THE millions of tourists who flock to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania each year come for one reason - a fleeting glimpse at about the only place in America where time has stood still.
This is where the Amish live - the ultra-orthodox puritans who settled in the area in the 1700s because the Dutch and Swiss Mennonite church was considered too liberal.
Even as the ultra-shy Amish locals try to avoid the prying camera lenses, the visitors are desperate for any sign of a true member of the faith dressed in his traditional garb, hoeing a field, sowing a quilt or holding up traffic in a horse-drawn buggy.
Another must is to have one's picture taken next to a sign bearing some of the most colourful town names in the United States - such as Paradise, or the most famous of all, Intercourse.
But while the tourist brochure image of these living anachronisms still bears a grain of truth, the image is also on its way to becoming a myth. Fuelled by economic necessity, Amish no longer make their living solely by farming, but have turned to lucrative industries, such as furniture making. Nor do they continue to shun all modern technology, such as telephones or gas cookers.
While the Amish community's elders have reluctantly embraced change, they have always hoped increasing contact with regular society would not water down the sect's strict conservative moral code.