Doha
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الدوحة Doha |
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| Coordinates | 25 ° 17 ′ N , 51 ° 31 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Qatar | ||
| Doha | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | QA-DA | ||
| height | 7 m | ||
| surface | 234 km² | ||
| Residents | 587,055 (April 2015) | ||
| Metropolitan area | 956.457 | ||
| density | 2,508.8 Ew. / km² | ||
.jpg) Satellite image, 2016
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Doha ([ ˈdoːha ], Arabic الدوحة ad-Dauha , DMG ad-Dauḥa , in the dialect ad-Dōha for "The Bay") is the capital of Qatar and is located on the Persian Gulf . The population was 587,055 in April 2015. In the agglomeration of Doha live (as of April 2015) 956,457 people. Doha is rapidly growing together with the city of Ar-Rayyan, only nine kilometers away. The city is home to Hamad International Airport , important parts of the oil and fishing industry and the “ Education City ”, an area for research and education.
history
While the barren peninsula has been traversed by nomadic Bedouins for thousands of years, it wasn't until 1850 that a city called "Al-bida" was founded. Al-Wajba , a fortress in southwest Doha, was built by ar-Rayyan in 1882 and was the scene of the battle in the following year in which the people of Qatar, led by the British and on the side of the Allies, fought the Ottoman Empire together with Sheikh Qasim laid the foundation for his independence.
In the subsequent period of British rule , the city became the capital of the Protectorate of Qatar in 1916 and remained in this function after independence in 1971. As an outward sign of the power gained, the fortress al-Kut in the center of the city was built by Sheikh Abdullah bin Qasim Al Thani in 1917 .
The oil exports from Doha, which began under the British protectorate in 1949, established Qatar's new prosperity. Most of the investment flows into the capital, where almost half of the country's population now lives. The Government House , which opened in 1969 and is the seat of British colonial officials, is now known as Qatar's most famous landmark.
Demographics
| March 1986 | March 1997 | March 2004 | April 2010 | April 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 217.294 | 264.009 | 339,847 | 521.283 | 587.055 |
Education, culture and sport
With the boom through oil and gas production, Qatar was able to build up a differentiated training system. Important positions in the economy and in the training sector are still filled with specialists from all over the world, but the trend is declining because more and more well-trained young Qataris are pushing their way.
university
The University of Qatar in Doha, a north-facing campus university, opened in 1973. It emerged from the older teacher training college. The training follows Anglo-Saxon models: Bachelor and Master degrees can be obtained in six colleges and one medical faculty. A special feature of this university is that the western legal system as well as the Islamic law ( Sharia ) and the corresponding Islamic studies can be practiced here side by side . With around 73% of the 7660 students in the 2005/06 winter semester, the university had a remarkably high proportion of women. In addition, six well-known foreign universities (e.g. Carnegie Mellon) have set up smaller “offshoots” on site. Here in particular, there is a lively exchange of students, postgraduates and lecturers, so that the once insignificant and remote Doha has long since joined the locations with international scientific visibility.
watch TV
The Al Jazeera television station, which broadcasts to all Arab countries , has been broadcasting from its main studios in Doha since 1996. The Libya opposition broadcaster Libya TV has been broadcasting its programs from here since March 2011 .
Sports
The Qatar Masters , an international golf tournament , has been held at the Doha Golf Club since 1998 . In December 2006, the city hosted the 15th Asian Games . For this major international event, an approximately 200 hectare sports area with stadiums, covered large hall, ice rink, etc. was built. The Olympic torch shone in the 318 m high Aspire Tower as a sign of identification . After the good impression of the Asian Games, Doha applied to host the 2016 Olympic Games , but was not declared an official candidate for the International Olympic Committee . The same thing happened with the renewed application for the 2020 Olympic Games : Qatar is too hot in summer and in autumn it does not suit most team sports because the national leagues are already running. The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar in winter and numerous games will take place in six air-conditioned stadiums in the capital, Doha.
Before that is Doha hosted the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships in swimming, the staircase World Championship in 2015 in the Aspire Tower , the 2015 World Men's Handball Championship , the 2016 UCI Road World Championships , the World Gymnastics Championships in 2018 and the 2019 World Championships in Athletics .
Religious institutions
There are a large number of mosques throughout the city, ranging in architecture from very simple to grand and modern. The ten most famous mosques are:
- Imam Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab Mosque : The mosque was named after the name of the Saudi preacher Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab . It is located in the Jubailat district and is the national Friday mosque of Qatar.
