Doha: Information about Doha, the capital city of Qatar, from Doha, Yoga and Fitness.

Doha (الدوحة)

Doha, also known as Al Bidda, sits on the Eastern edge of a small, sandy country jutting out from the side of its much larger neighbour, Saudi Arabia. The Corniche, pictured to the side with the Sheraton hotel in the distance, runs along the edge of a shallow and sandy bay. Despite being the capital of an immensely wealthy country - Qatar sits on one of the largest gas fields in the world - Doha is a small city, though traffic congestion can still make it hard to get around at rush hour, and there is only limited public transport available.

Doha has been expanding in size at an astronomical rate, and sometimes it seems that there are more buildings going up in Doha than are already up. The population has also increased dramatically in recent years - a few years ago the population of the whole country stood at around 800,000. Now the population of Doha alone is estimated to be 900,000.

In the hot summer months, people's main activity is browsing the shops in the air-conditioned malls. In one mall you can even ride up and down a canal on a gondola. As the weather cools down a wider variety of shopping becomes available. You can browse through the fantastic wholesale market, which sells everything from houseplants to camels, wonder at the glistening gold in the gold souk or poke your nose around the more traditional Souq Waqif. If you fancy something more energetic, you may fancy stretching your legs along the Corniche, or even joining the Doha sailing club and racing round the bay! At the end of a day you can alsways relax in a traditional coffee shop, sipping Turkish coffee and perhaps enjoying a shisha.

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