Qatar Camels.

Listen to the Sound of a Camel at Doha's Live Animal Market.

Watch a video of Camels training prior to the start of the Camel Racing Season.

The Lonely Planet describes Qatar as possibly the most boring place on Earth.

Yesterday I went scuba diving. This morning I visited the salt marshes in Al Thakira, in the afternoon I went sailing, and in the evening I visited the Gold Soukh, where the owner of one jewelery store offered to let me watch him make the jewellery in the workshop above. Tomorrow I am going sandboarding in the desert.

I've seen the World Superbike racing, horse racing, GP racing, camel racing and powerboat racing. I've yet to go scuba diving, horse riding, visit the inland sea, go wadi and dune bashing or game fishing but believe me it's all on my list.

I wonder what the Lonely Planet team found so boring here. Could it be the lack of cheap beer...?

Once you have finally made it to Qatar, and have finished traipsing round government ministries having your fingerprints, you may well want to get out in the desert to take photographs of rolling dunes and vast landscapes. If you are planning to, take a look at prize-winning Australian based photographer Abigail Harman's article on desert photography. In the article Abigail takes a look at the correct exposure needed in the desert, composing your picture correctly, the best equipment as well as more general tips.

Qatar is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and as such has a huge demand for jobs. While many of the jobs are required in the oil and gas fields, it would be a mistake to think that only engineers are needed. Not only does the huge oil and gas sector require accountants, lawyers and other support staff, there is also a huge need to fill other job posts such as teachers, bankers, air hostesses, pilots and so on.

Before going for a job in Qatar, however, there are a number of factors to take into consideration. We take a look at a some of these briefly - for a more detailed article see Qatar Jobs.

Locating a Business in Qatar

Finding companies in Qatar is not always easy - many Doha based companies seem still stuck in the dark ages, existing without a website. While those in Qatar with a paper phone directory may be happy with this, it makes things tough for the rest of us.

Qatar Company Listing

One company, Qatcom.com, are providing an answer to this with their Qatar Company Listing. Although only started in 2007, the company now lists over 25,000 Qatar companies - that's over 96% of the companys based in Qatar and Doha. They are also holding a major competition - sign up as a Qatcom user and you could win a million Qatari riyals!