Al Wakrah Fort

Al Wakrah Fort lies in the city of Al Wakrah in the municipality of Al Wakrah in Qatar.

Al Wakrah Fort was built in the early 20th century on the site of an earlier ruined fort that had belonged to Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. It was used as a police office and barracks. It has exceptionally long curtain walls, suggesting that it was built not for real active defense, much like Al Rayyan Fort.

The fort has been restored very recently and in my opinion this robbed it of its originality. I have seen earlier pictures in which the walls and towers had horizontal blue lines along its base and the crenelations. This looked much better than the present whitewash. Also the 2 round circular corner towers seem to have been decapitated. For on the earlier pictures, the towers appear to be at least one story higher.

At present Al Wakrah Fort can not be visited. Access was friendly but strictly forbidden by a guard. Too bad because I was curious about the interior of such a large fort.

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