A discussion session about the book held at the main theater of the Doha International Book Fair.
Doha: Qatar Museums and Qatar University Press released yesterday a book entitled ‘Al Zubarah: Qatar’s World Heritage City’, in Arabic and English, as part of their participation in the 31st Doha International Book Fair.
Issued by Qatar Museums and Qatar University Press, the book, comprised of 248 large-sized pages, deals with the historical, social, and economic background of Al Zubarah archaeological site, and the challenges of its preservation and maintenance. It also details the steps taken to add Al Zubarah to the Unesco World Heritage List.
A discussion session at the main theater of the Doha International Book Fair was allocated to talk about the book, moderated by Professor Mohamed Hammam Fikri, Heritage and Rare Books Advisor in Qatar Foundation (QF)’s Cultural Advisor Office. The session featured the participation of Faisal Abdullah Al Nuaimi, Director of Antiquities Department at Qatar Museums Authority, and Dr. Fatima Hassan Al Sulaiti, Head of the International Cooperation Department at Qatar Museums, and the plastic artist Fahad Al Maadeed, who drew the cover of the book.
It is worth mentioning that the book is divided into three sections and twelve chapters. The first chapter covers the historical, social, and economic background of Al Zubarah. It talks about the environment that the people of that era lived in and interacted with. The first section moreover tackles the recent discoveries that have been made at the archaeological site, and the area’s archaeological survey, which showed that it has been known and inhabited since the fifth millennium BC until modern times.
The second section talks about preserving and maintaining the site in accordance with Unesco directives, and strategies for studying and preserving the Al Zubarah Fort as an icon of Qatari heritage. The third section deals with promoting and managing the site, the details of adding it to the Unesco World Heritage List, and Al Zubarah visitors’ guide offered by establishing an interactive center inside the Fort as part of an educational program to raise heritage awareness.
