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To put Qatar in the context of world geography, with location of between 24 degrees 27 minutes and 26 degrees 10 minutes north, it is on a similar latitude to Taiwan and Southern Florida, and to 50 degrees 45 minutes to 51 degrees 40 minutes east, it is on roughly the same longitude as the Caspian Sea, the tip of the Horn of Africa, and some of the smaller Seychelles Islands.
The whole Peninsula lay under the Sea until about 60 millian years ago, and consequently many marine fossils are to be found, including shark's teeth. Most of the peninsula is flat, a line of hills in the west, known as jebel Dukhan, have some spectacularly shaped limestone outcrops. In the south east of the country, the Inland Sea (Khor Al-Udaid) is surrounded by an impressive field of barchan dunes, reaching in places to a hight of nearly 60 meters. The highest point on the peninsula is only 120 metres above the sea level, and the lowest points-known as "sabkha" or salt flats- actually lie below sea level. it is there that just by digging a little with your bare hands, you can find the intricate gypsum formations known as "desert roses" and as a reminder of the times when the climate, flora and fauna were entirely different, you can find a dry river valley, with a site that once marked a waterfall.
Once you get outside the man-made parks and gardens of the city, you find yourself surrounded by characteristic limestone desert, with a central stony plain. Particularly in the north of the country, there are a number of depressions (called rowdat) in which wind-blown sweet soil collects and where an abundance of desert plants sprout following the winter rains. the onshore oil fields are in the west of the peninsula, around Dukhan, whilst the north Field gas dome- the largest field of unassociated gas in the world-lies off the north east coast, from the headland of Ras Laffan.
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