It was the perfect remedy, as she later recalled: After a few days in Baghdad, she set off alone on a trip to the site of Ur, the great capital of the kings of Sumeria from the middle of the third millennium B.C. She longed to escape from the things that reminded her of England and to explore the rich culture and illustrious history of Iraq. But their games of bridge, tennis, and cricket bored her. Escape to IraqĪlready a well-known author by the late 1920s, Christie received a steady stream of invitations from the British colonial population when she arrived. The next day, she canceled her ticket to Jamaica and bought one for Baghdad. The prospect of such a journey was a turning point in Christie’s life. The most obvious way to travel there was by steamboat-but there was another option: the Orient Express, the train that took travelers to Baghdad via Milan and Istanbul. Christie was utterly seduced by their tales of the Middle East: the bazaars of Mosul and Basra and the fascinating ruins of ancient Ur, which, thanks to the sensational discoveries unearthed by British archaeologist Leonard Woolley, were being widely reported in the newspapers.

But two days before leaving, she had dinner at a friend’s house in London where she met a couple who had recently returned from Baghdad. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Īt age 39, Agatha decided that a solitary holiday in the West Indies might help her recover from the breakup.

Agatha christie mesopotamia