Iain Shearer is a Lonely Planet writer and archaeologist who’s contributed to the Lonely Planet guides to Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan. Iain is an expert in the cultural heritage of Islam and Central Asia and works with the London Metropolitan Special Crime Directorate to uncover illicit trade in antiquities. He has 16 years experience in the field in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Central Asia, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Iran and the Arab Middle East. He delivered relief supplies during the war in Bosnia, worked on assignment in the West Bank prior to the second Intifada, and has done extensive restoration work on the Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush. He is based at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, and was recently appointed a Fellow of The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain. Iain is the author of Lonely Planet’s forthcoming guide to Saudi Arabia.