num_pages: 304
description: Desert explorer Michael Asher investigates the most disastrous exploration mission in the history of the Sahara. In 1880 the French government ordered a surveying expedition for a railway that would bring the fabulous wealth of Timbuktu in French Sudan to Paris. This trek should have heralded a new era of French prosperity. Instead it was a deadly fiasco. Under-armed in hostile territory and foolishly employing the enemy as guides the one hundred men of the expedition were ambushed and stranded without camels or supplies in the deserts of southern Algeria. Many were killed outright and for four months the survivors were menaced by the Tuareg the lords of the desert robbed starved and tricked into eating poisoned fruit. To escape the men hid in the wastelands of the Sahara with little hope of finding food or water. They were finally forced to eat their own dead or worse the merely weak. Only a dozen malnourished men lived to tell their tale. The story of their 1000 mile journey is one of the most astonishing narratives of survival ever recorded. With a superb grip of narrative and uncanny ability to evoke battle scenes (The Guardian) Michael Asher has written an amazing true story that is as dramatic as it is frightening.Skyhorse Publishing as well as our Arcade imprint are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II the Third Reich Hitler and his henchmen the JFK assassination conspiracies the American Civil War the American Revolution gladiators Vikings ancient Rome medieval times the old West and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
language: English
title: Death in the Sahara: The Lords of the Desert and the Timbuktu Railway Expedition Massacre
publisher: Skyhorse