Fifteen hundred years ago, Kairouan was only a desert crossroads, a caravan stop in the sands of what is now Tunisia in North Africa. But this quickly changed. In fewer than 100 years following the death of Muhammad in A.D. 632, caravans from Saudi Arabia had spread his word of Islam from India to the Atlantic Ocean.

Okba Ben Nafi is credited with converting Kairouan to Islam and founding its Great Mosque in 670. Shortly thereafter, Kairouan became the religious center and capital of...

Dear Globetrotter: Welcome to the 354th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.

In the June issue I mentioned that police in Malaysia had arrested criminals who possessed a machine that, using info gathered tapping into banks’ phone lines, could forge credit cards. I added that four credit card companies did not reply to ITN when we asked how travelers might avoid becoming victims and what to do if they did fall prey.

Seeing that, ITN subscriber Janet Nelson of Ashland...

by Chris Springer, Contributing Editor

“Himalaya” by Michael Palin (2004, Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0312341628 — 288 pp., $29.95 hardcover).

It’s been called the “Palin effect.” Whenever a Michael Palin travel series airs on the BBC, British tour operators are deluged with inquiries about the featured destinations.

Previously, the comic actor traveled around the world in 80 days, retraced Ernest Hemingway’s footsteps and crossed the Sahara. In this coffee-table companion...