Beginning around 3,000 years ago, humans began domesticating camels in Asia and the Middle East.  Adapted for the harshest of climates and traveling long distances,  the camel's journey began  40 million years ago—all the way from North America.

Celebrating their national animal, some 40,000 camels are brought by truck, by trek, singly and in herds, to compete in contests of beauty, speed and obedience outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Camel-culture exhibits round out the annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival.

Want your camel to stand out from the herd? Don’t think too hard about endurance—it’s pretty much a given for a camel. Speed? Not every camel has it. But accessories? Maybe an artistic fur-cut? That’s up to you.

Since the earliest days of domestication, the camel’s hump—or humps—have challenged would-be riders. In Africa, Arabia, India and Central Asia, saddle designs have long expressed both utility, beauty and culture.

From Bedouin banquets to hipster hashi-burger food trucks, Camel is one of the world’s fastest-growing health-and-heritage consumer product sectors. How does camel taste? There's only one way to find out.

Herded, saddled, loaded by traders; cared for, sung about and even sung to—one-humped dromedaries prove extraordinary in deserts where the sun is hot; two-humped Bactrians rank no less in others where it is not. Let the rhythmic gaits of our calendar camels carry you along for the year.

The first time I tasted camel was some 25 years ago in Damascus, Syria.

To get camels ready for races, they are taken out for tafheem, an Arabic word that has two main meanings in English.