Seated portrait of Wilfred Thesiger ... Special Orders

Seated portrait of Wilfred Thesiger ... Special OrdersSeated portrait of Wilfred Thesiger taken during his party's journey from the As Saruq sands to Abu Dhabi near the end of his second journey across the Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali). Wilfred Thesiger kneels in the sand in front of a low ridge of bushes, holding a rifle and a camel stick across his lap. He is wearing a headscarf, a long shirt (thobe), and a khanjar (dagger) in a cartridge belt around his waist. Due to the nature of these images, prints

Scattered patches of grass grow on the plain

View of a rock-strewn wadi bed in the region north of the town of Al-Saum

They wear thobes (long shirts) with headscarves (ghutra) topped with agal (head ropes)

Portrait of Wilfred Thesiger's travelling party gathering water from a well at the southern end of Jabal Hafit (Jebel Hafeet)

Interior view of Wilfred Thesiger's house at Kutum

According to an original note by James Stevenson (prepared circa 1885)

Sheikh Hazaa bin Sultan Al Nahyan sits at the far right

The Prime Minister

The sand dune is dotted with vegetation

Behind them small dots of vegetation grow in flat sand

View of several houses with wind-towers

The photograph shows a man standing beside the south face of a carved stone zoomorph known by archaeologists as Zoomorph B