Leonardo and the Queen

  As I write, history is palpably being made, so I take refuge in the past. I have been asked how over 600 drawings and sketches by Leonardo da Vinci came into the possession of the Queen of the British Isles. No pictures survive from Antiquity, so no depictions...

Petra Unleashed

In the afternoon some of us were offered the chance to return to Petra on our own but with the same ticket (£55). We walked downhill, past a few olive groves and many more temple-tombs high in the rock face, some with weather-beaten reliefs, probably angel figures...

Petra – in trepidation

Tell your friends that you are going to Jordan, and they’ll respond, ‘Petra!’ either with gleeful satisfaction or longing. So would it match up to expectation? Our guide was fully aware of this. He explained that we would start at 8.30, not at 8 as on our programme....