Sunday, March 14, 2010

Al Zubara Fort

At the beginning of February we took a trip to visit Al Zubarah Fort. When we left, we had vague directions found online (which is how all directions in Qatar are). We should have looked a little more so we wouldn't have been so surprised when we realized we were driving over to the western coast.
The drive wasn't too bad, as Qatar isn't very big. Once we arrived, we paid a small fee (10 QR) to the "gatekeeper," who was a very interesting looking fellow.

The fort was built in 1938 on the ruins of a castle. Being right on the coast, it was a great location to protect the country, especially against strained relations at the time with neighboring Bahrain. In the 80s the Coast Guard used this as a post as well.


Leoni checking out the cannon

My mom & me

Keeping watch

Travis ascending a ladder to one of the towers

Lindsay

Nor helping Leoni try to join us

The primitive air conditioning
Wind from the Gulf breezes comes through to keep thing cool

Travis & Leoni checking out some of the downstairs rooms where artifacts from the Al Zubarah archaeological dig are displayed
Since we were up north anyway, we decided to drive the last bit to Qatar's northern tip, Al Ruwais. We saw wild camels along the way.

Al Ruwais is pretty small but lots of fishing boats were docked there

It was low tide

Piles of fishing traps

You can kind of see how clear and blue these shallow waters are here

On our way home, we drove along the Corniche in Doha and stopped to take some pictures

5 comments:

  1. Looks like you guys are having a blast there. Would you say it's a pretty safe country? I've always wanted to visit over there.

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  2. I love reading your blog. Much more interesting than many I come across. But then again, I wouldn't expect anything less. :) Talk to you soon.

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  3. I love reading and seeing the pictures from all your adventures!! What a neat thing to live in such a place!! Jimmy has a friend that is living in Qatar doing Civil Engineering there, are there lots of Americans living in the area around you guys?

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  4. Wow, this is fascinating. I'm glad to catch up a little bit on what you've been up to!

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  5. Okay, somehow I missed that you in the middle east?? wow! And yes, I'm sure you find all sorts of interesting fabrics over there :) Might make good Halloween costumes??
    Thanks for stopping by!
    and thanks funny FB comment you sent to Casey. :)

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