North of Doha, the Katara Cultural Village has been created from scratch to accelerate the development of ‘tourism and leisure industry. Katara has a vast waterfront lined with restaurants, an open-air amphitheatre, an opera house, a theatre, art galleries and a luxury shopping mall, Katara Plaza, linked to Doha by the Red metro line. Near the traditional dovecotes with perches for pigeons, there are two mosques: the Katara Masjid designed by the Turkish architect Zainab Fadil Oglu inspired by the Dolmabahçe in Istanbul, and the Gold Masjid, whose minaret is covered with small golden mosaic tiles in the background of this picture.