The rites of passage of Egypt's culture, along with the calendar's cycle of seasons and celebrations, are the focus of film-maker Fadwa El Guindi's work: to record life's rich variety before it fades in the light of the 21st century.

They are not mirages, but they are certainly puzzles. Why did Umayyad rulers build solid and lavishly decorated castles, palaces and bath complexes in the barren deserts of today's Jordan? A new theory is taking shape.

From the Alhambra to the humblest home, the lovely patios of Andalusian-Spain are a striking part of the region's Muslim heritage. Sun, shade, flowers and running water help make them "antechambers of heaven".

Two tiny dots on an aerial photograph - and the search for groundwater resources in arid Oman - led to a 25-story descent into darkness and the discovery of Arabia's largest known cave chamber, big enough for a fleet of 747's.

Granite-gray and windswept, Noss Head is 3000 miles from Alexandria's sunny beige and blue. What folly put Egyptian-style buildings in Scotland? The answer links an erudite engineer and a wonder of the ancient world.

The exquisite natural pearls of the Arabian Gulf, once the center of an industry, remain the objects of legend, lore and love today -especially among the sons of Hajji Ibrahim Alfardan, founder of a pearl-trading dynasty.