Travel Tips

Above left: The German-American Carl Raswan during his time in the Arabian Peninsula (Raswan c. 1926)

Above center: The oil geologist Max Steineke. (Aramco 1930s)

Above right: The Britich diplomat Sir George Rendel at Bad'iah palace, Riyadh. (Rendel 1973).

Wilfred Thesiger, the last of the great explorers of Arabia, who made two crossings of the Empty Quarter in 1946 and 1947-48 during his time in Arabia from 1945 till 1950 (Thesiger).

Harry St. John Philby (1885-1960), who devoted much of his life to Saudi Arabia, learned photography in Basra during the Great War. He crossed the Empty Quarter in 1932. Of all the photographers of Saudi Arabia, he was the most prolific, especially after his conversion to Islam in 1930. (Philby 1932).

T.E. Lawrence in the uniform of an army captain with Arab head-dress during the Arab revolt. (Lawrence c.1917-18).

Archibald Forder in Arab and European dress. Forder penetrated northern Arabia from Jordan. (Forder c.1900)

Gerard Leachman (1880-1920), Britain's most effective desert agent during the First World War, and one of the few foreigners who could pass himself off as a tribesman. (Anon c.1910).

The explorer and naturalist Douglas Carruthers on his camel, bought from the Shararat, in northern Arabia. (Carruthers 1910).

Bertram Thomas, who in 1931 made the first crossing by a foreigner of the Empty Quarter. (Thomas 1931).