Doha

Doha skyline


Doha (Arabic: الدوحة) is the capital and largest city in Qatar. It covers 132 sq km (51 sq mi), on the east coast of Qatar, and has a population of 1.45 million people (2012 estimate).

Doha, which comes from the Arabic ad dawha meaning "the big tree", was founded in 1825 and was originally called Al-Bida. It was made the capital of the British protectorate of Qatar in 1916, and became the capital when Qatar attained independence in 1971.

Once a dusty desert town, where the main industries were fishing and pearling, Doha suffered from economic depression and poverty until the late 1930s, when the discovery of oil brought an upturn to its fortune.

Today Doha rivals Dubai and Abu Dhabi as one of the gleaming new cities of the Gulf, with some of the most high-tech skyscrapers in the world. Much of Doha's wealth is derived from its oil and natural gas reserves, neither of which are likely to be exhausted in the immediate future.

Visiting Doha

The Doha International Airport (DOH) receives flights from major cities aroound the world. It is also the base for local carrier Qatar Airways. There are low cost fares on Air Arabia and FlyDubai from Sharjah and Dubai.

Places of Interest in Doha

Members' Travel Shots of Doha

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Modern skyscrapers of Doha, Qatar


Downtown Doha, Qatar

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About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.