This week’s dream: in the footsteps of T.E. Lawrence
He is both reviled and revered in the Middle East, seen as a “double-dealer” and a “fantasist” as much as the warrior hero of British imperial legend. But to follow in T.E. Lawrence’s footsteps across modern-day Jordan is a wonderful experience, says Nigel Richardson in The Sunday Telegraph. A British intelligence officer, Lawrence forged an alliance with Prince Faisal of Mecca, leader of the nascent Arab Revolt against Ottoman Rule, in 1916. Faisal’s “irregular army” then progressed northwards, with Lawrence to the fore as – according to his account – “unifier, strategist, explosives expert and money man”. If you’re retracing their route today, however, it is easier to do it backwards, driving from Amman to Aqaba, on the Red Sea, which was the site of one of their early triumphs.
At Amman’s Ottoman-era railway station, steam locomotives from the old Hejaz Railway sit on the sidings. The attacks that Lawrence masterminded on this line “came to symbolise the romantic derring-do of the uprising”. You cross it as you head south through the desert, passing Bedouin encampments that look the same in essence as they did in his day. At the castle of Azraq, he socialised in a gatehouse room where the ceiling is still black with soot from the fires he lit; at Shobak – one of several splendid Crusader castles along the way – you can see where he trudged, with bare feet, through snow and ice to the main gate. Next comes the ancient rockcarved city of Petra, which Lawrence loved – a “world wonder” that sees just a trickle of visitors today (fear of the wars in Syria and Iraq has “devastated” tourism in Jordan, though the country is “stable, infinitely hospitable and safe”). And finally, there is Wadi Rum, where Arab forces gathered before the advance on Aqaba: its “stupendous hills” struck Lawrence dumb with their beauty. Cazenove+loyd (020-7384 2332, www.cazloyd.com) has a seven-day trip from £3,500pp, excluding flights.