Doha,+Qatar

In 2009 students in Years 3 & 4 are swapping bookmarks with a school in Doha, Qatar, in the Middle East. Our partner school is the Qatar Academy. Click here to see their website.

Introduction to Qatar

Doha is a very modern city with many fine buildings.

It is a Gulf state in the Middle East, surrounded by the waters of the Persian Gulf all around except for where it is joined to its neighbour Saudi Arabia. Doha is the capital city. It is on the eastern coast.

Qatar is a very small country. It is only about 180km long from north to south - that's only about as far as Melbourne to Traralgon, to Shepparton or from Endeavour Hills to Bendigo or Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. It is only about 50km wide - that's only a little bit further than from Endeavour Hills to the City of Melbourne. Check these places out on a map of Victoria and then you can see how small Qatar really is.

Flag of Qatar


This is the flag of Qatar. The white means Peace; the maroon reminds them of the blood shed in war and the 9 points shows that Qatar is one of the 9 members of the Gulf States. This has been their flag since 1971.

Flag of Australia
This is Australia's flag. The Union Jack in the corner shows our links to Britain, and the 5 stars are the stars of the Southern Cross which we see in the southern sky. The big star under the Union Jack is the Commonwealth Star, which shows that Australia is a member of the British Commonwealth. It has been our flag since 1954.

The National Anthem
Click [|here] to hear the National Anthem of Qatar. It is called The Peace for the Anthem.

Government
Qatar is an Emirate. This means that it is ruled by a royal family. The ruler of Qatar is His Highness the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani. He took over from his father in 1995.

Australia is a democracy. This means that the ordinary people of Australia vote for the government they want in an election. The leader of Australia is the Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd. He is the Prime Minister because the Australian people voted for him.

History
People have lived in Qatar since ancient times, since about 7000 years ago. For hundreds of years, Qatar was part of the Ottoman (Turkish) and then the British Empire. It became independent in 1971. For most of the time, most of the people were nomads, who moved around from place to place to get food.

Between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago, Aboriginal people came to Australia and lived here by themselves. They were nomads, who travelled around from place to place to hunt and gather food. Then in 1770 Captain Cook claimed Australia for the British Empire, and 18 years late in 1788 the British settlers came to New South Wales. They started farming in Australia. In 1901, the six states federated to become the Australian nation.

Population
Less than one million people live in Qatar, and most of these are foreign workers who come from other countries to work in the Oil industry. Oil is Qatar's main export.

Australia's population is about 22 million. About 4 million people live in Melbourne. Sydney is bigger, with 4,400,000 people. People in Australia work in all kinds of jobs, mostly in tourism, education and banking, but also in mines, factories or on farms. Australia exports coal, gold, meat, wool, alumina, iron ore, wheat, machinery and transport equipment all over the world.

Religion
Most citizens in Qatar are Muslim but people from other countries who work there are allowed to have their own religion. Most people in Australia are Christian, but Australian citizens can have any religion they like, or even no religion.

Dress
Qatari men usually wear the long white dress which is typical Arabic dress. Qatari women and girls wear brightly coloured traditional clothing, and usually cover their heads. In Australia you can wear anything you like.

What to see and do in Doha
In Doha you can visit the Museum of Islamic Art (see picture at left). Their website has fun activities like Join the Dots and colouring pages. Click here to see. They built the museum to look a bit like a mosque in Eqypt. Click here to compare the two.



. = = There is a Heritage Village where you can see old fashioned things like traditional basket-making and an Arab dhow being repaired.



Interesting things about Qatar
Qatari people think it's rude to eat with the left hand. They don't shake hands with the left hand or use it to pass things to someone else.

People start work very early in the morning, sometimes seven o'clock! Many shops open at eight o'clock but they close in the middle of the day for 'siesta' and don't open again till about four o'clock. This is because it's very hot (but not as hot as Melbourne in the middle of a heat wave!)

The Al Jazeera TV station in Doha is the only TV station in the whole of the middle east which allows freedom of speech.

In Qatar, there is a monument to pearls because for a long time it was just about their only export. (This graphic is from [])

Can you guess what this is?
No, it's not a space ship. It's a university! It's Cornell University's Medical college in Doha! (But where are the windows???)

Check out the amazing coffee-pot building too! Maybe our friends at the Qatar Academy can tell us what it is?

Sources:
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All photos are from [|Wikipedia Commons] unless otherwise noted. World Atlas map used by permission granted 5.9.09. The coffee-pot photo is used by permission of [|Travel Adventures] The dress photos come from []