Umm Salal Mohammed Fort, about 20 km north of Doha, is a restored 19th-century Qatari fort surrounded by a small village of traditional courtyard houses. It is less visited than Doha Fort and gives a better sense of how rural Qatar lived before the oil era. The fort tower stands intact and the surrounding settlement — low mud-brick walls, shaded courtyards — has been sympathetically preserved.
The adjacent Barzan Towers, a pair of defensive watchtowers, are equally photogenic and visible from some distance. The whole complex is free to visit and rarely crowded on weekday mornings. A useful extension to any trip to the camel racing track to the west.