These were beautiful sand sculptures. Featured in the story of Alibaba and the Fourty Thieves. On the left was Fergus Mulvany, Daniel Doyle, and Kirk Rademaker from the Ali Baba cave sculpture. On the right was Ivan Zverev and Dmitry Klimenko 40 Thieves sculpt. This took such heavy damage and that beautiful horse head was lost to the storm. It was still amazing, but I am glad I got this photo. I like Ivan’s hat and tools in the shot as they give scale reference and hint at the story behind the sculpture. In the end, sand sculpture is a temporary art. This is what makes this book special. It captures this unique telling of the Arabian Nights that was only seen by a select few people in person.

At noon the robbers returned to their cave and, from some distance, saw Cassim’s mules straggling about the rock with great chests on their backs. Alarmed, they galloped at full speed. The captain and the rest went straight to the door with drawn sabers in their hands, and on their pronouncing the words, it opened. Cassim saw the door open and jumped out but could not escape the robbers. With their sabers, they soon deprived him of life. None of them could imagine which way he entered. They were all positive that nobody knew their secret. They agreed, therefore, to cut Cassim’s body into four quarters and hang him inside the cave door to terrify any person who might attempt the same thing.