Form must follow function say 20th century architects...and in northern Syria it has—for nearly 10,000 years.

Ever further into the desert went the two Land-Rovers... like two yachts under sail in a vast deep-water ocean.

Rome borrowed from the East as the East took from her... fashions, religion—even men to rule the Empire.

Sick men and school children, commuters and explorers... Aramco aircraft serve them all on busy desert skyways.

A rich and reckless Irishman sailed from Dublin harbor... on a journey to Jerusalem for a wager worth a fortune.

Every day that passes they devour their weight in food... across the ravaged land they swarm, 40 billion strong.