Norske reiseskildringar frå Midtausten

For litt over eit år sidan fann eg ei bok av forfattaren, utanrikskorrespondenten og journalisten Albert Henrik Mohn (1918-1999). Boka heitte Arabiske Korsveier: fra Algerie til Kuweit og kom ut i 1959. Sidan eg studerer Midtausten fann eg boka svært interessant. Sjølv hadde eg aldri høyrd om Mohn, men eg fann raskt ut at han [...]

The Hijaz Train Station

*Click here for a larger picture* Ever since I was in Syria in September I have had a small wish to see the Hijaz railway station. I have read a lot about the railway and wanted to see its train station in Damascus even though I had been told it was not much to see. [...]

Arabian Sands

Last month I came across a book by Wilfred Thesiger called Arabian Sands. It is Thesiger’s first of many books. The book is a well-written, highly exciting and not least a great travel book about a journey into what is now a vanished world. Between 1945 and 1950 Wilfred Thesiger travelled several times in and [...]

Wilfred Thesiger on travel and its challenges by modernity

Wilfred Thesiger’s thoughts on travelling and what he sees as the challenges of modernity in his highly recommendable book, Arabian Sands: “I was sailing on this dhow [to Bahrain] because I wanted to have some experience of the Arab as a sailor. … But there was a deeper reason that had prompted me to make [...]

Desert Castles

Scattered across the eastern desert of Jordan there are buildings and ruins that make out what is commonly known as desert castles. They are mostly a mixture of forts, caravanserais and hunting lodges, some bigger and better preserved than others. Most of them were built during the Umayyad-period, but some originate from Roman times, as [...]