Doha

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For other uses, see Doha (disambiguation).
Doha
الدوحة‎
West Bay
West Bay
Location of the municipality of Doha within Qatar.
Location of the municipality of Doha within Qatar.
Coordinates: 25°17′12″N 51°31′60″E / 25.28667, 51.53333
Country Qatar
Municipality Ad Dawhah
Established 1850
Area
 - City 132 km² (51 sq mi)
Population (2004)[1]
 - City 339,847
 - Density 2,574/km² (6,690/sq mi)
 - Metro 612,707
Time zone AST (UTC+3)

Doha (Arabic: الدوحة‎, transliteration: Ad-Dawḥah or Ad-Dōḥah) is the capital city of Qatar. With a population of 400,051 according to the 2005 census,[citation needed] it is located in the Ad Dawhah municipality on the Persian Gulf (25.3° N 51.5333° E). Doha is Qatar's largest city, with over 80% of the nation's population residing in Doha or its surrounding suburbs, and is also the economic center of the country. Doha is home to the Education City, an area devoted to research and education. Doha was the site of the first ministerial-level meeting of the Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization negotiations. The city of Doha also held the 2006 Asian Games, which was the world's largest Asian Games held.

Contents

[edit] History

The Emiri Diwan.
The Emiri Diwan.

In 1850, the city of Doha was founded under the name Al-Bida. The name "Doha" came from the Arabic ad-dawha, "the big tree." The reference is to a prominent tree that must have stood at the site where the original fishing village arose, on the eastern coast of the Qatar peninsula. In 1882, al Rayyan built the Al Wajbah fortress, in southwestern Doha. The following year, Sheikh Qassim led a Qatari army to victory against the Ottomans.

The city was made capital of the British protectorate of Qatar in 1916, and when the nation gained independence in 1971, Doha remained the capital of Qatar. In 1917, the Al Kout fortress, which is located in the center of the city, was built by Sheikh Abdulla Bin Qassim Al-Thani. In 1949, oil exportation began in Qatar. Today the nation as a whole produces over 800 000 barrels of oil daily. In 1969, the Government House opened. Today it is considered to be Qatar's most prominent landmark.

In 1973 the University of Qatar opened, and in 1975 the Qatar National Museum opened in what was originally the ruler's palace in 1912. The Al Jazeera Arabic satellite television news channel began broadcasting in 1996, with headquarters and broadcast center in Doha. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani currently rules in what some consider to be Qatar's most beautiful city.

[edit] Demographics

Doha's demographics are unusual as the majority of residents in the city are expatriates, with Qatari nationals forming a minority. The largest portion of expatriates in Qatar are from South Asian countries, mainly India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, with large amounts of expatriates also coming from the Levant Arab countries, Egypt, North Africa, and East Asia. Doha is also home to expatriates from the United States, France, South Africa, United Kingdom, Norway, and many other countries.

In the past, expatriates in Qatar were not allowed to own land; however, now people who are not Qatari citizens can buy land in several areas of Doha, including the West Bay Lagoon, the Qatar Pearl and the new Lusail City. Ownership by foreigners in Qatar entitles them to a renewable residency permit, which allows them to live and work in Qatar.

Today, the population is growing rapidly with thousands coming to the country in a month, it is estimated that Qatar will soon reach the 1 million mark within a few years, as of October 2007, 37,819 people went for medical check up,[2]due to the high influx of incoming residents, there is a high shortage of housing. There are many estimates of the population of Doha and even Qatar, most sources show Doha is close or surpasses the one million mark.

Even though the official religion is Islam, the wise Emir gave land for church building, in March 2008, the first Catholic Church opened without any public displays of Christian symbols to respect the locals, there are 5 other churches as well that will open.

Year Population Metro
1992 484,387[3]
2001 299,300[4]
2004 339,847 612,707
2005 400,051[5][6]
2008 >500,000[7] 998,651[8]

[edit] Economy

Buildings near the Doha Corniche
Buildings near the Doha Corniche

Much of Qatar's oil and natural gas wealth is visible in Doha, which is the economical centre of Qatar. Doha is home to the headquarters of the country's largest oil and gas companies, including Qatar Petroleum, Qatargas and RasGas. Doha's economy is built on the revenue the country has made from its oil and natural gas industries, and the Qatari government is rapidly trying to diversify the Qatari economy in order to move away from this dependence on oil. As a result, Doha is currently experiencing a very large boom, with the city developing very rapidly - this is mostly the result of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa's modernization program.

