Interwar Archaeology and Tourism in the Middle East

During the interwar years, archaeological expeditions, museums, railways, steamships and hotels drew increasing numbers of European and American specialists and tourists to Egypt, Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan. Excavation camps combined scholarly work with local labour, diplomatic networks and the unequal structures of colonial or mandate power.

Luxury travel presented the region as accessible while concealing political tension and large differences in wealth and authority. Travellers moved between international hotels, river steamers, desert roads and ancient sites, often relying on local guides and workers whose knowledge was essential but whose perspectives were marginalised in contemporary accounts.

This environment became a distinctive setting for interwar crime fiction. Agatha Christie drew on her own archaeological travels when creating the expedition camp of Murder in Mesopotamia, the Nile journey of Death on the Nile and the Petra setting of Appointment with Death, using temporary communities in unfamiliar landscapes to intensify secrecy, dependence and suspicion.