Qatar 2025

A Medina For The 21st Century: Notes From Doha

A whole host of playful and inventive architectural minds must have been let loose in Doha and granted the freedom to create the spectacle which the city now is: an astonishing environment where its ultra modern districts sparkle with breathtaking space age buildings which thrill, deceive and impress all in one go. It’s a futuristic skyline which must surely be up there with the most stunning in the world – and there’s more than one such skyline in this city. Astonishing, gigantic, amusing, inspired: everything is here. 

The area known as West Bay boasts skyscrapers in cylinders, pyramids and twisted shapes of irregular lines. Asymmetric floor levels taunt the eye as if modern day architects have thrown the craziness of Gaudi into a melting pot of contemporary design within which no idea is off the agenda. 

Beyond West Bay along the Corniche is The Pearl Island, a completely man made offshore metropolis with another incredible skyline. A family entertainment building in the shape of an upturned parcel? You got it. Two tower blocks looking like the ones you build with playing cards, caught in the moment just before collapse when they seemingly defy gravity? Yep, they’re here too. Yet even the awesome sights of West Bay and The Pearl are usurped by Doha’s coup de grace, the twin hotel complex of the Lusail Tower, aka Moon Tower, which is so incredibly unique that we can’t stop gawping at it. Little wonder when it looks like this….

Doha just oozes amazing buildings and structures, yet there is equal joy to be found in the open spaces between, filled as they are with perfect manicured gardens, dancing fountains, curved walkways and rustling palm trees. The whole city feels spacious, uncramped, non-claustrophobic. It’s a joy to explore, a busy city where the air somehow manages to feel fresh and clean. Ah, so THIS is what a country with endless riches looks like, where innovation and improvisation are considered worthy of investment. The UK, by comparison, is light years behind countries like Qatar, so far behind that catching up must by now be an impossible dream. England will never look or feel like this.

Doha has seemingly achieved all of this – much of it apparently was done for the FIFA World Cup in 2022 – without losing its beating heart. Wander from the futuristic splendour across the street into Souq Waqif and there is absolutely no doubting whereabouts in the world you are. The tight alleys of the souq wind through jewellery sections, down clothing streets, past perfume shops to alcoves selling plastic buckets, spices, copper kitchenware. Around and outside the souq, East meets West with restaurants, cafes and coffee shops all bustling with activity and rammed with eager customers. 

Originally an ancient Bedouin market dating from the 19th century, a major fire in 2003 ripped through Souq Waqif and necessitated extensive renovation. With commendable and inspired insight, the reconstruction of Souq Waqif involved completely demolishing everything built after 1950, alongside a policy of restoration of all older buildings with a brief to replicate the original construction methods. The result is a rather pleasing merger of the traditional (locals as well as tourists shop here) and the modern (where eateries and coffee houses thrive). It’s a 21st century medina in which traditions have endured.

We amble slowly along Al Ahmed Street. Clouds of sweet smelling shisha drift down the street, mingling with fragrances which delight, tease and entice, lifting the spirit to another level. A delicious smell of flatbreads warming over charcoal pushes through the fruity sweetness of shisha, then spices, some fresh and some rising from the pans in the heat of the kitchen, bring the next wave of pleasure. Garlic, cumin, cinnamon. Barbecued meat. As men in thawbs and ladies in abaya swoosh by, the scent of oudh perfumes the air around them…then it’s incense, or it’s fresh coffee, or it’s mint tea….until the delightful odour of warming flatbreads returns, soon once more pushed aside by the dreamy scents of shisha….

As much as the senses of sight and smell are bombarded, the ears are spared. There is a calm and relaxed feel about Doha which borders on peaceful – sure the cars hurtle down the ring roads and yes the streets are full of people, but there is a warm and slow paced atmosphere which brings its own karma.

Between the Corniche and West Bay on the gentle blue waters of the Persian Gulf, any number of wooden dhows bob on the water or wait for paying passengers, boats which have long since been made redundant from the role of searching for fish or the elusive pearls which once brought fortune and wealth to boat owners and divers alike. They’re only here for the tourists now, but the unmistakable shape of the dhows is an echo of Doha’s rich history, clashing markedly with the futuristic skyline beyond.

