Qatar

19th-century travellers to the Middle East went in search of an imagined Arabia. When they couldn’t find it, they described an Orient their readers would prefer. Even today, it’s tempting to search for such stereotypes and Qatar has its share: rock carvings to testify human endurance against adversities of nature; forts to hint at the ruins of empire; and goat-hair Bedouin tents to suggest the ‘noble savage’ life in the desert.