In the deserts of Jordan, some 60 miles east of Amman, a team of experts works to preserve the precious frescoes of Qasr 'Amra—where Umayyad princes once bathed in beauty.

Today, as they have for five millennia, the perfumers of Egypt harvest and process the flowers and herbs of the Nile Delta—a delicate harvest of scents that perfumes the whole world.

Between peals of church bells, in England's Cotswold Hills, an English interpretation of the Holy Koran has been recorded—on 41 hours of tape—for the Muslims of Britain.

Jennergot the credit—and deserved to; but Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 79 years before, and the Ottomans before her, had already fought and conquered the ravages of smallpox.

Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, is moving—to the north in an explosion of urban expansion that is transforming the city into a modern metropolis at an unprecedented pace.