Qatar

Discover Qatar

Fun Foods

Machboos, Harees, Thareed, Balaleet, Luqaimat, Karak, Khanfaroosh, Sago Pudding

Today Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world. But not long ago, its greatest treasure came from the bottom of the sea.

For thousands of years, the people of Qatar made their living by diving for pearls. A diver would tie a stone to one foot, clip something over his nose, and sink about 14 meters down, holding his breath the whole way.

Then he'd grab as many oysters as he could before pulling himself up by a rope. Most oysters held nothing. Every so often, one held a shining pearl.

Boats stayed out at sea for months, and at the industry's peak, almost every Qatari man worked in pearling.

It was hard and dangerous work, and much of it was done by enslaved people. The pearl trade made some people wealthy, but it depended on others who had no freedom and no choice.

Then, in the 1920s and 1930s, everything changed. An inventor in Japan figured out how to grow pearls inside oysters on purpose, and these new pearls cost a fraction of the price.

Demand for Qatar's natural pearls collapsed, and the small desert country fell on very hard times.

Help came from underground. Oil was discovered in 1939, and later Qatar realized it was sitting on one of the largest natural gas fields on Earth, the third-biggest gas reserves of any country.

In a single lifetime, Qatar went from one of the poorest places in the region to one of the wealthiest countries anywhere. It became fully independent from Britain in 1971.

The capital, Doha, mixes shiny skyscrapers with old traditions. At Souq Waqif, a busy market, you can wander past stalls of spices and fabrics, plus a whole section devoted to falcons.

Out on the water, you can sail on a dhow, the same kind of wooden boat the pearl divers used. And in the south, the desert runs right into the sea at Khor Al Adaid, a quiet "inland sea" ringed by giant sand dunes.

For food, machboos is the national dish: spiced rice cooked with meat or fish. Wash it down with karak, a sweet, milky tea flavored with cardamom.

And save room for luqaimat, little fried dough balls drizzled with date syrup.