Hunt for hidden treasures at Doha's sports museum
An AI astronomy workshop, indoor Friday runs, refugee volunteer training and summer shopping.
Welcome to AL-MONITOR Doha.
This week, Doha invites you to explore, whether through museums, science or community. From a trivia-filled treasure hunt at the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum to an astronomy workshop exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping our understanding of the stars, the city offers plenty of opportunities to learn something new. Along the way, there are indoor runs to escape the summer heat, a workshop on supporting refugee communities and a book that asks what makes a museum visit truly memorable.
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Thanks for reading,
Reve
P.S. Have feedback or tips on Doha's culture scene? Send them my way at contactus@al-monitor.com.
1. Leading the week: Museum Explorer at 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum
Visitors explore the galleries at the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, Doha. (3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum)
The 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum deserves more visits than it gets. A member of Qatar Museums and part of the Olympic Museum Network, which unites 22 Olympic museums worldwide, it serves as a national and international center for sports history, heritage and knowledge, and its seventh floor alone is worth the trip.
This August, the museum is inviting students to take part in Museum Explorer, a trivia challenge with a treasure hunt that sends visitors through the galleries to track down objects and answer questions about what they find.
Participants are given a card showing an object somewhere in the museum, with several questions about it. Their task is to search the relevant exhibition, find the object and use the display to answer the questions. Once they have completed the card, museum staff stamp it with “Museum Explorer.” The activity is free and requires no advance registration.
The sessions run on four August mornings, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., offering families a ready-made activity that sneaks in some learning without a classroom.
Date: August 3, 5, 10 & 12
Location: 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum
More details here.
2. Word on the street: 'With a Full Heart' Workshop
Al Mujadilah Centre and Mosque, Education City, Doha, Qatar. (Al Mujadilah)
If you are interested in supporting refugee communities and seeking to better understand how trauma affects both those receiving help and those providing it, this workshop offers a thoughtful place to start. Al-Mujadilah, a Doha-based center and mosque offering religious, educational and social programs for women, is hosting its “With a Full Heart” workshop for free.
The workshop is designed to help volunteers working with refugees and trauma-affected communities better understand the people they support while protecting their own emotional well-being. Participants will learn how displacement and grief can surface through behavior and body language, how to offer meaningful support without attempting to act as a therapist and how to recognize when professional help is needed. The session also addresses compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, the emotional strain that can result from repeated exposure to other people’s suffering. Led by cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Zulkayda Mamat, it offers a rare mix of trauma awareness, faith-based insight and practical real-world guidance.
Date: Aug. 10
Location: Education City, Qatar
More details here.
3. Doha diary
Inside Doha Festival City, Doha, Qatar. (Doha Festival City)
- Morning Jogs at Doha Festival City
Doha Festival City has become an unlikely but practical venue for an indoor 5K run, jog or walk on Friday mornings, organized in collaboration with Notacult Run Club and Qatar Sports for All. The air conditioning alone makes it worth going. Sessions run through the end of August, and registration is through the QSFA app.
Date: Until Aug. 31, every Friday morning
Location: Doha Festival City
More information here.
- Artificial Intelligence and Astronomy Workshop at NMoQ
The National Museum of Qatar is hosting a one-day workshop that brings together two subjects that have more in common than they might seem: ancient star-mapping and artificial intelligence. Participants will build their own star-tracking tools, analyze celestial data and get a hands-on introduction to how AI is changing the way astronomers explore the universe.
Date: July 30
Location: National Museum of Qatar
More information here.
- Doha Shopping Season 2026
The Doha Shopping Season is running at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center through Aug. 5, bringing together products from more than 20 countries. Perfumes, accessories, home decor, carpets, abayas, shoes and food products fill the floor, making it the kind of place where you go in for one thing and leave having covered considerably more ground than planned.
Date: Until Aug. 5
Location: Doha Exhibition and Convention Center
More information here.
4. Book of the week: 'The Museum Experience'
"The Museum Experience" by John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking, first published in 1992 and updated in subsequent editions, is a quietly influential book about why people visit museums and what they take away from the experience. Rather than approaching the question from a curatorial or institutional angle, Falk and Dierking focus on the visitor: What draws them in, how they move through a space, what they remember a week later and why two people can stand in front of the same object and leave with entirely different impressions.
5. View from Doha
People enjoy an evening along the Doha Corniche promenade, with the city’s skyline rising across the water, on July 21, 2026. (Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)
6. By the numbers
- Qatar’s volunteer platform had 27,012 registered volunteers as of December 2025, according to the Qatar Volunteer Center.
- For the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2025 and FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025,
approximately 4,000 volunteers were selected across 30 roles to support 20
functional areas, continuing a volunteering legacy that began with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, according to FIFA.
