Qatar

Qatar is a small country in Arabia.

It sticks out into the sea, like a thumb. The land is flat and sandy. The capital city is called Doha.

Qatar is a small peninsula, a piece of land with water on three sides, that sticks out north from the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf. It is about 160 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide, and most of it is flat, sandy desert.

Almost everyone lives in towns and cities, and about half of all the people live in Doha, the capital, on the east coast. About 3.2 million people lived in Qatar at the end of 2025. Most of them came from other countries to work, and Qatari citizens are a small part of the population.

Qatar occupies a roughly rectangular peninsula about 160 km north to south and 80 km east to west, joined to the Arabian mainland along a border with Saudi Arabia of some 60 km. Most of it is flat, low desert rising from the east to a central limestone plateau, with sand dunes and salt flats (sabkhahs) in the south and southeast.

Qatar's National Planning Council counted 3,214,609 people at the end of December 2025. Less than 1 percent live in rural areas, and Qatari citizens are only about one-ninth of the population; foreign workers far outnumber them, and more than 70 percent of residents are aged 15 to 44. Qatar is an emirate ruled by a hereditary emir of the Al Thani family; Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is emir.

Doha is the capital city.

It has very tall towers by the sea. In the desert are the ruins of an old pearl-diving town. Sand has covered many of its walls.

Doha, the capital, stretches along a curving seaside road called the Corniche. Old-style buildings stand beside new towers, malls and markets such as Souk Waqif. The National Museum of Qatar, opened in 2019, tells the story of the land over 700 million years.

In the northwest lie the ruins of Al Zubarah, a walled town that grew rich from pearls and trade more than 200 years ago and was later abandoned. Sand blew over its buildings and protected them, and in 2013 it became Qatar's World Heritage Site.

Doha, on the east coast, holds about half the population and has a deepwater port and international airport; Al Rayyan, just northwest, is the second urban area, and Umm Said (Mesaieed) to the south is the main oil port and industrial center. The National Museum of Qatar, designed by Jean Nouvel and opened in March 2019, presents 700 million years of history around a former palace, and a Doha fort houses a museum of traditional crafts.

Al Zubarah Archaeological Site (UNESCO, 2013) preserves a walled coastal town founded by Utub merchants from Kuwait that flourished for about 50 years in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as a pearling and trading center linked to the Indian Ocean. Mostly destroyed in 1811 and abandoned in the early 20th century, it was buried by windblown sand; excavated remains include palaces, mosques, courtyard houses, a harbor and double walls, near the fort of Qal'at Murair.

Qatar is very hot in summer.

It almost never rains. There are no rivers or lakes. Sand dunes and salty flats cover the south.

Most of Qatar is flat, low desert. Its highest point, Abu al-Bawl Hill, is only 103 meters high. In the south there are sand dunes and wide, salty flats called sabkhahs.

Summers, from June to September, are hot and humid, with temperatures that can reach 50 °C. Less than 75 millimeters of rain falls in a year, mostly in winter, and there are no rivers or lakes that last all year. Qatar has more than 560 kilometers of coastline, with islands and coral reefs offshore.

Hills along the western and northern coasts reach about 40 m, and Abu al-Bawl Hill, at 103 m, is the highest point. Soils are thin, calcareous and unproductive, and salinity is high on the coasts and where irrigation is poorly managed. There are no permanent bodies of fresh water.

The climate is hot and humid from June to September, with daytime highs up to 50 °C, and annual rainfall is under 75 mm, mostly in winter. Vegetation grows only in the north, where irrigated farms lie and desert plants bloom briefly after spring rains. Treated wastewater and desalinated water now irrigate dates, melons, tomatoes and other vegetables. Of Qatar's many islands and reefs, Halul, 97 km east of Doha, serves as a storage point for offshore oil fields.

The Arabian oryx is Qatar's national animal.

It is a white antelope with long horns. Dugongs graze on sea grass in the warm sea. Flamingos visit the shore.

Few wild animals can live in Qatar's hot, dry desert. The Arabian oryx, a white antelope with long, straight horns, is Qatar's national animal, and the government runs a program to protect it.

The sea is richer in life. Dugongs, gentle sea mammals that graze on sea grass, and hawksbill sea turtles swim in the warm waters of the Gulf, and greater flamingos and ospreys can be seen along the coasts. Fishing boats still bring in fish and shrimp.

Britannica notes that Qatar's fauna is limited and that the government has a program to protect the Arabian oryx, the national animal. The IUCN Red List does not include Qatar among the countries where captive-bred oryx have been returned to the wild.

The IUCN ranges of the dugong, the hawksbill sea turtle, the greater flamingo and the osprey include Qatar and its waters. Pearling, once a mainstay of the economy, has almost disappeared, in large part because of Japan's cultured-pearl industry, but the government keeps a fishing fleet and has promoted commercial fishing and shrimp harvesting since the late 1990s.

About 3 million people live in Qatar.

Most people speak Arabic or English. People welcome guests with warm hospitality. Camel racing and falconry are old sports.

About 3.2 million people lived in Qatar at the end of 2025. Qatari families are descended from Bedouin, desert nomads known for welcoming guests. Arabic is the official language, and English is widely used; many workers from other countries also speak Persian, Urdu and other languages.

Traditional sports include camel racing, Arabian horse racing and falconry. Football is the most popular modern sport, and in 2022 Qatar hosted the football World Cup, the first Middle Eastern country to do so. Old songs once sung by pearl divers, called nahmah, are being saved.

Qatar was settled by Bedouin nomads from central Arabia; few Qataris live a nomadic life today. Arabic is official, most Qataris speak a Gulf Arabic dialect, English is commonly used, and Persian and Urdu are common among expatriates. Islam is the official religion; Qataris are largely Sunni with a small Shia minority, while non-Qataris include Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Men often wear the white thawb with a kaffiyeh and ʿiqal, and many women wear the ʿabayah.

Bedouin weaving, poetry and singing continue, and the government works to preserve nahmah, the shanties of pearl divers. Traditional sports include horse and camel racing and falconry; football is by far the most popular modern sport. Qatar hosted the Asian Cup in 1988, 2011 and 2024 and, in 2022, the World Cup. Health care is free to all residents, and Education City near Doha hosts branches of several American universities.