HERITAGE VILLAGE

As part of Souq Waqif, you can admire the traditional gypsum housing here. To the southeast of the modern Fish Market, see the stunning Abu Manaratain mosque and try to find your way to the house of Sheikh Ghanim, built on the basis of the one built by Majid bin Saed Al-Saed in the early 20th century. This rich pearl trader produced date paste (madbassa) here and held a salon around the country's first radio station. The blue of the water, declined from azure to navy, contrasts with the white sand and the benches decorated with cushions.

Thanks to the cultural services of the French Embassy, we were able to find a copy of a rare book: French Archaeological Mission to Qatar, Volume 1. The researchers describe what they discovered while exploring Al Wakrah at the end of 1977: "In the ruined city, along the partly silted-up port, here is a site whose interest lies in the remains of its houses richly decorated with stucco and painted plaster. These elements of habitation give a precise idea of the layout of the interior walls of these houses (niches and flat niches, claustra, decorative panels, friezes). We also recognized two mosques, one whose portico with 5 arches on the courtyard, partly collapsed, precedes the closed prayer room, and whose small minaret rises above a small aedicule housing the well of the mosque; the other whose prayer room gives directly on the courtyard and whose minaret has the shape of a sugar loaf."