WORLD ACHIEVEMENTS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12730, 1 May 1939, Page 2

WORLD ACHIEVEMENTS

— -$■ ; ■ THE MOTORWAY TO BAGDAD Bagdad! City of mystery, old as Time itself, crowded with legend, home of the caliphs, reminding us of Slnbad,, is Bagdad linked with the West by tndfdis-eoach! > Ltow strange it all.sounds, the romantic city on the ancient Tigris reached in comfort, by coach. There is no motorway in all the world quite like the olle from Damascus to Bagdad, a joutney of 530 miles, largely across. the Syrian desert, every foot of the way -haunted by memories of a past which -was almost forgotten before British/history began. Here century after century travelled caravans of camels, their speed yesterday neither more nor less than it was when Abraham was keeping his flocks in Mesopotamia, just north of the route, or when the Pharaohs were ruling 'in Egypt, to the south and west. Now the journey has been reduced from week to 15 or 16 hours. Monster buses travel this old way at nearly 60 miles an hour. There ar.e no roads. There is only shifting sand, for the track made on© day is obliterated the next. Each bus is 57 feet long. Each has ten wheels with specially designed tyres of immense proportions. These desert cars are driven by Diesel engines developing 150 horsepower. Passengers are in air and dust-proof compartment provided with .sleeping accommodation. A still larger bus for this route has engines developing 185 horse-power, 18 wheels, and a petrol tank taking 280 gallons. It is 68 feet long—con-' queror of the desert.