Jane Taylor
In the valleys of al-ʿUla, in the north-west of the Arabian Peninsula, lie the remains of two remarkable ancient cities. Dadan was a wealthy oasis kingdom on the Incense Road, its name known even to the biblical prophets. A short distance to the north, Hegra, the Petra of Arabia, preserves the monumental rock-cut tombs of the Nabataeans, the caravan traders who commanded this desert crossroads.
In Dadan and Hegra, Jane Taylor traces three thousand years of human life in this extraordinary landscape: from its deep geological origins and the rise of the aromatics trade, through the Dadanite and Lihyanite kingdoms and the Nabataean masterworks at Hegra, to the pilgrimage era and the sites’ rediscovery by Western travellers and modern archaeology. Richly illustrated with photography and maps, it is an authoritative and accessible portrait of a place now recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Jane Taylor is a writer and photographer who has specialised in the Middle East for over four decades. After an honours degree in Mediaeval History and Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, she worked as a teacher, publisher, television researcher and then producer. Her first book, resulting from time spent in southern Africa, was Testament to the Bushmen (1984), co-authored with Laurens van der Post, who presented the TV series of the same name, which she produced. Her photographs have appeared in many other books, magazines and campaigns, drawn from archives spanning the Middle East and beyond.
