Photo of the Day 270

Tribal Leaders, Saudi Arabia, 2003

Photograph by Reza

Tribal leaders gather around a fire in the tent of a prominent sheik in Saudi Arabia. Such meetings, called majlis, are customary throughout the kingdom. They can be simple social gatherings or, if the host is powerful, an official audience, where a Bedouin camel herder asking help with a grazing issue might be followed by a billionaire property baron requesting a construction permit.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Kingdom on Edge: Saudi Arabia," October 2003, National Geographic magazine)