Untitled Document

QATAR

The state of Qatar ( رطق) is an emirate in the Middle East. It is located in a small peninsula of the bigger Arabic Peninsula and borders with Saudi Arabia in the south and for the rest is it is surrounded by the Arabic Gulf.
Qatar is one of the various emirates born in the XXth century in the Arabic Peninsula. After being dominated for thousands of years by the Persians, more recently by Bahrain, by Ottomans and by the British, it became indipendent the 3rd of September 1971. Differently from the most of the near Emirates, Qatar refused to become part of Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. Qatar, that during the eighties supported the war effort of Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war, in 1991 opposed to the iraqui invasion of Kuwait and sided up with the forces that fought Iraq in the Gulf War. The territorial quarrels with Saudi Arabia in 1992 lead to a crisis the traditionally good relations between the two countries, that reached an agreement in May 1993. The 27th of June 1995, the heir to the throne, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, deposed his father, Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani, and started an opening politics towards Iran, Iraq and Israel. In March 2001 the International Court of the United States recognized to the State of Bahrain the sovereignty of Hawar islands, claimed by Qatar, finding a solution to a dispute that continued for decades.
Qatar is a rocky and bare region with rich oilfields and natural gas. What concerns foodstuffs it has to rely almost completely on imports, as the farming surface is very small, and the water is lacking because the ground water tables cannot be used as they contain minerals. The desalination of the sea water represents the only remedy to the lack of water resources. The government approved international agreements on the environment in point of biodiversity, desertification and protection of ionosphere.
The capital city of Qatar is Doha, which is also the main town with about 400 thousand inhabitants. All the country has one million inhabitants, and 80% are foreigners: Indians, Filipinos, Nepaleses, etc. The international airport is practically in town, about 5 Km. from the centre. Taxis are also available and are cheap: just 25 QR to a hotel in downtown. To rent a car it is also cheap: for two days a small car (which corresponds to a big car in Italy) costs only 270 QR, all included. The petrol costs only 0,70 QR/liter (0,12 €). In town it is interesting to visit the different souks, the most famous is souk Waqif with many different shops, restaurants and bars. Wines and spirits are obviously banished apart in the hotels where they are very expensive.
The corniche is an area where you can peacefully walk and in the evening you can enjoy a wonderful panorama with lit skyskrapers. It is worth to visit the Islamic Art Museum, free entrance, with gorgeous pieces of art, positionned in a very neat way and with a description in English and Arabic. To the north of Doha is located the small town of Sisaisma and Al Khor (35 thousand inhabitants). On the contrary to the south is located the small town of Al Wakrah (31 thousand inhabitants) and Mesaieed that has nothing interesting to offer. Streets are with three or four lanes, floodlit during the night with lamps every 30 meters. Car are all big-powered, and every 5 cars 3 are SUV, models that still do not exist in Italy.