Al Wakrah Dhow Harbor

Visit this harbor in the morning, and you’ll see hundreds of dhows neatly moored in rows without the hassle of hawkers trying to lure people on a dhow cruise. If you beat the crowds, you’ll get a glimpse of real harbor life, with laborers busy maintaining the vessels and others unloading the previous night’s catch.

Al Wakrah is city about a 10-minute drive from Doha. A 1903 document identified it as the northernmost point of the Pirate Coast—a stretch of land named after the marauding activities of the people living along the coast. At the time, Al Wakrah was a small fishing and pearling village that, according to other official records, harbored between 250 and 300 boats between 1920 and 1925.