The Gold Souq is the place where everyone goes to get all their precious metal needs. This was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. This is a whole city block dedicated to everything gold. Tiny shops display all they have to offer, including the traditional bridal jewelry that Qatari husbands-to-be give their perspectives wives, prior to the wedding, that are amazing, huge, and EXPENSIVE.
You can find solid gold rings, bracelets, hair ornaments, watches, decorative belts, necklaces, and headdresses. A very popular Qatari gift is to have a necklace made with the name of the person in gold. It can be done in either English or Arabic.
Items are sold by the weight of the gold and a small fee is added per gram for the labor. Most of the gold in these shops is 22 carats, but there are also 18-carat items. And it’s all the real deal. No fillers. It’s all 100% pure gold. I saw some things I would never see in the US: HUGE wedding pieces and rows and rows of bracelets and beautiful rings. Every store is different, and the gold can be less expensive than in the US because it’s based on weight.