Clusters of passengers from the two colossal cruise ships which are docked at the port obediently follow their flag waving leaders across the square to the souk, too time constrained to give any business to the men waiting patiently on the dhows. We certainly do have time, squeeze some cash into the grateful hands of one skipper and chug across to the other side of the bay where we gaze up at the impossible towers glinting in the warm sunshine. The dhows have a new raison d’être.

Any great modern city will by definition have an accessible and efficient public transport system, and Doha has exactly that, with metro, tram and bus services in plentiful evidence. Prices are beyond reasonable: a day ticket for unlimited journeys on all three modes costs just £1.38 – well below 2 US dollars. And so we take the metro, then the bus, up to The Pearl.

Whoever conceived of The Pearl in the first place must have had a significant passion for Italy, for here amongst the gleaming towers lies a mini Venice complete with canals and Venetian designs, Italianate architecture and copious quantities of balconies and balustrades. Improbably, right in the centre of this creation, is a replica Rialto Bridge. Imitation is, we are told, the sincerest form of flattery. Be flattered, Venice.

Back at Souq Waqif, the sky has cast its desert sunset and darkness has fallen on the streets around the souk. In Al Ahmed Street, full of restaurants, Friday night brings out everyone from babes in arms to grandmothers, wandering from end to end of the atmospheric street in a mass of contented movement. It’s a Greek volta in an Arabic setting. Full of life, full of chatter.

Restaurants are doing brisk business, tables are at a premium. Everywhere we eat, the fare on offer is delicious, but then, isn’t Middle Eastern food always good. There is variety in the eateries, but all from this region: as well as Qatari you can enjoy Kuwaiti, Syrian, Persian, Iranian and Lebanese foods, to name just a few. Wherever we go, it’s absolutely delicious, and, in Al Ahmed Street at least, inexpensive – though of course the absence of alcohol helps to keep the cost down.

Breakfast at our “free” hotel is sumptuous too – ah yes, our free stopover has proved to be an amazing deal, a perfectly adequate and comfortable hotel right in the beating heart just a few minutes walk from Souq Waqif. We would have been happy with it even if we’d paid, to get it completely free has been …. well, brilliant.

Our second evening here is coming to a close. We emerge from the alleys of the souq, dodge the footballs of young boys playing in the square, pass the ever present flock of pigeons and head to the waterfront. Offset uplighters wash different colours over the pearl monument, the large hulk of the Museum of Islamic Art casts a looming shadow on to the waves. But everyone’s eyes look beyond these things and across the Gulf towards the stunning skyline of West Bay. After dark, its skyline of twisted and inspired towers are transformed into a blaze of projected colours, patterns and moving displays, each building now a giant screen. The vibrant colours reflect in the sea, scattering erratic vivid pathways across the bay. Just one more mesmerising scene. Doha, you really are something else.

There is yet more to tell of this city and all it has to offer, in our next post. Before then, a desert adventure awaits….

More Notes From Doha: Oil, Riches And Fun On The Desert Sands

“I will say, you two don’t look English, you look German”.

Well, Mohammed, I’m not sure whether we should be complimented by that or not, so we’ll give a little laugh and move on. Mohammed laughs too, points the Landcruiser out of the city and drives out towards the desert. Every highway is pristine, flyovers wind around each other like giant bowls of spaghetti, the carriageway is wide and lined for miles and miles with colourful flowering shrubs. Qatar simply shouts of riches, of money, of investment. 

Our route to the desert passes evidence not just of how the riches are spent, but also from where those riches emanate. Giant oil refineries dot the flat desert landscapes, and, as we bypass the city of Mesaieed, Mohammed tells us that the entire city was built to house refinery workers and their families – it’s a big city, yet is only one of several constructed across the country for the same singular reason. Oil production constitutes 65% of Qatar’s GDP and 85% of its exports. 

“The Government here is rich, we can afford to build this”, he says, as we pass another sprawling township, this one constructed entirely to house spectators at the 2022 World Cup. “Families live here now”, he says, “but the town is probably half empty”. We also pass two of the magnificent stadia built for the same tournament – six of the host stadia were sited within the Doha metropolis.

