One of Europe's last remaining wildernesses, the Camargue forms a unique landscape of salt-marsh, lagoons, cultivated farmland and seashore. Where the turbulent River Rhone meets the Mediterranean in southern France lies this huge delta, home to a rich array of wildlife-flamingos, a host of other migrating birds and marshland flora-as well as a complex mix of agricultural and tourist interests. The whole region is now under increasing threat from commercial and ecological pressures. This accessible survey looks at the Camargue's early Roman settlement and its medieval role as an embarkation point for Crusaders and pilgrims en route to Santiago de Compostela. It then considers its more recent history as a religious battleground and neglected backwater until its modern-day renaissance as a tourist attraction. Explaining the region's turbulent religious past, Mullins describes how the Camargue has survived environmental challenges to remain a place of mystique and legend.".