Six interrelated forces have, indelibly stamped the capital city and the small peninsular nation that it serves.
- A seemingly barren desert, which nevertheless has managed to support human life for the past five millennia.
- The marvellously cordial and world famous Arab hospitality, which grew out of the need of desert people to physically support and nurture one another through hard times, in a harsh and unforgiving environment.
- Incredibly rich fishing and pearl-diving opportunities, which originally attracted the Qatari people to Doha Bay.
- The lively peculiarities of a pre-modern barter economy, still in evidence in the souqs or old-town traditional market places.
- The adoption of Islam, which cradles, inspires and touches all activities within the state.
- The sudden discovery of subterranean oil in the mid 20th Century, which took the Qataris from pearls to petroleum and from camels to cartels in two generations.
Thus, Doha remains a fascinating amalgam of old and new, of the traditional and the ultra-modern. There are few places like it on earth.
