The collector’s item gifted by the Alyafi IP Group in 2016 is Al Zubarah in Qatar.
Al Zubarah, is a district located on the north western coast of the Qatar peninsula in the Madinat ash Shamal municipality, about 105 km from Doha. It was founded by merchants from Kuwait in the mid-18th century. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013.
It was once a successful center of global trade and pearl fishing positioned midway between the Strait of Hormuz and the west arm of the Persian Gulf.
It is one of the most extensive and best preserved examples of an 18th–19th century settlement in the region.
Links to the Phoenician:
- Al Zubarah prospered on global trade and pearl fishing.
- The etching of a merchant’s dhow, the traditional wooden boat of Arabia, found incised into the plaster in a room of a courtyard building, details how intimately the town’s inhabitants associated their daily lives with long-distance maritime trade and commerce.
- Al Zubarah was built on the basis of trade and economics.
- Ancient historians (Itabo and Herotodus) believed that Phoenicians were the first inhabitants of the area. While they could not have been the first (their civilization existed from around 3000 BC, and they only became a significant power from around 1100 BC).
- In the bay of Al Khor royal colors of purple and scarlet were historically produced by crushing sea snails.
