Opening Up the Middle East

An overland journey all the way from Istanbul to Cairo...and an eye-opening alternative take on a topical region. This book looks at the Middle East from a very different, often humorous, and entertaining perspective. It might help to banish a few popular misconceptions. From Turkey, the reader follows the Mediterranean around into Syria and some of the world's oldest cities and most spectacular desert ruins. Then the journey heads across to downtown Beirut in Lebanon and on into the amazing landscapes of Jordan. It continues to the powerful, but edgy, city of Jerusalem and into the Palestinian West Bank area, observing up close some intimate effects of the world's most scrutinised conflict. Finally, the journey heads down into Egypt, along the Nile and into the Sahara, desert before a flourishing conclusion amidst the congestion of Cairo.