James Silk Buckingham's General Map of Persia Ras Rakan cropped

Ras Rakan ( ar, رأس راكان) is the northernmost point in the Qatari Peninsula, located in

Al Shamal Al Shamal ( ar, ٱلشَّمَال, Ash Shamāl) is a municipality in the state of Qatar. Its seat is called '' Madinat ash Shamal'' and it is considered to be one of the major cities in Qatar, although the population is barely over 8,000. The s ...

. It is the north-western point of an islet called Jazirat Ras Rakan, but as the channel between this islet and the mainland is not passable for boats, Jazirat Ras Rakan may be regarded as forming the northern extremity of the promontory. ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

.''

Location

The islet is nearly 1 ½ miles from the shore, and may be reached by wading through low water. The northernmost town of Qatar, Ar Ru'ays, lies 2 ½ miles south-east from the islet. If approached at from a northward direction, Ar Ru'ays becomes visible before Ras Rakan is spotted.

Description

Jazirat Ras Rakkan is a very low, T-shaped islet, with tufts of grass on it. There are some small mangroves on the southern side of it. It is nearly 2 miles in length east to west, and extremely narrow. The T-head, at its western end, is 1 mile long.

Hydrology

In a 2010 survey of Ras Rakan's coastal waters conducted by the

Qatar Statistics Authority The Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (Arabic: وزارة التخطيط التنموي والإحصاء) is a governmental agency in the State of Qatar. It was established through an Emiri Decision No (4) in 2013. History On 26 Jun ...

, it was found that its average depth was and its average pH was 7.74. Furthermore, the waters had a

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

of 48.18 psu, an average temperature of 19.61°C and 4.86 mg/L of dissolved oxygen.

References

Al Shamal Geography of Qatar Islands of Qatar {{Qatar-geo-stub