Travel
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The Middle East's cosmopolitan tradition
Back to a Levantine future?
As regional and global problems rise, the once mixed cities of the Eastern Mediterranean may offer ideas for how we can escape our distress
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Tourism in Saudi Arabia
Journey to al-Ula
Saudi Arabia used to be more isolated than North Korea. Now the country is presenting its friendly face to the world and wooing Western tourists. Text by Karin A. Wenger, photos by Philipp Breu
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"Sufi Hotel" by Juergen Frembgen
Karachi's hidden underbelly
Juergen Wasim Frembgen's new book "Sufi Hotel" is a milieu study of Karachi's underworld that shines a light on a totally unfamiliar side of Pakistan. Marian Brehmer read it for Qantara.de
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Construction and infrastructure
Turkey supplants China in East Africa
Uganda is abandoning its Chinese partners and turning to Turkey to build a new railway line that will connect to neighbouring Kenya. East Africa is keen on improving its railway network as part of a pan-African project. By Philipp Sandner, Emmanuel Lubega & Burak Unveren
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The Tuareg: literature, language and culture
"The journey of the princess"
The term "Tuareg" refers to tribes and nomads who speak dialects of Tuareg and live in Targa, an area in south-west Libya recently renamed Wadi Al-Hayat but previously known as Wadi Ajal. By Mustafa Abdullah Abdulrahman Bashir
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Pakistani cuisine
Lahore’s maverick restauranteur
Welcome to Baking Virsa, a hole-in-the-wall in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore described as the country’s most expensive restaurant for what it serves – household favourites like flatbreads and kebabs
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Climate change in the MENA
Will North Africa's beaches disappear?
The southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea are losing sand faster than almost anywhere else. The ecological and economic damage is immense. The good news is, there are ways to cope. By Cathrin Schaer and Tarak Guizani
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Istanbul in 24 hours
What's it like to live in a fractured city?
Turkey is so much more than its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Christiane Schloetzer has selected twenty-four of Istanbul's sixteen million inhabitants, creating a portrait of the Bosphorus metropolis based on their life stories. By Rainer Hermann
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Tourism in North Africa
Tentative recovery, or too little, too late?
Tourists have been returning to Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. But, given the global uncertainty caused by the Ukraine war, will the comeback be enough to save a struggling sector, revive lost jobs and avoid unrest? Cathrin Schaer and Mohammed Magdy report
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Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence: thousands of significant, insignificant objects
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France's colonial legacy
Algerians turn away from French
An increasing number of government ministries in Algeria are announcing they will abandon French in future. They may be reacting to the mood among the population, but the move is also deliberate. By Dunja Ramadan
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Sensational find in Turkey
Turkish archaeologists discover subterranean city of Matiate
Welcome to the underground! In Midyat, Turkey, the gateway to a huge underground city has been discovered. It was used for over 1900 years and could accommodate up to 70,000 people. Hannah Fuchs has the details