About the Cover Illustration

The figure on the cover of Spring in Action, Third Edition, is a “Le Caraco,” or an inhabitant of the province of Karak in southwest Jordan. Its capital is the city of Al-Karak, which boasts an ancient hilltop castle with magnificent views of the Dead Sea and surrounding plains.

The illustration is taken from a French travel book, Encyclopédie des Voyages by J. G. St. Sauveur, published in 1796. Travel for pleasure was a relatively new phenomenon at the time and travel guides such as this one were popular, introducing both the tourist as well as the armchair traveler to the inhabitants of other regions of France and abroad.

The diversity of the drawings in the Encyclopédie des Voyages speaks vividly of the uniqueness ...

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