Apparition d’un nouveau personnage

«However, I’m a monster of ingratitude to complain, for I have had a very interesting ten days and enjoyed them. Mr. Philby (Acting Reserve Commission) and I left Basrah on his launch on the 22nd, got up to Qurnah in the evening and spent the night with the A.P.O. We were off early next day and went up to Qulat Salih—il was a delicious warm day and the river was delightful. I don’t know why it should be as attractive as it is. The elements of the scene are extremely simple, but the combination still makes a wonderfully attractive result. Yet there’s really nothing—flat, far-stretching plain coming down to the river’s edge, thorn covered, water-covered in the flood in the lower reaches, a little wheat and millet stubble in the base fields, an occasional village of reed-built houses and the beautiful river craft, majestic on noble sails or skimming on clumsy paddles. The river bends and winds, curves back on itself almost and you have the curious apparition of a fleet of white sails rising out of the thorny waste, now on side of you, now the other. And by these you mark where your cruise must be where the river divides wilderness from wilderness. We passed Ezra’s Tomb and its clump of palms and got out to look at it. There’s a very ancient tradition which is probably true, that the prophet is buried here, but the actual shrine is new.»

Gertrude Bell, 1er janvier 1917 

Découverte sur internet, le volume 1 avec photos,

et le volume 2.

Je n'ai pas le volume 3, mais il semblerait qu'il n’ait jamais paru.

Mais on a tout là, avec ses photos.