Katara Cultural Village

The Cultural Village Foundation is an amazing initiative of hope for human engagement via art and cultural exchange, made possible by HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Father Emir of the State of Qatar. Katara has a beach, an open amphitheater, an opera house, a multi-purpose cinema, a multi-purpose conference space, and a souq. In November 2015, a museum commemorating the country’s marine past opened its doors. It is also the location of the AlBahie Auction House.

Katara Cultural Village is Qatar’s largest and most diversified cultural endeavor, keeping pace with the rising global culture that emphasizes the value of variety in human growth. It is a gathering place where people from all over the world come to learn about and experience other cultures. Katara aspires to be a world leader in multi-cultural activities, with spectacular theaters, performance halls, exhibition galleries, and cutting-edge amenities. Katara is home to several Qatari organizations. The Qatari Society for Engineers, the Qatar Fine Arts Society, the Visual Art Centre, the Qatar Photographic Society, the Childhood Cultural Centre, the Theatre Society, and the Qatar Music Academy are among them. The QMA Gallery, a public art facility in the hamlet, is managed by the QMA. Katara’s structures and amenities were purposefully designed to represent the country’s cultural and architectural history.

In accordance with the goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030, Katara serves as a guardian of Qatar’s heritage and traditions, and strives to raise awareness about the value of all cultures and civilizations. As such, Katara hosts international, regional, and local festivals, workshops, performances, and exhibitions. Katara arose from a long-held desire to establish Qatar as a cultural beacon, a lighthouse of art, spreading throughout the Middle East through theater, literature, music, visual art, conferences, and exhibitions.

This hamlet will offer a vision of the future of a society in which individuals from all cultural origins transcend national barriers and embrace shared causes in order to create a unified humanity. Katara is the meeting point of the past’s elegance and the future’s radiance.

“Catara” was the earliest and most ancient term allocated for the Qatar Peninsula on geographic and historical maps since 150 AD. The peoples of the Arabian Peninsula around the middle of the second century AD were recognized on a map produced by the geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus in 150 AD, published in 882 AD -1477 AD, and later in the Historical Atlas of Islam. It also specified the physical position of the Qatar Peninsula as Catara, northwest of Gerra or close it, and west of the town of Cadara. In the early eighteenth century AD, the name “Katara” emerged on geographical and historical maps. The word “Katara” was inscribed in a French map of the Arabian Peninsula coastline, sea, and gulf instead of “Catara,” which was the designation used by geographers from Ptolemaeus’ map in 150 AD until 1738 AD.

Given Qatar’s cultural and intellectual riches, tracking the etymology of Qatar throughout history is both informative and intriguing. This cultural wealth is highly significant in promoting and strengthening Qatari society. Qatari mentality and values are built on a firm foundation of loyalty to our historic heritage and deliberate modernisation and technical growth.

It was decided to resurrect Qatar’s previous name in order to maintain our link to our historical past and to honor Qatar’s exceptional status since the beginning of history.