Zekreet and Richard Serra's East-West

The Zekreet peninsula on Qatar's west coast is a landscape of limestone eroded into mushroom-shaped pedestals, flat-topped mesas and pale desert running to the Gulf. Out in the emptiest part of it stand four steel plates by the sculptor Richard Serra, each over fourteen metres high, spaced along a kilometre-long line between two low ridges - a work called East-West/West-East that only makes sense when you walk it and see the tops align exactly across the uneven ground. Nearby sits an abandoned film-set village that adds a surreal note to an already strange stretch of desert.

The landscape

• East-West/West-East - Serra's four steel plates aligned across the desert.
• The mushroom rocks - eroded limestone pedestals near the coast.
• The film-set village - the abandoned mock village on the peninsula.
• Sunset over the Gulf - the west-facing coast's evening light.

When to go

November to March is the workable season; summer heat here is genuinely dangerous with no shade or water anywhere. Sunset is the best light for both the sculpture and the rocks. Weekends bring Qatari camping groups to the peninsula.

Practical notes

Getting to the sculpture requires driving on desert tracks - a 4x4 is strongly advised and sand traps ordinary cars regularly. There is no signage, no facilities, no water and patchy phone signal; tell someone where you are going. The scale of the work only reads when walked, which takes an hour or so in the open. Bring far more water than seems necessary.

Nearby

Dukhan, the Zekreet coast and the road back toward Doha.