Qatar - Between Boomtown and Burqa

It is a dazzling and colorful world full of Arab adventures. It is the world of the sheikhs and the world of big business. And it is also their world: millions of guest workers make the dream of a modern monarchy possible in the first place.

Anyone traveling to Qatar has plenty of prejudices: a corrupt, filthy-rich emirate full of forced laborers without rights and full of businessmen with questionable practices. But for the Qataris themselves and the millions of guest workers from all over the world, the picture is more nuanced. Qatar is a dictatorship with an emir with almost unlimited power. But at the same time, Qatar is stunningly open and progressive. The emirate is tiny, and yet tremendously fascinating - with its vast desert landscapes, its bizarrely shaped mountains and its picturesque sandy beaches. It is a country full of contrasts, full of sun, sand and magic from the Arabian Nights.