Military topographic survey mapping with contours. These maps are designed primarily as flying charts for aircraft, but they are useful as general topographical maps where nothing else is available. Contours are shown in feet, with elevation colouring & spot heights. Towns, villages, major roads, railways & airports are shown (but please note that many of the smaller settlements are not named, & the road information is not necessarily up to date). Some air navigation information also appears on the map, such as radio beacons & restricted flying zones. Double-sided sheet. ...

Bagarchhap, sheet no. 2884-06, in the topographic survey of Nepal at 1:50, 000 published by the Nepali Government in the late 1990s & early 2000s & produced from remote sensing data by Finnish cartographers as part of that country’s international aid program. The maps cover 15’ x 15’ quadrangles.IMPORTANT – PLEASE NOTE BEFORE ORDERING: AVAILABILITY: although, theoretically at least, still in print, these maps are very difficult to get locally in Nepal and/or from various suppliers elsewhere specializing in obtaining such maps. DELIVERIES MAY TAKE SEVERAL WEEKS OR EVEN MONTHS.PROBLEMS WITH PLACE NAMES: reports from previous users indicate that transliteration of place names differs from that used widely not only on other maps & in guide books but also on the ground itself, in road signs & in the tourist & trekking industry in general. Whilst most names are similar enough to be easily recognizable, e.g. Namche Bajar for Namche Bazar or Lantan for Langtang, we have been told of confusion & difficulties arising from different spellings appearing on these maps.TREKKING ROUTES & TOURIST INFORMATION: whilst the maps show foot trails & mark locations of temples, etc, they carry no specific trekking information. Major trekking routes & places of interest are not highlighted. There is no marking for base camps & other tourist facilities. Map specifications: Contours are at 40m intervals, with graphics and/or coloring to show various features of the terrain (glaciers with moraines & crevasses, quarries, gravel or clay pits, etc.) & vegetation (forests, bush, grass, orchards & plantations, etc). Additional comments such as “open mixed forest mainly bajh & pine” annotate many area. The maps have numerous spot heights, but relatively few peaks are named. Areas outside the country’s borders are left blank. Settlements in remote areas are indicated by markings for individual buildings & the placing of names does not always make it clear which group of buildings they refer to. Road network distinguishes between major & minor foot trails. Symbols mark features such as temples, schools & hospitals, police stations, etc. Also shown are the country’s administrative divisions. The maps have a 1-km UTM grid, plus latitude & longitude lines at intervals of 5’. Map legend & all the text is in English. Coverage: the whole country is now covered, with the north at 1:50, 000, plus central & southern Nepal at 1:25, 000. The two series are complementary, do not overlap & use the same grid & numbering system (apart from the Lumbini Zone, where a different grid & numbering are used). For areas not shown on our grid & titles not listed here, please contact us by e-mail, but please do bear in mind the problems with availability & the likely very long delivery time. ...

” Bagels & Bacon” is a rites of passage story that will appeal to both young & old. It attempts to shed a largely humorous, but sometimes serious light, on the relations between an ethnic minority & the wider community. Its attitude to Judaism, in particular, & religions in general, is irreverent. The work is also a nostalgic record of growing up in the East End during the postwar period, & attempts to convey a liking of London & more importantly a love of history to the reader. Within the Jewish community it might arouse interest, even controversy, but in wider terms it tries to portray the East End before the dawn of multiculturalism & political correctness. The author, a baby boomer (now turned pensioner) tells with genuine affection & warmth his family story peopled by a host of hilarious characters. ...

Topographic survey of Catalonia at 1:50, 000 from the Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya, with vivid presentation of the terrain & an overprint for long-distance GR hiking trails. The series provides an excellent alternative to the much smaller sheets in the civilian or military surveys produced for the whole of Spain. The Catalan 50K series has not only a much larger area per sheet (each map covers one comarca, an administrative division of a province) than the maps from the national surveys, but also has more colourful, elegant & clear cartography with contours at 20m intervals, hill shading & fine graphics to portray the relief, vegetation types & landmarks. Most maps also have more tourist-related information, with an overprint highlighting long-distance GR trails & the Via Verde routes. Mountain refuges are marked & a range symbols indicate various places of interest including historical monuments, sport & recreational facilities, etc. Four different types of interesting locations are highlighted: picturesque towns or villages, individual isolated building or monuments, natural sites, & hydrographic features such as waterfalls. The maps have a 5km UTM grid, with latitude & longitude values shown for the map corners. Map legend is in Catalan only. To see other titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

Double-sided sheet with main map of Baghdad at 1:25, 000 scale, key to symbols & an index on one side & on the reverse an enlargement at 1:9, 000 of Baghdad city centre, a map of the capital's environs, a map showing No Fly Zones, a diagram of the ranges of Scud-B & Al-Hussein missiles with oil fields & US airbases, a map showing alleged locations of active & unactive nuclear infrastructures, chemical & nuclear weapons. ...

