Umm Al Daah Khawzan ( ar, ام الداه خوزان; also known simply as Khawzan) is a village in

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 ...

located in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Al-Shahaniya. It is accessible through Dukhan Road. The closest city is the industrial hub of Dukhan. According to the Ministry of Environment, there were about six households in the village in 2014.

Etymology

There are three constituents of the village's name. The first, "umm", is

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 ...

for mother, and is a common prefix in Qatar when preceding a geographical description. "Daah" is the local name for a shrub, Latin name '' Lasiurus hirsutus'', that grows abundantly in the area. Growing regularly throughout the whole of southern Qatar, it presents a slightly yellow color, and is consumed by grazing livestock. Finally, the village derived the name "Khawzan" from a local depression called Rawdat Khawzan. In Arabic, "khazan" roughly means "reservoir". The depression was an important water reservoir for nearby settlements, being capable of storing water for months after rainy season.

Geography

Umm Al Daah Khawzan is close to

Ras Abrouq Ras Abrouq ( ar, رأس أبروق; also known as Bir Zekreet) is the northernmost extension of the Zekreet Peninsula, a stretch of land to the north of Dukhan in Qatar. It has a beach of the same name

on 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. ...

, which hosts the majority of Qatar's ostriches and is part of the Al Reem Biosphere Reserve. Ostriches have occasionally wandered into the village and harassed its residents.

References

Populated places in Al-Shahaniya {{Qatar-geo-stub