Doha, Qatar
April 11, 2017

Once a flourishing trading and pearl-fishing town over 200 years ago, the Al Zubarah Fort was built during the reign of Sheik Abdullah Bin Jassim Al Thani. As it stands today, the fort overlooks the ruins of the glorious Al Zubarah settlement, which had a prosperous and famous trading links along the Indian Ocean, Arabia, and Western Asia sometime between the late 18th and the early 19th century.

In 2013, the Al Zubarah archaeological site became Qatar’s first UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site, alongside 900 natural and cultural sites in over 160 countries, like the Pyramids of Giza, the Acropolis of Athens, and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
The settlement was mostly destroyed in 1811, and only a protective layer of sand blown throughout the years covered the remaining rubble stone and mortar buildings. When a small part of the town was excavated, researchers were able to realize the site’s outstanding role as evidence of the urban-trading and pearl-diving tradition that sustained the major coastal towns of the region.

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