"She has a gift for people; she has an eye for places." - The Times The Incense Route is one of the most ancient and important highways in the world. It was once a rival to the Silk Road, at a time when faith in the mystic power of incense was at its height and its traffic - frankincense and myrrh, spices from India, gold and exotic African animal skins - was the lifeblood of the countries through which it passed. Barbara Toy set out to travel the length of this long-forgotten route at a time of particular turbulence in the region and became the first western woman to have made the journey. Beginning in Bir Ali, Can'a of ancient times, she passed through war zones in Yemen, joined a band of pilgrims as far as Mecca, forged on to Jeddah and Medina, explored the breath-taking Nabataean city of Madain Saleh and then turned north, to Midian, Aqaba, Petra, Amman and finally Damascus. Travelling the Incense Route is both a gripping account of intrepid travel and a portrait of Arabia unlike any other.

The guide to The Land of Frankincense, Dhofar Oman. Frankincense is an alluring and magical product. The tree is found in Oman's southern Governorate of Dhofar and this book guides the reader to the locations associated with it and illustrates the History of Frankincense.

This book examines the relationship between the fine arts and economics —the contribution of various art forms toward economic growth and development, and the impact of economic factors on the creation of art.Xavier Greffe identifies the economic factors that can affect the emergence, flourishing, and disappearance of artistic activities. He begins with an analysis of the artistic markets where the players cannot be measured by standard economic yardsticks. The cast of characters include users who are initially unaware of the kind of satisfaction they can gain from unknown works of art, producers who do not know whether their upfront costs in the commissioning of new art and design will be covered, and the artists who are more interested in letting the creative muse guide their endeavors than in creating specifically defined works on demand. The book then explores the various dynamics that influence the development of the artistic sector: a revolving compromise between heritage and creation; a continuous passage between an original work of art and the products of cultural industries; and a permanent shift between profit and nonprofit institutions.Greffe provides a way to evaluate art from an economic perspective —that explains both the creation and development of creative movement, without judging the existence of works of art only in terms of economic logic.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

A highly illustrated guide to Jerusalem in the award-winning DK Eyewitness Travel series

A selection of the best in travel writing, with both fiction and non-fiction presented together, this companion is for all those who like travelling, like to think about travelling, and who take an interest in their destination. It covers guidebooks as well as books about food, history, art and architecture, religion, outdoor activities, illustrated books, autobiographies, biographies and fiction and lists books both in and out of print. Anderson's Travel Companion is arranged first by continent, then alphabetically by country and then by subject, cross-referenced where necessary. There is a separate section for guidebooks and comprehensive indexes. Sarah Anderson founded the Travel Bookshop in 1979 and is also a journalist and writer on travel subjects. She is known by well-known travel writers such as Michael Palin and Colin Thubron. Michael Palin chose her bookshop as his favourite shop and Colin Thubron and Geoffrey Moorhouse, among others, made suggestions for titles to include in the Travel Companion.

Gary Paul Nabhan takes the reader on a vivid and far-ranging journey across time and space in this fascinating look at the relationship between the spice trade and culinary imperialism. Drawing on his own family’s history as spice traders, as well as travel narratives, historical accounts, and his expertise as an ethnobotanist, Nabhan describes the critical roles that Semitic peoples and desert floras had in setting the stage for globalized spice trade. Traveling along four prominent trade routes—the Silk Road, the Frankincense Trail, the Spice Route, and the Camino Real (for chiles and chocolate)—Nabhan follows the caravans of itinerant spice merchants from the frankincense-gathering grounds and ancient harbors of the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Zayton on the China Sea to Santa Fe in the southwest United States. His stories, recipes, and linguistic analyses of cultural diffusion routes reveal the extent to which aromatics such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and peppers became adopted worldwide as signature ingredients of diverse cuisines. Cumin, Camels, and Caravans demonstrates that two particular desert cultures often depicted in constant conflict—Arabs and Jews—have spent much of their history collaborating in the spice trade and suggests how a more virtuous multicultural globalized society may be achieved in the future.