http://www.catnaps.org/islamic/gulfarch1.html

Picture Details Geologists comments

Time – Late 1940s Place – Centre of Doha, creek Description - You can see that the creek was, at the time the photo was taken, dry with the wadi clearly seen acting as a road, a common arrangement all over the world.

Time – Late 1972 Place – Abdullah bin Jassim Street Description - Not only was Abdullah bin Jassim Street developed, but the government had begun the creation of the Corniche with the land between the two road systems being set aside for government buildings. Part of the land created between the two roads can be seen as yet to be unfilled.

Time – Place – Centre of Doha’s suq Description - Aerial photograph of the old jetty at the centre of Doha’s suq. All around the peninsula there are shallow reefs that to some extent protected settlements from piracy. The main jetty for the suq had to be pushed out some distance, both to accommodate the draught of the boats bringing in goods as well as to provide quay space for the numbers using the jetty.

Time – 1947 Place – Al-Bida stretching to the west of Doha Description - The route along which people travelled between Doha and al-Khor and villages in-between. Only later was the north road constructed some way inland.

Time – 1952 Place – Feriq al-Salata Description - Feriq al-Salata is on the right facing the east bay with the sea to its east as yet unfilled by the development of landfill adjacent to what became the Qatar National Museum; the two jetties – the Ruler’s jetty and the main, traditional craft jetty used for trade and fishing activities – can be seen clearly, and feriq al Bida and Rumailah can be seen on the left. The roads leading west to al-Rayyan and south-west to the border with Saudi Arabia can be clearly seen. The latter is known as the Salwa road, Salwa being the conurbation at the border.

Time – 1953 Place – Feriq al-Salata Description - Shows that the traditional craft jetty was being developed with the beginnings of the development of the littoral adjacent to it as the merchants sought to improve their access to the sea together with their developments on land.

Time - 1959 Place – West Bay Description - Consolidation of development to the west in the quadrant between the Rayyan Road and the coast. The three small reefs north of the jetty can be clearly seen but so too can the shallow water which stretched over much of Doha’s bay, or West Bay as it came to be called. Boats were dragged up onto the shallows though the larger craft had to stand out even with their relatively shallow draughts. With the lack of a proper sewerage system the area showed evidence of pollution witnessed by the plants which flourished there. The need to clear this area and allow the sea to wash and clean the coast line was one of the reasons that the West Bay was dredged and the New District of Doha created.

Time - 1971 Place – West Bay Description - A clear, hierarchical road structure had been put in place. The ‘A’ and ‘B’ ring roads can be clearly seen. This can be compared with the next photograph where the ‘D’ ring road can be seen as dark grey, joining to the road serving the north of the country, the North Road. At the top right of the photograph the new port can be seen with its jetty stretching east north-east, and with a parallel and public jetty below it, but with the Corniche in this part of the town, al Salata, not yet started. The Corniche on the west side of the photo can be seen with the areas between the old coast and the new Corniche in the process of being filled. Note in both photographs the marine reefs which restricted movement around the port area, but which were later taken out in order to resolve this problem.

Time – 2000+ Place – West Bay Description - By contrast, this aerial photograph shows Greater Doha round about the turn of the millennium. A small grey square has been drawn on the coastline of the bay approximately covering the area shown in the earlier photograph above in order to give some indication of the extent to which Doha had expanded in fifty or so years. Note how the road structure now includes not only the road west to Rayyan and that south-west to Salwa and Saudi, but a road to the north and one to the south via Wakra to the industrial town of Umm Said.

Time – 2005 May Place – New District of Doha, Al Dafnah Description - The project, which incorporates canals with links to jazeerat al-Safliyah, is known as The Pearl and has been formed by dredging the shallow sea and pumping the spoil to form new land similar to the mixed residential and commercial developments seen on the Dubai littoral. It is also possible to see in the photo the extension to the port to facilitate the movement of the increasing requirement for goods and, on the right hand edge of the photo, the beginnings of a bund in which the new airport is now constructed east of the existing airport which can be seen at the bottom of the photograph.

Time – 2008 Place – New District of Doha, Al Dafnah Description - In particular it illustrates the development associated with the enlarged airport on the east side of town which is constructed on reclaimed land from the relatively shallow sea there, together with a large amount of residential development on the extreme west side of the photograph running south from al-Rayyan. The Pearl can be seen to have developed considerably between the two islands of jazeerat al-’Aliyah to its north, and jazeerat al-Safliyah to its south. Another significant point of note is the large area of relatively undeveloped land between the housing in the west and the ‘D’ Ring Road in the east, the Rayyan Road in the north and the Salwa Road in the south.

Time – 2010 October Place – New District of Doha, Al Dafnah Description - The Pearl development has clarified its littoral and is now better separated from jazeerat al-Safliyah. The new airport and its access road have been completed. The early stages of the Musheirib project to the west of suq waqf.

Time – 2013 September Place – New District of Doha, Al Dafnah Description - To the north of Doha, on the coast, development continues above the jazeerat of al-’Aliyah. This development is intended to continue, particularly with the run-up to the World Football Cup as increasing numbers of expatriate workers will need to be brought in to construct its infrastructure.

Time – 2008 November Place – New District of Doha, Al Dafnah Description - This aerial photograph, taken in November 2008 and looking from the east, shows how the tall buildings of the NDOD on the West Bay.

Time – 2015 Place – New District of Doha, Al Dafnah Description – taken from google earth showing the present status of area near the reclaimed area for Hamad International Airport.