- Hamad International Airport Mosque : The mosque is located at Hamad International Airport and has the shape of a water droplet.
- Souq Waqif Mosque : The mosque is located in the traditional Souq Waqif. Its architectural realization does not correspond to the style prevailing in the Gulf, but is an imitation of the Great Mosque of Samarra .
- Katara Mosque : The mosque is located in the cultural village of Katara.
- Education City Mosque : The mosque was designed by the Spanish architectural firm Mangera Yvars Architects . The prayer hall and the cream offer a total of around 1,800 believers space for their prayer. It is particularly popular with tourists as a sight because of its striking appearance.
- Musheireb Mosque : The mosque is located in the Musheireb district and is also called the Sheikh Mosque .
- University Mosque: The small mosque is located on the University of Qatar campus and was opened for use in 1985.
- Pearl Qatar Mosque : The small mosque is located on the artificial island The Pearl .
- Al Rayyan Mosque .
- Al Qebab mosque .
In 2008 Doha was given a Catholic church for the first time, consecrated to "Our Lady of the Rosary", which cost eleven to twelve million euros. It is the first Christian church in the country since the Islamic conquests . Masses are held there in Arabic, English, Italian, Spanish and other languages.
Museums
The National Museum of Qatar was first opened in 1975 in the former ruler's palace. It was later replaced by a new building in the shape of a sand rose by the French architect Jean Nouvel on the Corniche and has been open to the public since March 28, 2019. In a total of eleven exhibition rooms, exhibits on the history of Qatar are shown on over 40,000 square meters.
At the end of 2008, the new Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) , located prominently at the port entrance, was opened. Its collection of Islamic art is one of the most exquisite and, with 45,000 square meters of exhibition space, also one of the largest in the world. The unconventionally nested museum building was designed by the Chinese-American star architect Ieoh Ming Pei , and the interior was designed by the French designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte .
The fire station is a nine-month guest program from September to June in which artists who live in Qatar are given studio space on one of the five floors of the fire station building. The garage gallery with changing exhibitions is located in the building .
More museums are to be opened from 2019:
- Arab Museum of Modern Art (MATHAF).
- 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum.
- Oriental Museum.
Development of the cityscape
As in many larger cities in the Persian Gulf, the Doha skyline is increasingly dominated by mostly solitary high-rise buildings, some with distinctive Arabic styles. In addition, more and more low-rise residential buildings are being built into the area. The older, historically rather insignificant building fabric is becoming less and less due to new building activity. Usually only the streets, small squares and traffic islands near the coast are greened.
The eastern corniche, accompanied by small parks, stretches about six kilometers along the semicircular bay. The tourism area to the north is marked by two special projects: the “West Bay Complex” bays and villas with canals and especially the luxury island The Pearl, which was designed for 30,000 residents just off the coast . Another, much larger development project (still today) outside Doha north along the coast is the Lusail City urbanization project , planned to accommodate 200,000 people.
In order to give an urban development direction to the further, until then quite haphazard, expansion inside Doha, an inner-city master plan was drawn up in the years from 2000. The core of the development area is a multi-purpose city center with 129,000 square meters of shopping space, a large hotel, four office and four residential high-rise buildings and 2500 parking spaces. In addition, there will be an open sales and entertainment zone with department stores and branded outlet shops as well as restaurants, cinemas, an ice rink, bowling alleys, etc. The architects were commissioned to prefer a particularly “shop-friendly” souq design. This is to be achieved with special roof and facade constructions and continuous arcades, which keep the burning sun away from the alleys as much as possible. [outdated]
politics
Unlike many of the almost absolute rulers of the Gulf emirates, the Emir of Qatar has given up part of his political power and introduced local self-government. This principle has already been introduced in Kuwait , and decision-making processes are usually longer. On April 1, 2007, the 29-member city council of Doha was newly elected. A total of 125 candidates ran for election, including three women. The turnout was 51.1% compared to 31% in 2003.
Economic future
Although Qatar does not see the end of oil and gas production anytime soon, efforts are already being made to channel private and public investments into other economic areas. Doha is expected to develop as a sports, leisure, financial and educational center, but this will mean fierce competition with neighboring Dubai and sometimes with Abu Dhabi .