A clear street plan covering an area of about 7 x 7 miles. Main roads are named & railways are included. The old city is highlighted & a variety of the city's features are indicated, eg. places of worship, museums, parks, antiquities, monuments, hotels, markets, public offices. Lines of latitude & longitude are drawn at 1' intervals. Small inset maps show the environs of Baghdad at 1:1, 750, 000 & Iraq & neighbours at 1:6, 000, 000. The index

Includes:: streets, quarters of the city & sites of interest eg. mosques, churches, markets, notable buildings.

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Baghdad, November 2003. The US occupation is not yet a disaster but the CPA has disbanded the Iraqi army & decimated the police in its policy of de-Ba`athification of Iraqi society. Inspector Muhsin al-Khafaji is a mid-level Iraqi cop who deserted his post back in April. Khafaji has lived long enough in pre- & post-Saddam Iraq to know that clinging on to anything but poetry & his daughter, Mrouj, is asking for trouble. Nabbed by the Americans & imprisoned in Abu Ghraib, Khafaji is offered only one way out
- he has to work for the CPA to rebuild the Iraqi Police Services. But it`s only after US forces take Mrouj that he figures out a way to make his collaboration palatable, & even rewarding. Soon, he is investigating the disappearance of young translators working for the US Army.
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The latest in Andrew Martin’s much loved ‘ Jim Stringer’ series of books, The Baghdad Railway Club is set in Baghdad 1917 as Captain Jim Stringer, invalided from the Western Front, has been dispatched to investigate what looks like a nasty case of treason. Arriving to find a city on the point of insurrection, his own cover apparently blown, Stringer finds his only contact lying dead with flies in his eyes. Baghdad swelters in a particularly torrid summer, the heat alone threatens the lives of the British soldiers who occupy the city. The recently ejected Turks are still a danger
- & many of the local Arabs are none too friendly either. For Jim, who is not particularly good in warm weather, the situation grows pricklier by the day. Aside from his investigation, he is working on the railways around the city. His boss is the charming, enigmatic Lieutenant-Colonel Shepherd, who presides over the gracious dining society called The Baghdad Railway Club
- & who may or may not be a Turkish agent. Jim`s search for the truth brings him up against murderous violence in a heat-dazed, labyrinthine city where an enemy awaits around every corner. The Baghdad Railway Club continues the ` Jim Stringer` series which began with The Necropolis Railway in 2002. The third & fourth books in the series, Murder at Deviation Junction & Death on a Branch Line, were shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award &, in 2008, Andrew Martin was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library Award.

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The Freya Stark Collection Freya Stark first journeyed to Iraq in 1927. Seven years after the establishment of the British Mandate, the modern state was in its infancy & worlds apart from the country it has since become. During her many years in Iraq, Freya Stark was witness to the rise & fall of the British involvement in the country as well as the early years of independence. Typically
- & controversially
- she chose to live outside the close-knit western expatriate scene & immersed herself in the way of life of ordinary Iraqis
- living in the `native` quarter of the city & spending time with its tribal sheikhs & leaders. Venturing out of Baghdad, she travelled to Mosul, Nineveh, Tikrit & Najaf, where she perceptively describes the millennia-old tensions between Sunni & Shi`a, time not having dissipated their hatred. In the 1940s she returned again, this time travelling south, to the Marsh Arabs, whose way of life has now all but disappeared; north into Kurdistan & later, Kuwait, in the days before the oil boom. Painting a portrait of both the political & social preoccupations of the day as exquisitely as she does the people & landscapes of Iraq, Baghdad Sketches is a remarkable portrait of the country as it once was.


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Over thirteen centuries, Baghdad has enjoyed both cultural & commercial pre-eminence, boasting artistic & intellectual sophistication & an economy once the envy of the world. It was here, in the time of the Caliphs, that the Thousand & One Nights were set. Yet it has also been a city of great hardships, beset by epidemics, famines, floods, & numerous foreign invasions which have brought terrible bloodshed. This is the history of its storytellers & its tyrants, of its philosophers & conquerors. Here, in the first new history of Baghdad in nearly 80 years, Justin Marozzi brings to life the whole tumultuous history of what was once the greatest capital on earth. ...