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Qatar
Qatar is a country in the Middle East. Its official name is the State of Qatar. There are about 2,000,000 people. They are a very rich country. They have many reserves of oil and natural gas.[1]
Geography[edit | edit source]
Qatar is a peninsula (a strip of land sticking out into the sea). It is joined to Saudi Arabia to the south, and all the other sides of it are surrounded by the waters of the Arabian Gulf.
Qatar is quite a small country and has an area of only 10,360 km². The peninsula is 160 km long. Much of the country is a low, barren plain, covered with sand. The Jebel Dukhan area has Qatar’s main onshore oil deposits. The natural gas fields lie offshore, to the northwest of the peninsula.
The capital of Qatar is Doha. Over 90% of the people live in Doha. The other large city is Al Wakrah.
Government and politics[edit | edit source]
Qatar has an unelected, monarchic, emirate-type government. The position of emir is hereditary.[2]
The Emir is the only one who can appoint and remove the prime minister and cabinet ministers. Together the ministers make up the Council of Ministers. They are the highest executive authority in the country.[3]
People and culture[edit | edit source]
People from Qatar are called Qataris. They are Arabs. The official language of Qatar is Arabic, but many people also speak English, especially when they are doing business.
About 2,2 million people live in Qatar; however, about 88% of these are guest workers (people from another country who are living and working there for a short time), mostly coming from South Asia, South East Asia and other Arab countries. 545,000 are Indians, 400,000 Nepalis, 200,000 Filipinos among a lot of other nationalities.[4]
Nearly all of Qatar's economy comes from producing petroleum and natural gas.
The currency of Qatar is called the Qatari Riyal.
Almost all Qataris follow the religion of Islam. However, many of the guest workers follow other religions.
Sport[edit | edit source]
Football is the most popular sport in Qatar, closely followed by cricket. The Qatar under-20 national football team finished second in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship.
The Asian Football Confederation's 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals were held in Qatar in January 2011. It was the second time it has been hosted by Qatar, the other being the 1988 AFC Asian Cup.
Doha, Qatar, is also home to Qatar Racing Club a Drag Racing facility.
Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha, Qatar, hosted the WTA Tour Championships in women's tennis between 2008 and 2010. Doha holds the WTA Premier tournament Qatar Ladies Open each year.
On 2 December 2010, Qatar won their bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.[5]
Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar won the 2011 Dakar Rally and the Production World Rally Championship in 2006. In addition, he has also won gold medals at the 2002 Asian Games and 2010 Asian Games as part of the Qatari skeet shooting team.
Since 2002, Qatar has hosted the yearly Tour of Qatar, a cycling race in six stages. Every February, riders are racing on the roads across Qatar's flat land for six days. Each stage covers a distance of more than 100 km.[6]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ World's Richest Countries. Forbes (2012-04-18). Retrieved on 2012-05-30.
- ↑ "Middle East :: Qatar". CIA World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 8 Feb 2012. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/qa.html. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
- ↑ "Council of Ministers". Embassy of the State of Qatar in Washington DC. http://www.qatarembassy.net/council.asp. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
- ↑ "Qatar's population by nationality". bqdoha.com. http://www.bqdoha.com/2013/12/population-qatar. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ↑ Paul Radford (2 Dec 2010). "Russia, Qatar win 2018 and 2022 World Cups". Reuters. http://af.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idAFJOE6B10FA20101202. Retrieved 2 Dec 2010.
- ↑ The homepage of Tour of Qatar. Letour.fr (1994-12-01). Retrieved on 2012-05-30.
Other websites[edit | edit source]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Qatar |
- Amiri Diwan official government website
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