The Qatar Financial Center (QFC), founded in 2005, aims to create an environment for international regulatory standards in the financial sector. Qatar is also trying to establish strategic partnerships with European exchanges in order to introduce the previously insignificant regional exchange into global markets. The medical business and health tourism, which is important in the Middle East, are also being taken up: by 2012, three new medical centers and special clinics will open. Tourism in Doha is already in full development: the 6,084 hotel rooms (2008) will more than double to 13,000 by 2010. The occupancy rate of the hotels can still be increased to 69% (2008). a. by building a large conference and exhibition center. The Doha Convention Center Tower will represent the new city crown in a 500 meter high skyscraper. Originally it was supposed to be finished in 2012, but since summer 2009 the construction work has been suspended for an indefinite period. [outdated]
Transport projects
Following the example of the neighboring cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi , it has been examined since 2009 whether the rapidly growing city should also cope with the increased volume of traffic with the help of a rail-based local transport system ( Doha Metro ).
According to the National Development Plan for 2030 for Qatar, Doha will get an underground train. The Green Line with 16.6 km of double tunnels and 6 stations is to be built for 5 years, 50% of which went to Porr as an order worth 945 million euros .
UN Climate Conference 2012
According to World Bank statistics , the oil emirate of Qatar is currently the country with the world's highest CO 2 emissions per capita. Nevertheless, the UN climate conference took place in 2012 in the capital Doha. The holding of the conference in the country with the world's highest CO 2 emissions per capita is assessed variously as the failure of global climate protection policy according to the Emissions Gap Report 2012 of the UN environmental protection program UNEP .
Attractions
climate
In Doha, as in the rest of the country, there is a hot desert climate. The humidity drops in spring and increases again in autumn. The summer in Doha is extraordinarily long and hot. It is not uncommon for the temperature to rise above 50 ° C. In winter the temperatures are in the range of 20 ° C. Generally it is relatively dry in Doha. There are only occasional downpours, which occur mainly in spring.
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Doha
Source: wetterkontor.de
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sons and daughters of the town
- Mohamed bin Hammam (* 1949), entrepreneur and football official
- Hamad bin Chalifa Al Thani (* 1952), politician, head of state of Qatar from 1995 to 2013
- Abdullah bin Chalifa Al Thani (* 1959), politician, Prime Minister of Qatar from 1996 to 2007
- Nasser Al-Attiyah (* 1970), marksman and rally driver
- Nasser Al-Khelaifi (* 1973), Qatari businessman and tennis player
- Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (* 1980), politician, head of state of Qatar since 2013
- Al-Mayasa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (* 1983), President of the Museum Authority of the Emirates of Qatar
- Hamid Ismail (* 1987), football player
- Khalfan Ibrahim (* 1988), football player
- Noor Al-Malki (* 1994), track and field athlete
- Rania al-Naji (* 2000), hammer thrower
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cities and Places in Qatar
- ↑ April 2010 Population by sex and municipality ( Memento from November 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 71 kB)
- ↑ Qatar: Districts, Cities & Towns - Population Statistics, Maps, Charts, Weather and Web Information. Retrieved July 20, 2018 .
- ↑ 10 Notable Mosques of Qatar
- ↑ Project page of the Spanish architecture firm Mangera Yvars Architects .
- ^ Church of Doha: A New Home for Catholics in the Middle East , FAZ , March 20, 2008.
- ↑ Plan of services in the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary
- ^ Official website of the National Museum of Qatar in English.
- ^ Official website of the Museum of Islamic Art in English.
- ^ Official website of the fire station in English.
- ^ Official website of the Arab Museum of Modern Art (MATHAF) in English.
- ^ Official website of the 3-2-1 Olympic and Sports Museum Qatar in English.
- ^ Official website of the Oriental Museum in English.
- ↑ a b One woman voted to Qatar Council ( Memento from November 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://orf.at/#/stories/2186917/ 945 million order: Porr builds underground line in Doha, ORF.at June 12, 2013
- ↑ CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita). In: Catalog Sources World Development Indicators. The World Bank, accessed November 27, 2012 .
- ^ The Emissions Gap Report 2012 - A UNEP Synthesis Report. United Nations Environment Program UNEP, accessed November 27, 2012 .
- ↑ "The UN climate summit , which started on Monday, will lead the 15,000 or so participants into the lion's den, because the host emirate of Qatar has - per inhabitant - the highest carbon dioxide emissions in the world. Each of the 1.7 million people living there causes an average of 31 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year. For comparison: a US citizen has 17.3 tons, a German 9.9 and a Chinese 7.2 tons. " Angelika Hillmer: In the country with the highest CO2 emissions in the world . In: Welt Online , 26-Nov-2012. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
- ^ Climate in Doha , accessed April 10, 2014