England's first public museum boasts unmatched collections of Islamic ceramics, metalwork and textiles. Curator of eastern art James Allen dreams of an Islamic art-history study center, with Middle Eastern students.

The world's largest intact medieval city, a sophisticated living treasure, is being restored in a project that encompasses some of its greatest monuments, but also its infrastructure, its institutions and the regional economy.

Village walls in some parts of Egypt blossom with naive and colorful paintings that commemorate the homeowners safe return from the pilgrimage to Makkah - piety and joy combining to create an art form.

Once the most important room of a patrician Damascus home, a magnificent traditional madafah was saved from a fire, restored and enlarged. Now a gift to the nation, it serves as a functional part of the National Museum.

A well-preserved shipwreck is a time capsule, full of information about people, countries, trade and culture. In Turkey, where underwater archeology began, sponge divers have pointed the scientists to some great discoveries.

Elaborate textiles are woven into the fabric of daily life in Fez, never more than at weddings, important family occasions when new fashions and old traditions combine and craftsmen are called on to produce their finest.