Ships of the desert.

Written by Daniel Da Cruz and Paul Lunde
Additional photographs by Neville Mardell

In a sense, the camel is passing into history - at least in Saudi Arabia. Though there are still herds to be seen, the era of the great camel caravans has passed, and throughout the Arabian Peninsula the effects, to those who notice, are evident: untended desert wells and abandoned caravan routes. Soon, hundreds of centuries of tradition will have vanished.

Today, to be sure, camels are still raised for food - milk and meat - and for racing, but rarely for transport; camels cannot compete with the cross-peninsula Boeings, fast freight trains and trailer trucks that, by 1980, were providing most of the transportation for Saudi Arabia's goods and passengers.