Arabian Knight

ANNIE GRIFFITHS BELT / CORBIS

ADVENTURER: Tourists can ride camels in Jordan's Wadi Rum, left, where Lawrence fought during the Arab Revolt in 1917

Lawrence of Arabia — soldier, swashbuckler, scholar — is one of the 20th century's most compelling adventurers. The exploits of the British officer and military strategist during the Arab Revolt of 1916-18 inspired David Lean's 1962 film, and Lawrence's vivid memoir of Arab guerrilla warfare in the book Seven Pillars of Wisdom has become suggested reading for British military personnel in Iraq. Though it's been 70 years since he died on May 19, 1935, in a motorcycle accident near his home in Dorset, England, T.E. Lawrence's popularity endures. In October, the exhibition, "Lawrence of Arabia: The Life, the Legend," opens at...

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