The Land Beyond

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ADVENTURE TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARDS.
There are many reasons why it might seem unwise to walk, mostly alone, through the Middle East. That, in part, is exactly why Leon McCarron did it.
From Jerusalem, McCarron followed a series of wild hiking trails that trace ancient trading and pilgrimage routes and traverse some of the most contested landscapes in the world. In the West Bank, he met families struggling to lead normal lives amidst political turmoil and had a surreal encounter with the world's oldest and smallest religious sect. In Jordan, he visited the ruins of Hellenic citadels and trekked through the legendary Wadi Rum. His journey culminated in the vast deserts of the Sinai, home to Bedouin tribes and haunted by the ghosts of Biblical history.
The Land Beyond is a journey through time, from the quagmire of current geopolitics to the original ideals of the faithful, through the layers of history, culture and religion that have shaped the Holy Land. But at its heart, it is the story of people, not politics and of the connections that can bridge seemingly insurmountable barriers.

Leon McCarron is a writer, broadcaster and adventurer from Northern Ireland. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Abraham Path Initiative, and an Explorer ambassador for The North Face. He was a recipient of the 2017 Neville Shulman Award and in the last decade has travelled over 35,000 miles by human-power.
Leon has walked a 1000-mile loop of the Holy Land, crossed 3000 miles of China from north to south on foot, and led human-powered projects in Kosovo, Armenia and on the Yemeni island of Socotra. He has cycled from New York to Hong Kong, walked through the largest sand desert on earth, kayaked the longest river in Iran, and ridden across Patagonia on horseback. In 2019 he led an effort to design a long-distance hiking trail in central China, and he is currently working
on a similar endeavour in Iraqi Kurdistan.
He has presented a one-hour documentary for the BBC on the legacy of the explorer Lord Dufferin and reported for Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent from the West Bank, Iraq, and Socotra. He has also made a four-part series Walking Home From Mongolia for National Geographic, presented an episode of the Real Stories strand about the Israelite Samaritans and produced four independent feature films, including the Banff Film Festival Finalist Into The Empty Quarter. He has bylines for National Geographic, New Scientist, BBC, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Telegraph, amongst others. Leon is the also author of The Road Headed West: A Cycling Adventure Through North America.

List of Plates
Preface to the Paperback Edition
Map of the Author's Route through West Bank, Jordan and Sinai
Part I The Centre of all the World
Part II East of the Jordan
Part III The Path to the Sacred Summit
Acknowledgements
Trail Companions
Information on the Trails
Glossary
Notes