Like the nearby city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Doha's economy is moving away from its dependency on the oil and natural gas industries, although unlike Dubai, Doha's main focus is not tourism. Doha is seeing huge amounts of growth, with the population of the city increasing by more than 60,000 between 2004 and 2006; this has caused a boom in the real estate sector, with real estate prices skyrocketing[citation needed]. According to the BBC as of late January 2007, Doha is now a more expensive city than Dubai in terms of real estate prices. This rate of growth has led to projects such as the Lusail City project, which is being constructed north of Doha and will eventually house 200,000 people. Construction is also booming in Doha, a result of increasing corporate and commercial activity in Doha; this is most visible with the changing skyline of the city, as Doha has over 50 towers currently being constructed, the largest of those being the Dubai Towers. While 39 new hotels are joining Qatar's booming tourism market, adding about 9,000 new rooms by 2009.

Some key projects in Doha include:

[edit] Education

Doha is home to Qatar University, established in 1973, as well as several other universities located in Doha's Education City. Education City is home to campuses of several well-known universities, including Georgetown University, The Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Texas A&M University, Northwestern University, College of the North Atlantic-Qatar and Carnegie Mellon University. [9] In addition, the University of Calgary operates a campus here for its world-class nursing program. Doha is also home to many international schools established for its expatriate communities, with dozens of different private schools currently operating in the city. Education has been a big focus of the Qatari government which has led to the development of organizations such as the Qatar Foundation, which operates Education City. There are many elementary and secondary schools in Doha including the Newton International School, Qatar Academy, Qatar International School, The American School of Doha, Doha College, DeBakey High School for Health Professions at Qatar, and The Qatar Canadian School.

Universities/colleges within Education City: (See Education City)

Other Universities/colleges around Doha:

[edit] Sports

View of the Sports City during the 2006 Asian Games Opening Ceremony
View of the Sports City during the 2006 Asian Games Opening Ceremony
Jet ski riders, a common view at Doha corniche during evenings
Jet ski riders, a common view at Doha corniche during evenings

Doha is home to a number of sports stadiums, many of which were renovated in preparation for the 15th Asian Games, held in December 2006, which Doha spent $2.8 billion for preparation. Doha also hosted the 3rd West Asian Games in December 2005. Doha is also expected to host the 2011 Asian Indoor Games; Doha will also host the finals for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. Qatar is aiming to be the region's sports capital.

Sports venues in Doha and its suburbs include:

ASPIRE Academy, launched in 2004, is a sports academy which aims to create world-class athletes. It is situated in the Sports City Complex, which also includes the Khalifa International Stadium, the Hamad Aquatic Centre and the Aspire Tower.

The MotoGP motorcycling grand prix of Doha is held annually at Losail International Circuit, located just north of the city.

Under-construction stadiums/sport facilities:

  • The Wall Stadium[11]
  • Paralympic Stadium[12]
  • Doha Sports Museum[13]

The Wall Stadium or the underground stadium is the world's first underground stadium and would be the main venue for the 2011 Asian Cup[14] and would cost 20 million dollars. The stadium will have the latest technology and roads leading to the stadium will be easy. While the New Paralympic stadium south of the new City of Lusail whill be the most advance Paralympic stadium.

Doha has submitted a bid for the 2016 Olympics. [15]It already has more than 70% of the venues ready and were used during the Asian Games in 2006. If Doha wins, an olympic village would be constructed and would have the shape of a dove and 67 hectares in size with a capacity of 18,000 people, housing officials, athletes and coaches[16]. (See Doha 2016 Olympic bid)

[edit] Transport

[edit] Roads

The Mowasalat transportation company recently introduced a new bus system in Doha. The bus system covers many areas of the city, and there are stops throughout the city. The bus system is mainly used by lower-income groups, and does not attract many from the higher-income groups in the city, which has resulted in increased congestion on the roads of Doha, as most people prefer cars.

