Bedouin jewelry - which is among the loveliest in the world - leads a collector from the women's suq of Riyadh to the mines of King Solomon and the pueblos of Mexico.

Amid the roaring traffic of modem Rome stand the obelisks of Egypt - hammered from the rock of Aswan, erected and re-erected, rowed to Rome and, unearthed from the ruins, erected once again.

"... memories are difficult to trace; they tend to float to the surface in the wrong order. Still, there are some that a boy never forgets..."

From a 10th-century chronicle: the story of a 2,500 mile journey from Baghdad to the snow-covered lands of the north and the travelers' first sight of the Aurora Borealis .

In the Arab East, where written languages first evolved from pictograph to alphabet, special stamps commemorate the highlights of this development, and its impact on education.

In quiet exhibits and a melange of films, Saudi Arabia's new Museum of Archeology and Ethnography recreates the evolution of the Arabian Peninsula and its long journey through history.