🇶🇦Halal Travel Guide to Qatar

The national mosque, with 93 domes, 28 entrances and capacity for 30,000. Sandstone-coloured and deliberately plain inside, in keeping with Qatar's architectural tradition.

The spiral minaret is modelled on the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq. Fanar runs free guided tours, Arabic classes and question sessions for non-Muslims, and is the country's designated point of contact for visitors.

Raised on five pillars for the five pillars of Islam, with four streams of water running beneath it and Qur'anic verses cast into the concrete facade. The minarets lean like raised hands. Visits can be arranged through Qatar Foundation.

Blue and purple Persian tilework over a cluster of small domes, on the Katara waterfront. Small, ornate and quite unlike the restrained Qatari norm.

Clad in gold mosaic tiles that catch the late sun, at the entrance to the cultural village.

One of the older large mosques in the city centre, close to Souq Waqif and used for Friday prayers by the surrounding neighbourhoods.

A traditional coral-and-mud-style mosque rebuilt as part of the Al Wakrah souq restoration, right on the sea wall.

The Msheireb Downtown regeneration includes several small contemporary mosques in a deliberately Qatari modern idiom - plain white massing, deep shade, no ornament.

One of the oldest surviving mosques in Doha, restored, with a simple squat minaret from before the oil era.

Beside the 19th-century Barzan watchtowers north of Doha - a small traditional mosque in a village setting, 20 minutes from the city.

I.M. Pei's last major building, on its own island. Manuscripts, metalwork, ceramics, textiles and scientific instruments from Spain to India across fourteen centuries. Free entry; allow at least three hours.

Jean Nouvel's interlocking discs modelled on the desert rose crystal, wrapped around the restored royal palace. Eleven galleries from geology to the present, with an outstanding pearling section.

Four restored heritage houses. Bin Jelmood House deals directly and unflinchingly with the history of slavery in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf - unusual, and the best of the four.

A walled 18th-century pearling town, abandoned in the 19th century and largely undisturbed since. The fort houses the visitor centre.

Rebuilt in traditional mud-render style on the site of the original market, with a falcon souk and hospital, spice and textile alleys, and a courtyard restaurant scene that runs until 1am.

A purpose-built cultural district with two mosques, an amphitheatre, galleries, a pigeon tower and a beach. Hosts the Qatar International Food Festival and the traditional dhow festival.

Qatari home cooking in a tiny souq unit - balaleet, chebab, machboos and a famous shakshuka. Run by Shams Al Qassabi, the first woman to hold a trading licence in the souq. Breakfast and lunch only.

Yemeni mandi and haneeth served on the floor in curtained family rooms. Enormous portions, very cheap, and consistently full.

Persian cooking in a room lined entirely with mirror mosaic in the Shiraz tradition. Worth seeing even if you only order tea.

Syrian mezze and grills on a busy souq corner, open very late, with live oud most evenings.

Palestinian knafeh nabulsieh made to order on a hot plate. The queue after isha tells you which branch to use.

Alain Ducasse's Qatari restaurant on the museum roof - contemporary treatments of machboos and local seafood, with a view over the bay.

Ducasse again, on top of the MIA. French-Arabic cooking and the best interior in the city. Alcohol is served here; Jiwan is the alcohol-free alternative.

A Doha institution since the 1990s - charcoal grills, kebabs and bread, cheap and always busy. Several branches.

The drive-through karak and chapati chain that Doha actually runs on. QAR 10 feeds you. Open until very late.

Long-established Lebanese restaurant on the Corniche with a terrace facing the West Bay towers. Reliable mezze, and the view is the point.

Modern Qatari cooking in the Msheireb district - traditional dishes plated carefully, in a contemporary room.

Lebanese and Syrian grills with a garden terrace, popular with families and open late into the night.

A dozen seafood and Levantine restaurants along the restored waterfront souq, quieter than Souq Waqif and with a beach attached.

Fully plant-based, useful if you are travelling with vegetarians, and one of the first of its kind in the Gulf.

A cluster of small hotels inside the restored souq buildings themselves - courtyards, wind towers and the market outside the door. No alcohol in most of them, and the best location in the city.

The tower district, on the metro, with the Corniche walk on one side and the malls on the other. Most of the large international hotels are here.

The regenerated old centre - walkable, low-rise, with the museums and a tram, and noticeably calmer than West Bay.

Waterfront apartments and hotels with restaurants along the promenades. Good with families, 20 minutes from the centre.

Beside the cultural village and the beach, with the two mosques and the amphitheatre on the doorstep.

Tented camps from basic to luxurious on the dunes and the Inland Sea. All alcohol-free, all with prayer areas.

The restored souq and a beach, 20 minutes from the city and considerably cheaper. Good if you have a car.