Sir Wilfred Thesiger
Sir Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003). British explorer and travel writer who "specialised" in Arabia/Iraq/Abyssinia/Sudan/East Africa/Morocco. Did most of his travelling between the 1930s to the 1950s including war service in "Special Operations" during which he was involved in the liberation of Ethiopia. Was friends with rulers such as Haile Selassie and Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi. Has been called "the last of the great Victorian travelers, born half a century after his time." and continued the British "Arabist" travelling tradition by bonding with the tribes whose lands he travelled through and adopting their values. His collection of photographs is held by the Pitt-Rivers museum and many are available for viewing on line. see http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/thesiger.html
For more about his life also see http://www.bigbillkruse.com/thesiger.htm
Connected Sites
| Site | Rationale | Link |
| 'Uruq Bani Ma'arid | Travelling the Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali) | |
| Ahwar of Southern Iraq | Wrote The Marsh Arabs (1964), on his time living with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq. | |
| Al Ain | "Thesiger's travels frequently took him through the emirate, through the southern oasis of Liwa, through the capital city, and to Al Ain itself, where he formed an enduring friendship with Sheikh Zayed, the future ruler of Abu Dhabi and the 'father' and first president of the United Arab Emirates." See: | |
| Damascus | 1942 - 1943 | |
| Ennedi Massif | Describes his visit in "A Camel Journey to Tibesti" (1939): "Basking on the edge of these pools I saw six small crocodiles, the largest 5 feet in length." | |
| Fasil Ghebbi | 1960 | |
| Gonbad-e Qâbus | June - August 1964 | |
| Harar Jugol | Visited in Dec 1930 during his visit to Haile Selassie's coronation (there by personal invitation). Wrote in Danakil diary that "except for a few corrugated iron roofs, it still looked the same as when [Burton] had been there" | |
| Jaipur City, Rajasthan | September - October 1983 | |
| Kilimanjaro National Park | Climbed it in Feb 1962 (aged 51). Described here | |
| Konso | Thesiger suggested the tribe for an anthropological Phd thesis "While enquiring about the possibilities of fieldwork in Ethiopia, Wilfred Thesiger drew his attention to the Konso, among whom Hallpike lived from 1965-67. His doctoral research was published in 1972 as The Konso of Ethiopia. A study of the values of a Cushitic people." From his photo collection: | |
| Lakes of Ounianga | Describes his visit in "A Camel Journey to Tibesti" (1939) | |
| Lalibela | "Following his celebrated travels in Arabia and Iraq during the late 1940s and 1950s, Thesiger returned to Ethiopia in 1959, visiting the remarkable rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and thereafter he based himself for much of each year in East Africa." | |
| Lamu Old Town | 1961 | |
| Land of Frankincense | Visited Shisr in 1946 during one of (4 in all between 1945 and 1950) his "crossings" of the Empty Quarter which started in (and returned to) Salalah. ("The archaeological site of Shisr, which some believe to be the legendary lost city of Ubar, was formally identified and recognized in the early 1990s by Sir Ranulph Fiennes and a team of archaeologists. This identification gained international attention, although debate continues regarding whether Shisr is indeed Ubar. While the site was explored by Bertram Thomas in the 1930s and Thesiger in the 1940s, its official identification as a potential lost city came later"). See | |
| Lut Desert | 1964 | |
| Medina of Fez | circa 1930s | |
| Medina of Marrakesh | 1965 | |
| Meidan Emam, Esfahan | 1949 | |
| Meknes | 1961 | |
| Mount Kenya | 1970 | |
| Ngorongoro | "In April 1961 Thesiger travelled in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) with another friend, John Newbould, the pair walking for a month around Ngorongoro Crater with donkeys hired from local Maasai. For Thesiger, the Maasai embodied traditional Africa, yet he feared for their future: 'They have scorned everything which the West has offered them, and how right they are. The tragedy is that others who have not... are bound to win in the modern world, though they lose their souls in the process.' See | |
| Petra | 1941 | |
| Shibam | His travels there in the 1940s are described by Thesiger in "Arabian Sands" . "Whenever I was in the silent alleyways under the sheer walls of these houses I felt as if I were at the bottom of a well" | |
| Taj Mahal | 1978 | |
| Yazd | 1964 |
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