Like a double faced reflecting both past and future, this issue photo essay focuses on the United Arab Emirates’ respect for the tradition and its determination to establish a modern state.

Blue-green beacons like Dhahran's tiny artificial lake draw down some of the five trillion migratory birds that cross Saudi Arabia twice a year. And occasionally, local bird watchers find a few surprises.

While archeologists have found hundreds of ancient shipwrecks, few proved to be warships - until a dredger stumbled on a whole cluster of wrecks believed to have been sunk in the First Punic War.

Once a thousand men worked in Cairo’s Street of the Tentmakers, but today their ancient art, which dates back to the pharaohs, is threatened by changing customs and mechanization.

Legend said a block of iron "as big as a camel’s hump" had once fallen from the skies in Arabia. Though Philby failed to find it, Aramco did in a great crator in the Empty Quarter.