Like many Australians, Christine Hogan was fascinated, bemused and more than a little apprehensive of the Islamic world. But overcoming her trepidation, she decided the only way to gain any understanding of Islam – the religion, the culture and the people – was to see things first hand. Travelling through Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and the Gulf States, Christine embarked on a journey of discovery. While coping with stroppy camels, plagues of locusts, and getting lost in the Sahara and a souq or two, Christine also came to appreciate the beauty and complexity of the Middle East, and a kindness and hospitality unrivalled anywhere else in the world. She soon found her old assumptions making way for new insights. Interwoven with Christine's experiences are the stories of some of the women who belong to the history of the Middle East: the first Muslim, a woman called Khadija; Florence Nightingale; Isabel Burton, wife of Sir Richard; the intrepid Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who gained unprecedented access to the wives and mistresses of the Ottoman court in the 18th century; and the Swiss adventuress Isabelle Eberhardt, who cross-dressed her way across North Africa in the late 19th century and became a devout Muslim. The Veiled Lands is a warm, funny and acutely observed account of a single woman's travels in a little-understood part of the world.