Qatar

Cultural Institutions 

Explore Qatar Museums
In partnership with Qatar Museums, a selection of museums across Doha invites visitors to engage with the country&rsquo;s leading cultural institutions.

The 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum ranks among the world&rsquo;s most forward-thinking sports museums. Through engaging narrative experiences, it highlights the development of sport and showcases Qatar&rsquo;s deep enthusiasm for it.

3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum (3-2-1 QOSM)

Discover the greatest concentration of Qatar&rsquo;s coastal rock carvings, or petroglyphs, at Al Jassasiya, around 60 km north of Doha on low limestone hills. Discovered in 1957, the site was systematically studied in 1974, when nearly 900 carved single figures and compositions were catalogued. These carvings, which are unique in composition and design among the petroglyphs of the Gulf region, consist mainly of cup marks in various arrangements, including rows, rosettes, and stars, but also of figurative carvings, such as boats, animal figures, and enigmatic symbols and signs. It is believed that the cup marks were used for playing ancient board games, one of which may have been Mancala, which was known in Qatar as Al Haloosa or Al Huwaila. It has been suggested that the earliest rock carvings might date back to the Neolithic period. However, new evidence makes it seem more likely that they were made within the past 250 years.

Al Jassasiya Rock Art Site

Discover Al Rekayat Fort, once in Qatar&rsquo;s most populated region during the 18th and 19th centuries thanks to its proximity to the sea and Bahrain, a regional trade centre. The exact date of the construction of Al Rekayat is yet to be determined, but archaeological evidence suggests that it could go back to the mid-18th century, when nearby Al Zubarah was thriving. Al Rekayat means &lsquo;wells&rsquo; in Arabic, so it seems likely that the fort, like others, was built to protect water resources. Al Rekayat has three rectangular corner towers and one cylindrical tower. Narrow, windowless rooms can be found on three sides of the large central courtyard. The only entrance to the fort is located in the southern front wall. The fort was partially conserved in 1988 and underwent major conservation in 2021.

Al Rekayat Fort

Discover the Al Ruwaida Archaeological Site, a coastal settlement dating back to the 16th century and extending about 2.5 km along northwest Qatar. Inhabited from roughly the 16th through the 18th centuries, Al Ruwaida included a large central fort, two mosques, a boatyard, and merchants&rsquo; warehouses. In 2013, archaeologists working under the sponsorship of Qatar Museums discovered a small sculpted bone plaque (around 5 cm long) depicting a complete oryx, with a tie on the back suggesting it may have been worn as a brooch or used as a furniture fitting. Estimated to be about 300 years old, the carving represents an antelope that is now a protected species in Qatar

Al Ruwaida Archaeological Site

Discover Al Zubarah, Qatar&rsquo;s largest archaeological heritage site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2013. It is the best-preserved example of an&nbsp;18th&ndash;19th century trading and pearl-fishing town in the Gulf region. Unlike its contemporaries, it is largely intact and has not been lost beneath the region&rsquo;s vast modern cities. The site, located approximately 100 km northwest of Doha, stretches 2.5 km from the Al Zubarah Fort to the coast. Founded in the mid-eighteenth century, the town developed into the country&rsquo;s largest and most important settlement. Its success attracted the attention of other Gulf powers, and after several attacks the town was burned to the ground in 1811. By the first decades of the 20th century, it was abandoned. Today, the site covers an area of 60 hectares with remains of houses,&nbsp;masajid&nbsp;(mosques),&nbsp;madabis (date presses), large fortified buildings, and a market.

Al Zubarah Archaeological Site

Discover the Barzan Towers are located about 20 km north of Doha in the village of Umm Salal Mohammed, which was developed in 1910 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Jassim Al Thani. Built in the early 1900s, the Barzan Towers were used to monitor the arable land and wells in their surrounding area.

Barzan Towers

Fire Station is a non-profit centre for contemporary art production, display and education in Doha. This multipurpose facility features studios, three large exhibition halls, an auditorium, workshops and a fab-lab and communal spaces for seminars. Fire Station&rsquo;s activities are centred around the Artist&rsquo;s Intensive Study Programme &ndash; a unique nine-month opportunity for emerging international and Qatari artists offering a curriculum shaped by diverse global perspectives to nurture a new generation of innovative, critical artists.

