Desert Architecture in Travel Literature between Generality and Precision: Semiotic Study

Abstract

       In this article, we seek to build a perception of desert architecture on trips that made the desert one of its many stops. We will adopt two types of trips: The first is represented by the trips that made architecture a passing art, and did not talk about it at length. We chose three trips for this. The second is represented by the travels that gave this art a distinguished position in her discourse and introduced it to the reader in a precise manner. For this purpose, we have chosen two models: the journey of Charles Dufoucauld, and the journey of Marc Dumazière and Joseph Colvin.

The first purpose of this research is to reveal the forms of dealing with desert architecture in travel literature. Through moving between different trips, the desert field was one of the fields that revealed aspects of it, adopting a semiotic approach, which involved us in investing between description, by mentioning the apparent technical characteristics, and then moving to analysis, by investing in the cognitive equipment that semiotics provides us with. Hermeneutics, as well as travelogue, historical, and anthropological texts...

We have reached important results from the research, including that architecture is not a passing art within travel literature, but rather a central art, as it is difficult for travelers to mention aspects of people’s lives without mentioning their architecture and the forms of their buildings. Then, the art of architecture is an art through which a number of important aspects can be known, such as politics and the social systems framing a group, and this is what emerged through the study of trips in which desert space was one of the destinations.