Myriad stunning

It’s in the last that you’ll find the stupendous Burj al Arab, the vast sailed-shaped icon which has done more than anything else to put the city on the world map – one of the most original, and certainly the most beautiful, building constructed anywhere on the planet over the past fifty years.

The “Norway of Arabia”, as it’s often described (although it’s considerably warmer), Musandam is the Middle East at its most scenically spectacular.

Myriad stunning Education website

The jewel in Iran's cultural crown, Isfahan boasts an extraordinary collection of blue-tiled mosques, historic madrassas and caravanserais, and ancient bazaars stuffed with carpets and crafts, with all roads leading to the vast Naghsh-e Jahan, one of the world’s most spectacular city squares.

In the remote far north of Saudi Arabia, the extraordinary rock-tombs of Mada’in Saleh are one of the Middle East’s most remarkable – and least known – sights. There are 131 of these cavernous mausoleums cut into a sequence of craggy red sandstone outcrops that dot the sands of the Saudi desert.

Mediterranean meets Middle Eastern at the ancient port of Byblos, hemmed in between beautiful beaches and rugged mountains on the coast just north of Beirut. Byblos is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities and history lies particularly thick on the ground here, with the remains of Phoenician temples jostling for space with a Crusader castle.

Visitors have been lured to Siwa ever since Alexander the Great came here to consult the resident oracle back in 332 BC. The great Macedonian adventurer visited, it’s said, to seek confirmation that he was descended from Zeus, although most modern visitors are happy enough simply exploring Siwa’s ruined mud-brick kasbahs, the remains of ancient Egyptian tombs and Greco-Roman temples.

If Tolkein’s elves ever decided to move out of Middle Earth, they’d probably want to live in Cappadocia. There’s a distinct whiff of enchantment about the region’s unique landscape, with its surreal collection of outlandish rock pillars, cones, mushrooms and other bizarre geological formations.

Step back in time amidst the old city’s endlessly fascinating maze of medieval streets and alleyways, dotted with ancient mosques, spectacular gateways and bustling bazaars. Getting lost is half the fun – if you don’t, go back until you do.

No one ever forgets their first sight of Petra. Entering the site you pass through the narrowest of gorges, as if through the eye of some magical needle, before emerging into the great lost city of the Nabateans, where the exquisitely carved Greco-Roman façade of the Treasury looms out of the cliff-face ahead. And that’s just one of the dozens of spectacular temples and tombs dotting the rocky defiles and hilltops above.