Ruwayda

Some historians believe that it refers to Ruwayda due to the apparent Portuguese architectural style of its fort, though there remains much ambiguity as to the location's true identity.

[2] "Ruwayda" originates from the Arabic term rawda, which refers to a depression that is rich in vegetation due to the accumulative collection of rainfall and sediment run-off.

[4] Positioned near the north-western coastline of Qatar, the town of Ar Ru'ays is 10 km to the northeast[5] and the abandoned village of Al Jumail is to the east.

The first is a manuscript dating to the 1800s called Lam al-Shihab, which, according to Kuwaiti writer and historian Abu Hakima, refers to Ruwayda as being among the towns which were raided by the Wahhabis of Nejd in 1790.

John Gordon Lorimer's 1908 encyclopedia Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia is the other source which makes mention of Ruwayda, describing it as an abandoned village located 3 miles north of Al Khuwayr.

[6] Due to a lack of standing structures and a dearth of documentation in historical texts, Ruwayda was overlooked by the earliest archaeological expeditions launched in Qatar.

[7] The Qatar Museums Authority sought help from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David to make an assessment of the site in January 2009.

[8] The joint Qatar Museums Authority-University of Wales Trinity Saint David Archaeological Mission ascribed three phases of construction to the fort.

[15] Large quantities of bitumen, pottery, glass, metalwork and marine shells have been found in an excavated structure known as the workshop.

A tentative description of this structure offered by the joint Qatar Museums Authority-University of Wales Trinity Saint David team is that it previously served as a boat repair shop.