The True Story of Desert Explorer Laszlo Almasy

[mgc1961]

As a boy, the son of a Hungarian nobleman would often stare off into the distance from his birthplace, a castle in the Burgenland region of present-day Austria. He always longed for the unattainable.

At 14, the boy built himself a glider to fly up to the sky, but it crashed.

Then, in the 1930s, Laszlo Almasy set out to find the lost oasis of Zarzura. The mythical place is mentioned in Arabian treasure books and in the collection of stories known as "One Thousand and One Nights," where it is referred to as "City of Brass."

The pioneer explored 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) of the Sahara. He surveyed the land, drew maps and set foot in places in that sea of sand "that no human eye had seen." In the remote Wadi Sura, he even stumbled upon painted dugouts from the Stone Age -- a sensational find.

But he never found Zarzura.

There is no question that Almasy was a man who followed his desires. But who was this adventurer, flight instructor and Nazi agent, who the Bedouins reverently called Abu Ramla, or Father of the Sand?


There's more, or course, to this story. Read it at http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,686940,00.html

[elehhhhna]

1. Thanks! Almasy is "the english patient" in ondaatje's

remarkable work of fiction. can't wait to read the article.

[mgc1961]

2. Is your avatar a Maxfield Parrish figure?

I have a copy of Morning on my living-room wall.

[elehhhhna]

3. b'lieve so...and WELCOME to DU!