[This book] tells the story of France's struggle to explore and dominate the great African desert at the turn of the century. Focusing on the conquest of the Ahaggar Tuareg, [the author] describes the exploits ... of the desert's explorers and conquerors. -Back cover.

After being driven from their land by French colonial soldiers in 1909, Nour and his people, "the blue men" must search for a haven out of the desert that will shelter them. Interspersed with the story of Nour is the contemporary story of Lalla, a descendent of the blue men, who lives in Morocco and tries to stay true to the blood of her ancestors while experiencing life as a modern immigrant.

A grandly scaled and ravishingly scenic adventure about the search for clues across the Sinai terrain offering proof of Biblical events. Set in 1900 and unfolding across landscapes of awesome beauty and breathtaking excavations, rough-hewn archaeologist Mark Brandon and determined explorer Ann Mercedes, striving to complete her late father's earlier discoveries, travel a route of intrigue, danger and romance to reach the lost tomb of Ra-Hotep before...