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Early 2000s: Freya Stark is most famous for her travels in Arabia
A Winter in Arabia – A Journey Through Yemen
What you need to know before your trail
Freya Stark is most famous for her travels in Arabia at a time when very few men, let alone women, had fully explored its vast hinterlands. In 1934, she made her first journey to the Hadhramaut in what is now Yemen – the first woman to do so alone.
Even though that journey ended in disappointment, sickness and a forced rescue, Stark, undeterred, returned to Yemen two years later.
Travel Guide
A journey around Yemen
Starting in Mukalla and skirting the fringes of the legendary and unexplored Empty Quarter, she spent the winter searching for Shabwa – ancient capital of the Hadhramaut and a holy grail for generations of explorers.
A Winter in Arabia is one of the most important pieces of literature on the region and a book that placed Freya Stark in the pantheon of great writers and explorers of the Arab world. To listen to her voice is to hear the rich echoes of a land whose ‘nakedness is clothed in shreds of departed splendour’.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: A Winter in Arabia – A Journey Through Yemen
Destination: Yemen, Mukalla, Shabwah Author/guide: Freya Stark Departure Time: Early 2000s
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