Doha also has a large taxi system. The taxi service is named Karwa and the cars have a sea green colour.

Doha is facing a tremendous problem with respect to congestion on its roads. Despite attempts at introducing public transport to relieve congestion, the city's main roads and roundabouts are unable to cope with the huge amount of traffic. The city has seen significant effort dedicated to improving its road system recently, with roundabouts converted to intersections in high traffic areas and plans for new intersections and highways throughout the city. While this will alleviate the city's congestion problems in the long term, it has resulted in large amounts of traffic being diverted to already busy intersections. Many projects to relieve the traffic problems in the city have been introduced.

[edit] Air

Doha International Airport is Qatar's only international airport. It is the hub of Qatar Airways, and it is served by many other international airlines. Because of the rapid growth in Qatar, and the rapid growth of Qatar Airways, many now consider the airport too small and unable to properly handle all of the traffic that goes through the airport. This problem was recently addressed with a large expansion that was made in anticipation of the 15th Asian Games. In order to accommodate increased traffic, the terminal was expanded. This temporarily eased the size problem, but because of its small size and limited space for expansion, this has not been enough to permanently solve the problem of the airport crowding.

A new airport, the New Doha International Airport, is being constructed near the existing airport, and should solve the problems the current airport has [17]. The first phase of the airport should finish in late 2009 or early 2010 along with the second phase, and will be able to accommodate 25 million passengers annually. Upon the completion of the third phase in 2015, the airport is expected to be able to handle up to 50 million passengers annually [18]. The total cost of the New Airport is $22 billion.

There are 4 more airports other than Doha Airport, there is one south of Doha used by the US airforce.

[edit] Climate

Doha is situated in the Arabian Peninsula, and as such its climate is very hot. Temperatures average over 40 degrees Celsius (104 °F) from May to September, and humidity is variable. Dewpoints can reach above 25 degrees Celsius in the summer. During the summer months, the city averages almost no precipitation, and less than an inch (25 mm) during other months.[19] Rainfall is scarce (average 70 mm per year), falling on isolated days mostly between October to March. During cool winter nights the temperature can rarely drop below 7 degrees Celsius.

[edit] Gallery

The City Centre mall

Skyline of Doha

A mosque in Doha

Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium

Islamic center in Doha

Buildings in Doha

An evening view of the Doha Corniche

Souq Waqif

Doha Museum

A panoramic view of the Doha Corniche

The Museum of Islamic Arts

Al Qutaifiya Lagoon (West Bay Lagoon) near Doha Golf Club

Movenpick Hotel

Early morning fishermen

Good Morning Doha

Doha's developing skyline

Sunrise on the skyline

Sunrise on the Corniche

Oyster Pearl on the Corniche

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Qatar 2004 Census
  2. ^ Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper - First Page
  3. ^ http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/2174/qatar.htm
  4. ^ http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0003599.html
  5. ^ http://www.hotelrentalgroup.com/Qatar/Sheraton%20Doha%20Hotel%20&%20Resort.htm
  6. ^ http://www.sightseebyspace.com/view_link.php?txt_link_autoid=560
  7. ^ http://dohatraveller.info/
  8. ^ http://www.gamesbids.com/english/bids/dha2016.shtml
  9. ^ Information on Education City
  10. ^ http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2007/11/qatar.html
  11. ^ http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=16094915&postcount=21
  12. ^ http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=16101485&postcount=270
  13. ^ http://www.gamesbids.com/cgi-bin/news/viewnews.cgi?category=1&id=1207052573
  14. ^ http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=16159543&postcount=17
  15. ^ Information on 2016 Olympic Games Bids
  16. ^ http://www.doha2016.org/en/news/athletes_to_compete_in_worldclass_sports_venues_in_a_compact_doha_games_
  17. ^ New Doha International Airport presents credentials at leading industry forum, AME Info, 2006-09-26
  18. ^ Information on the New Doha International Airport
  19. ^ Doha weather information

[edit] External links

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