On an arm of land jutting out into Kuwait Bay, Doha Village is primarily the site of Entertainment City, a small theme park, but is also home to several small dhow-building yards and a fishing village of squalid shacks where might see some crabs tunneling in the mud flats nearby.

In the years since liberation, Kuwait City has developed into a remarkably easygoing place, though not without a price. During the occupation, Iraqis systematically looted the museum. Today, the Kuwait Towers have become city's main landmark, the largest of the three standing a lofty 187m (615ft).

The National Museum, once the pride of Kuwait and its centrepiece, used to house the Al-Sabah collection, one of the most important collections of Islamic art in the world. Having cleaned out the building, the Iraqis smashed everything they could and then set what was left on fire.

The oil display centre is a well-organised and self-congratulatory introduction to the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and the country's oil business. It's located in Al-Ahmadi, built to house Kuwait's oil industry in the 1940s and 50s and named for the then emir, Sheikh Ahmed.

Also known as the Red Palace, the Red Fort is a low rectangular mud structure near the highway, its name apparently deriving from the colour of its walls. Built around a large open courtyard with several annexes on its western side, the fort played a key role in the unsuccessful 1920 siege of Al-Jahra by the future king of Saudi Arabia.