Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
You can't visit Wadi Rum and fail to bump into Lawrence. The legacy of the esoteric Englishman is everywhere -
there's even a mountain named
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
, after his famous account of the Arab Revolt. Lawrence's
ubiquitous local evocation is something of a cynical one, mind, designed to cash in on the chiefly foreign fascina-
tion with this legendary figure.
Lawrence the Legend
It was largely thanks to the promotion of
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
by an American journalist in 1926 that the
Lawrence legend was born. In this adventurous account of derring-do, much of which takes place in the desert in
and around Wadi Rum, Lawrence casts himself in the role of trusted adviser, brave soldier and ultimately a messiah
figure of the Arab cause. However, that was not necessarily how he was regarded from an Arab perspective. Indeed
for some he was 'Lawrence Who?' - one among 100,000 Arabs, 10% of whom died in their epic struggle to build a
nation.
The Man Behind the Myth
So what are the facts? Born in 1888 into a wealthy English family, Thomas Edward Lawrence ('TE' to his friends)
nurtured an early passion for the Middle East. He studied archaeology at Oxford and became bewitched by the re-
gion in 1909 while researching his thesis on Crusader castles. With the outbreak of WWI, Lawrence became a natur-
al choice for the intelligence service in Cairo, where he became attached to the Hejaz Expeditionary Force.
Lawrence felt a natural sympathy towards the fomenting Arab Revolt, the objective of which was to oust the Turks
and create an Arab state. Learning to ride camels with the best of them, and wearing Arab clothing like so many
other English adventurers before him, Lawrence accompanied the armies of the great Arab warrior (and later states-
man) Emir Faisal in 1917 (
Click here
) and learned a respect for his comrades that lasted a lifetime. Lawrence died
in a motorcycle accident in 1935 - a lone and isolated figure, by all accounts, who never fully found in peacetime
the sense of purpose and passion he experienced with his Arab comrades in the desert.
Lawrence's Legacy
Some say that Lawrence was embarrassed by the hero status conferred upon him by an adoring English public (in
1927 he changed his name to Shaw and chose to enrol as a private in the RAF); others say he did nothing to put his
contribution into a more historically accurate perspective. But Lawrence's legacy is best judged not so much in
terms of his disputed military accomplishments, eccentric and brave though they may be, but in the way he immor-
talised (at least for Western readers) some of the great characters of modern Arab history. It is not just the hallowed
names of Auda and Faisal that ring out of the desert at Wadi Rum; to his credit, Lawrence also describes with great
tenderness the ordinary foot soldiers of the Arab cause who gave their lives for a brave new world. In the process,
Lawrence immortalised forever the magnificence of the Bedouin landscape from which these soldiers hailed, inspir-
ing generations of visitors to see for themselves the wonder of Rum.
Wadi Rum
03 / ELEV 950M
Wadi Rum is everything you'd expect of a quintessential desert: it is extreme in summer
heat and winter cold; it is violent and moody as the sun slices through chiselled siqs
