The State of Qatar is on the south side of the Persian Gulf, occupying a peninsula that projects 160 km (100 mi) northward into the Gulf east of Bahrain. The capital, Doha, is on the east side of the peninsula. The country has a population nearing three million. Formerly a dependency of Bahrain and then an outpost of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, it became a British protectorate after World War I and gained its full independence in 1971. Qatar is a monarchy ruled by the Al Thani dynasty. A note on nomenclature: the Persian Gulf (as it is usually known in the West) is called the Arabian Gulf in Arabia and the Gulf of Fars in Iran. The International Hydrographic Organization calls it the Gulf of Iran and many commentators avoid all nomenclatural problems by calling it simply "The Gulf". Aids to navigation in Qatar are the responsibility of the Maritime Transport Division of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, but the Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) operates them. Offshore navigational aids in the Gulf are maintained by the Middle East Navigation Aids Service (MENAS), based in Bahrain. The Arabic word for a lighthouse is mnarh or manara (منارة). Ra's is the word for a cape or headland, jazīrat is an island, and minā is a harbor. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
|
|
![]() Ra's Maţbakh Light, Al Khawr, September 2016 Google Maps street view by Mohamed Samy |
|
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Southwestern Iran | East: United Arab Emirates | West: Bahrain
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted April 4, 2012. Checked and revised November 6, 2024. Lighthouses: 10. Lightfloats: 1. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.