Maybe 40-50 minutes out of Doha, Mohammed points out large tented villages some distance from the highway, out on the desert sand. These are not, as you might fear, signs of poverty – in fact they are quite the opposite. Mohammed explains that these are weekend destinations for wealthy families, places to take their kids to teach them of how life used to be “before the oil came and we all got rich” is how he puts it. We note the word “all”….and reflect on the fact that throughout our time in Doha we haven’t seen a single homeless person or, indeed, been approached by a beggar for money, at any time. “All”, indeed.

Primarily though we are in Mohammed’s company for a few hours of adventure, first taking a couple of quad bikes for speedy rides around courses in the desert sand – great fun, though the “briefing” is interesting. “Listen”, says the guy handing out helmets, “we don’t have any insurance and your travel insurance won’t cover you, so you must be careful”. Quad biking on desert sands is a lot more fun than on the roads, we discover.

From quad bikes to camel rides and then on to the bit which Mohammed clearly enjoys most – the thing that they refer to here as “dune bashing”. We strap up our seatbelts, Mohammed lets air from the tyres, grips the steering wheel and suddenly adopts the look of a bird of prey rather than a calm Arab. What follows is a frenetic rally style drive over dunes, sideways down steep slopes of sand, through ruts and valleys and over peaks, putting the 4×4 through its every pace. It’s almost as much fun as the next bit – which is a pause in the dune bashing during which we both have a hilarious go at sand boarding, where we shoot down the sand dune in the way we used to as kids sledging in the snow. More fun. More laughter. 

Mohammed has given us a fun few hours, now it’s onwards across the drained bed of the “inland sea”, effectively a seasonal lagoon which fills in winter and slowly drains until completely empty in summer, and back towards the city. He looks happy to have had another dune bashing session – boys and their toys huh?!

All done and back in Doha, the souk is still busy, with brisk business being done everywhere, and particularly in the “bird souk” where doting parents buy caged birds for the children from a place which may easily be breaking the world record for the number of birds rammed into a tiny cage. It’s not a very edifying sight to see these beautiful creatures trapped like sardines, but…..well, it’s what they do here.

The King’s camels aren’t much better off, nobbled and tethered in an open paddock, but the King’s horses seem privileged by comparison – well groomed and clearly cared for by their posse of stable hands. They don’t look unhappy at all. Falcons too are much respected in Qatar, where falconry remains a popular pastime. In a square just behind the stables, where if you are so minded you can pay to be photographed with a falcon on your arm, there are a number of offbeat – to us anyway – shops selling every bit of kit the aspiring falconer could want, including the bird itself.

It’s fascinating to note how traditions are interwoven into the ultra modern city of Doha. The souks and the dhows are just two of many features of a bygone way of life, recall of which is clearly a source of national pride. There seems to be a determination to educate the younger population in respect of their heritage, something that surely every proud nation should be seeking to do.

Falcon souq

The Katara Heritage Village, close to the skyscrapers of West Bay, is a centre dedicated to this very project, including a fascinating dhow museum charting the history of boatbuilding, pearl diving and the seismically changed economy of Qatar since those days. Katara is also home to a brand new opulent mosque with ceiling decorations of real gold, an amphitheatre for the modern day, and, amusingly, a trio of so called “pigeon towers” created solely in order to give the local bird population somewhere to call home.

Katara Heritage Village

Doha has been a stimulating place to spend a few days, with so many thrills – we seem to have packed a lot in to our three days here, it’s that kind of place. One of our lasting impressions of Qatar will be the many ways in which the traditional ways of life are part of the contemporary story, how both the visiting world and the local youth are being educated in how longstanding principles and customs have come to make the country what it is today.

Museum of Islamic Art

A sign in the entrance hall at the dhow museum carries a sentence which resonated with both of us. Unfortunately our photo of it somehow vanished, but the sentiment was along the lines that only by learning and appreciating our heritage can we understand ourselves: heritage will bring pride and compassion and is in itself the very core of community. We will leave readers to decide if their own country holds these principles dear. Sadly, I know mine doesn’t.

And so we bid a fond farewell to Doha and Qatar. We have to be up before dawn tomorrow. Manila awaits….