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When summers hit Qatar, most people retreat indoors during the heat of the day, sheltering at home or work with the air conditioning cranked high or visiting super-cooled shopping malls — and driving between them in cars chilled to refrigerator temperatures.
Being out in the open is something to be endured rather than enjoyed.
Until now. On Gewan Island – the latest addition to a man-made archipelago off the coast of the capital city Doha — visitors can comfortably stroll outside in the middle of a summer's day thanks to a surprising innovation: an air-conditioned "forest."
Stretching along the island's central axis is a 450-meter-long — roughly one-third of a mile — promenade known as the Crystal Walk. Despite being open to the elements, its temperature is artificially regulated.
The walkway is covered by a canopy of tree-like structures that offer shelter from direct sunlight while helping trap cooled air blowing from vents below.
Read more at the link in @cnntravel's bio.
📸: mohamed abdelrazek/Alamy Stock Photo; Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey
