Ras Abrouq ( ar, رأس أبروق; also known as Bir Zekreet) is the northernmost extension of the

Zekreet Peninsula The Zekreet Peninsula, also known as the Abrouq Peninsula, is a peninsula in western Qatar, located to the north of the industrial city of Dukhan. Much of the area is associated with erosional landforms such as foothills, mesas and gypsum plateaux. ...

, a stretch of land to the north of

Dukhan Dukhan ( ar, دخان) is a city in the western municipality of Al-Shahaniya in the State of Qatar. It is approximately west of the capital, Doha. Dukhan is administrated by Qatar's state oil agency QatarEnergy and is the site of the first oil ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. It has a beach of the same nameNatural Landmarks
Qatar Tourism and various archaeological sites. Since the 21st century it has functioned as a tourist site. Large parts of its territory are legally protected areas that are dedicated to a nature reserve for wild deer.

Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration o ...

's ''East-West/West-East'' sculpture was completed in Brouq Nature Reserve in 2014 at the behest of the

Qatar Museums Authority Qatar Museums (formerly the Qatar Museums Authority) is a Qatari government entity that oversees the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, MIA Park, QM Gallery at Katara, ALRIWAQ DOHA Exhibition Space, the Al Zubarah ...

Etymology

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

, the word "ras" translates to "head", and in this context is used to refer to a

cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

. The other constituent, "abrouq", is derived from the nearby range of light-colored hills in the

(also known as the Abrouq Peninsula). Its name is also spelled as ''Ras Broog''.

Location

Ras Abrouq is a

located on the tip of the

near the city of

. It is 70 km west of the Qatari capital of

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

. Located south of Ras Abrouq is the village of

Zekreet Zekreet ( ar, زكريت) is a village in north-western Qatar near Dukhan and about 80 km north-west west of Doha. Originally a sparsely populated area, Zekreet was built up in the 1940s after oil operations commenced in Qatar. This include ...

Archaeology

Ras Abrouq is one of the most extensive

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

sites in Qatar. It has one of the highest proportions of Ubaid

potsherd In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...

s in Qatar. Excavations in the 1970s revealed a ring-like structure, hearths, Ubaid pottery, cairns, and stone tools dating to the Neolithic period. Many fish bones and snail shells were also recovered.Abdul Nayeem (1998), p. 118. G.H. Smith, an excavator of the site, suggested that it was a seasonal encampment and that its inhabitants had trade relations with nearby civilizations. Further archaeological excavations yielded Barbar ceramics originating from the

Dilmun civilization Dilmun, or Telmun, ( Sumerian: , later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠), ni.tukki = DILMUNki; ar, دلمون) was an ancient East Semitic-speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the 3rd millennium BC onwards. Based on contextual evidence, it was l ...

dating to the third millennium BC. A number of

chambered cairn A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are fo ...

s dating to the same period contained 108 beads made of stone and shell. Excavations conducted during the mid-20th century uncovered potsherds of

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

characteristic and a cairnfield consisting of 100 burial mounds dating to the 3rd century BC. The relatively large number of cairns suggest a sizable sea-faring community prevailed in the area during this period. Further excavations revealed a fishing station dating to c. 140 BC which was used by foreign vessels to dry fish during the

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

period. A number of stone structures and large quantities of fish bones were recovered from the site.

Gallery

Qatari ostriches (3206781575).jpg, Ras Abrouq contains a high concentration of

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There are ...

es Ras brouq rock.jpg, Ras brouq rock

References

Populated places in Al-Shahaniya Populated coastal places in Qatar Archaeological sites in Qatar Ubaid period {{Al-Shahaniya Municipality