The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, situated on the Sidgwick Site, conducts teaching and research of the languages, histories, cultures, politics and economics of the major civilisations of the Middle East, East Asia, and South Asia. The Department of Middle Eastern Studies has three paintings, one of which is believed to be of Sir Thomas Adams who founded the Professorship named after him. A second portrait by Walter Westley Russell depicts Bertram Sidney Thomas (1892–1950), a member of Trinity College, who might easily be confused with T. E. Lawrence, as he is painted dressed as a Bedouin. Thomas’s grand ambition was to cross the ‘empty quarter’ of Arabia. Much to the chagrin of Harry St John Philby, Thomas succeeded in this daring mission, having set out from Dhufar and emerging in Doha on the Persian Gulf. The third portrait represents Professor Jack Plumley, Chair of Egyptology, at Qasr Ibrim, painted by Kathleen Primmer. The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies is not open to the public.