Blogs in May 2024

The Valleys of the Assassins 6th May 2024

Growing up in near-poverty and denied a formal education, Freya Stark had nurtured a fascination for the Middle East since reading Arabian Nights as a child. But it wasn’t until she was in her thirties that she was able...

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Ionia: A Quest 18th July 2018

When Freya Stark travelled along the western coast of Turkey in 1952 she met only one other tourist. Today, this region is the most popular and well-travelled in the country, but to travel with Stark – whose aim was...

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The Lycian Shore 18th July 2018

‘There are not so many places left where magic reigns without interruption and of all those I know, the coast of Lycia was the most magical.’ Lycia, on the southwestern coast of Turkey, is an ancient land steeped in...

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A Winter in Arabia: A Journey Through Yemen 18th July 2018

Freya Stark is most famous for her travels in Arabia at a time when very few men, let alone women, had fully explored its vast hinterlands. In 1934, she made her first journey to the Hadhramaut in what is...

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Baghdad Sketches 18th July 2018

Freya Stark first journeyed to Iraq in 1927. Seven years after the establishment of the British Mandate, the modern state was in its infancy and worlds apart from the country it has since become. During her many years in...

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