On my most recent trip in June 2018, I rented a car and drove to Al Zubarah in northwestern Qatar to visit its fort and archaeological zone, the Persian Gulf nation’s only inscription on the list of World Heritage Sites. Most of the site, which flourished as a pearling center in the 18th and 19th centuries, is buried under hundreds of years of desert sand, so I didn’t spend too much time in the torrid afternoon exploring the little that has been excavated, instead spending most of my visit inside the fort, which offered a shaded respite.