Here There and Everywhere

Expat wanderer

Karabaa in Rubble

It’s even worse. Rubble everywhere. It looks like a war zone.

00Rubble

Ripping out the Heart of Doha . . .

October 2, 2009 - Posted by | Building, Bureaucracy, Community, Cultural, Doha, ExPat Life, Living Conditions, Photos, Social Issues

7 Comments »

  1. Please tell me this isn’t Electricity street? Where is it?

    grammy's avatar Comment by grammy | October 3, 2009 | Reply

  2. yikes. where is jihad al-bina2 when you need them?

    I hope the end result is as beautiful as souk al wakif, but in the meantime this is pretty hard to see!

    adiamondinsunlight's avatar Comment by adiamondinsunlight | October 3, 2009 | Reply

  3. Grammy, I am so so sorry, I think it’s been a while since you’ve been down there. It is Karabaa, looking down from where the Garden used to be towards where the Welcome used to be. The entire block, down through where the Yemeni Honey Man used to be is rubble. There are apartment buildings half down. It looks like Dresden after the bombing.

    Little Diamond – I feel the same way. If I hadn’t seen what the did with the Souq al Waqif, I would be really sick, but I have hopes . . . it’s still pretty shocking to see.

    intlxpatr's avatar Comment by intlxpatr | October 3, 2009 | Reply

  4. So that is the mosque on the corner of the street just before Bombay silk? The Garden was being knocked down the last time we went to Karabaa street together, but I had no idea that work would progress so rapidly. Where on earth are all the merchants going with their shops and to live?

    grammy's avatar Comment by grammy | October 6, 2009 | Reply

  5. No! This is looking across from where the Garden was to the mosque near the little roundabout. I wish I had a wide-angle lens and you could see – it was nothing but piles of rubble from right to left. The little mosque across from Bombay Silk is still there, and maybe will not be destroyed. There is a larger building at the other end of Karabaa where a lot of 18 – 22K gold jewelers used to be; it has not been brought down, but it has been gutted and is getting an entirely new facade. All the oldies – Gulf Photo, Damas, etc are empty, so I am guessing that side of the street is next, but probably more modern structures like the Islamic bank will not be torn down. I try to go down once a week or so to check out the latest . . .

    intlxpatr's avatar Comment by intlxpatr | October 6, 2009 | Reply

  6. I was there today… ironically someone told me it will be called ‘heart of doha’… fancy removing a town only to replace it – when you have a whole desert surrounding it… sounds familiar!

    Mohammad Abdullah's avatar Comment by Bu Yousef | October 6, 2009 | Reply

  7. LOL, you are right, it is called the Heart of Doha project. That’s why I had the ripping out line . . . but I also need to remember that I had similar concerns about the Souk al Waqif, and I really like the changes there that have made it a lively central go-to place. On the other hand, the merchants now charge me more. . . sigh. Ahlen wa sahlen, Bu Yousef.

    intlxpatr's avatar Comment by intlxpatr | October 7, 2009 | Reply


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