Qatar is a sovereign and independent Arab State located in the Middle East on the Gulf Coast. Local folklore describes the outline of the country as a hand, stretched out for a prayer.

Doha is Qatar’s capital city with approx. 1,500,000 inhabitants.

Qatar has been an emirate since 1971 after it gained independence from the UK and is now under the political leadership of His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

The official currency is the Qatari Riyal (QR), QR 1 = 100 Dirham.

Arabic is the official language, but English is widely used, especially in Doha.

Qatar is located on the west coast of the Arabian Gulf in the east of the Arabian Peninsula. In the south, Qatar borders Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, other neighboring countries are Bahrain in the northwest and Iran in the northeast. Qatar is 11,586 km² big (As a comparison: Germany: 357,167 km²).

Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Khor, Mesaieed, Al Wakra, Dukhan, Al-Zubarah and Madinat Ash-Shamal are Qatar’s larger cities.

Qatar has a moderate desert climate with long hot summers and short mild winters with little rain.

Qatar has around two million inhabitants, with 75.8% males and 24.2% females.

Despite that Islam is its official religion, Qatar is tolerant towards other religions.

The Qatari flag has two colors, white and maroon. The white symbolizes peace and maroon represents the blood shed in past wars. Both areas are separated by a nine-point serrated line that indicates that Qatar is the 9th member of the “reconciled Emirates” of the Arabian Gulf.