Boat carvings
Boats seen from above, with their oars.
Alex Sergeev (www.asergeev.com) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Peter — CC BY 2.0 · Peter — CC BY 2.0 · Alex Sergeev (www.asergeev.com) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Alex Sergeev (www.asergeev.com) — CC BY-SA 3.0
Al Jassasiya, on Qatar's north-east coast, is the richest of the country's dozen coastal rock-art sites, with nearly 900 figures and compositions catalogued. They are cut into low limestone ridges, old dunes turned to stone no more than 7 m high. The site has been on ICESCO's Islamic World Heritage List since 2019. Found in 1957, it was fully recorded in 1973 and 1974 by a Danish team led by Holger Kapel and his son Hans. Its age is debated, with proposals from the Neolithic to recent centuries; Qatar Museums now favours the last 250 years. Potsherds and ruined dwellings show past settlement; the name is usually traced to an Arabic word for searching, the ridges serving as a lookout for ships. More than a third are cup marks, small hollows in rows, rosettes and stars, perhaps for a mancala-type game known in Qatar as Al Haloosa, though one Qatar Museums archaeologist suspects a ritual purpose. The boats stand out: most are seen from above, fish-shaped with rows of oars, some trailing a rope and anchor; a few are shown in profile. Fish, turtles and ostriches also appear. It lies about 31 km north of Al Khor town and 36 km east of Al Zubarah as the crow flies, roughly an hour's drive from Doha up Al Shamal Road; park by the large fenced area and walk in. With no shade, come in the cooler months, mornings or late afternoons. As of late 2026 Qatar Museums lists it as temporarily closed until further notice, so check before setting out.
Boats seen from above, with their oars.
Small hollows in rows, rosettes and stars.
Fish, turtles and ostriches carved in the rock.
North-east coast near Al Huwaila, north of Al Khor
Nobody knows for certain. William Facey argued in 1987 that the rudder-steered boats shown in profile cannot be older than about 1000 to 1200 AD, and a 2012 study of nine carvings found no sign that any was more than a few hundred years old.
In his 1987 study William Facey counted 124 boats shown from above, mostly on the central ridge, and 17 in profile on outcrops nearer the sea. Among the profiles he recognised the battil and the baqqarah, Gulf craft steered by a rudder, and read the prominent oars on some as a sign of pearling boats.