Railway lines once connected the Middle East
Now the tracks that joined continents lie in wreckage
SHE LEFT her husband digging for pottery in Syria’s northern desert, handed her passport to the uniformed Turk at Nusaybin, and, as the steam whistle blew, clambered aboard the Express bound for Aleppo. On arrival, she checked into the Baron, the city’s only first-class hotel, and in room 203 began writing what is probably the most famous mystery novel of all time.
This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline “Murder of the Orient Express”
Christmas Specials December 18th 2021
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- Does good parenting in Hong Kong mean submitting to the Party?
- An economic history of restaurants
- The rise and rise of corrugated iron
- The mathematical method that could offer a fairer way to vote
- How to prevent conflict on the way to Mars
- Scenes from an almost vanished Singapore
- Retracing Julius Caesar’s path through France
From the December 18th 2021 edition
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