Fire Station

Lawh Wa Qalam: M. F. Husain Museum, established by Qatar Foundation, celebrates the life and work of Maqbool Fida Husain. Spanning over 3,000 square meters, the museum was born from a sketch by Husain himself and realized by architect Martand Khosla. Its galleries feature the artist&rsquo;s final works created in Qatar, including the Arab Civilization series, and culminate with his last and most ambitious masterpiece, Seeroo fi al ardh. Personal objects and diverse works across genres and media offer deeper insights into his creative journey. The museum is located in Education City, Doha, reflecting the spirit of cross-disciplinary exchange that defines its setting. It offers an immersive experience of Husain&rsquo;s creativity that spills beyond the exhibition space. Through multimedia installations, archival materials, and immersive displays, visitors encounter the ideas and inspirations that shaped his bold visual language. Staying true to Husain&rsquo;s way of engaging with the world, the museum also hosts learning and outreach programs for all ages, inviting discovery where art, culture, and knowledge come together.

Lawh Wa Qalam: M. F. Husain Museum

Founded in 2010, Mathaf offers a distinct Arab viewpoint on modern and contemporary art. Its permanent collection includes more than 9,000 works by prominent artists from the Arab world, spanning the 1840s to today, and also features influential figures from regions linked to the Arab Peninsula across Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Mathaf)

The museum, designed by Pritzker Prize winner I.M. Pei, sits on a man-made island along Doha&rsquo;s Corniche and is considered an architectural landmark. It features four floors of permanent and temporary galleries, a gift shop, a caf&eacute;, and the fine-dining restaurant IDAM by Alain Ducasse on the fifth floor. The institution also houses a heritage library holding 21,000 books, including 2,000 rare Arabic and English editions.

Museum Of Islamic Art (MIA)

Qatar Museums&rsquo; personalized AI tour offers the public an intuitive way to explore Doha&rsquo;s rich cultural landscape, curating tailored journeys across public art, museums, heritage sites, architecture, and cultural landmarks. Designed around individual interests, location, and time, the AI tool connects experiences across the city, transforming Doha into a seamless, self-guided cultural map. &nbsp;At the heart of this experience is Doha&rsquo;s emergence as one of the world&rsquo;s most ambitious outdoor art landscapes. City streets, parks, airports, deserts, heritage sites, and public buildings form an open-air museum shaped by permanent, site-specific, and temporary commissions by Qatar Museums, embedding art into everyday life. &nbsp;Monumental works by internationally renowned artists anchor the programme, including Richard Serra&rsquo;s iconic 7 at MIA Park and East-West/West-East in the desert, alongside immersive installations such as Olafur Eliasson&rsquo;s Shadows Travelling on the Sea of the Day. These landmarks sit alongside a diverse range of international and local artists whose works reflect themes of identity, memory, nature, and community. &nbsp;Community-led initiatives like Jedariart further activate urban spaces through murals and participatory projects, while open calls support emerging talent. Together, the public art programme and AI tour make art and culture accessible, connected, and discoverable&mdash;across Doha and beyond.

for Public Art, Heritage and Culture in Qatar

Personal AI- Guided Tour

Designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Jean Nouvel, the National Museum of Qatar evokes the form of desert-rose crystal formations. Built around Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al-Thani&rsquo;s historic palace&mdash;the former seat of government&mdash;it showcases Qatar&rsquo;s heritage while looking toward its future, encompassing approximately 430,500 square feet.

The National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ)

Discover the Old Palace, built in the early 20th century by Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani, who is today considered to be the father of modern Qatar. For around a decade, the palace was at the centre of Qatar&rsquo;s political leadership, serving as the residence of the ruler of Qatar and his family and the seat of government. n 1975 the palace was converted into the Qatar National Museum, which included a Museum of the State, a lagoon and a popular marine aquarium. In 1980 the adaptation of the Old Palace as a museum won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

The Old Palace at NMoQ

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Discover Zekreet Fort, a historic coastal stronghold originally built for defense by tribal leader Rahma bin Jaber Al Jalahmah using faroush stones (beach rocks). The fort&rsquo;s rectangular layout was later reinforced with corner towers, and archaeologists have uncovered nearby structures between the fort and the sea, including three madabis (date-pressing rooms). A short distance away, experience East-West/West-East by Richard Serra, a landmark public art installation and must-see site close to the fort and mosque.
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Zekreet Fort and Mosque

Art Basel Qatar | Cultural Institutions

Cultural Institutions | ABQ26 post show

SECOM - secondary header module

Intro

NMoQ, MIA

QSOM, Mathaf

Fire Station, Zekreet Fort

Barzan, Al Ruwaida

Al Jassasiya, Al Rekayat

Old Palace, Al Zubarah

M. F. Husain Museum, Personal AI- Guided Tour

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