AL ZUBARAH (Qatar)
Ruins are all that remain of this originally nearly-1,000-acre fortified city on the NW coast of Qatar. Founded in the first half of the 18th century by the founder of Bahrain's Al Khalifa royal family, it was once a center of global trade between the Strait of Hormuz and the western arm of the Persian Gulf. Today it is Qatar's most substantial archaeological site.
(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)
