Stacey’s Mini-Extravaganza to the Middle East

The Dead Sea

After having such a grand time in Petra and in the desert only a few more days remained to cover the rest of Jordan.  Jordan is a pretty small country and there is quite a bit to see but at this point I was growing weary of sight-seeing and the lack of public transport was getting irritating (not to mention expensive).  I decided to spend my last few days in Jordan based in Madaba which is a smallish city just outside of Amman.  To get there, Celestino and I split a cab up the windy and very scenic King’s Highway.  This road is not the fastest but it has some rather interesting views and you really feel yourself winding down in altitude as you approach the lowest point on Earth: the Dead Sea.

I was surprised when I first saw the Dead Sea that it was so blue and green in color.  I don’t know what I expected…maybe black or brown because nothing grows there?  I’m not sure…but I found the shore with the salt crystals and the blue-green water to be beautiful.  On the way to Madaba the taxi driver stopped at Amman Beach which is a public complex where people can play in the super-salty water and there’s also a freshwater pool for when your skin can’t handle the Dead Sea anymore.  Floating in the Dead Sea was fun and rather interesting.  For one, the water tastes positively disgusting and even the slightest small drop of water burns your eyes.  It’s not a great idea to get in with any cuts or abrasions either as it will sting!  I was doing pretty well in the water…though after about 10 minutes I felt my skin generally starting to itch.  The floating was fun though…you become very aware of your center of gravity and it’s next to impossible to sit on the bottom because the salt water keeps you so buoyant.  As you can see, I opted for the Dead Sea mud treatment which is supposed to have some sort of healing properties…I don’t know about that so much but it was fun to smear myself with mud.  I had to stop short of putting it on my face though as the prospect of rinsing it off with that salt water made my eyes burn just to think of it.

Floating effortlessly

 Mud treatment

After a fresh water rinse and a dip in the regular pool, we headed off to Mt. Nebo.  Mt. Nebo is, of course, where Moses was shown the Promised Land.  I can only hope that Moses had better weather than we did as we were completely unable to view any of the Holy Land due to very dusty conditions.  Further, the ancient cathedral discovered in 1933 is currently undergoing some restoration and renovation work so there was very little to see at Mt. Nebo.  The few meager pictures I took are included here.

Mt. Nebo

Apparently a map of what I was supposed to see

Here is what I actually saw: dust

Church under construction…can’t go in there!

Seriously lacking in things to photograph at Mt. Nebo, this turkey seemed like a good option

The next day we took a half-day tour of Aljoun Castle and Jerash north of Amman.  Aljoun Castle is set high on a hill with great views of three valleys and is said to have been built atop a Christian monastery.  The monastery had fallen into ruins by the time of the Crusades so a local general decided to build a fortress around the monastery and the complex was much expanded and repaired over the next 500 years often due to earthquakes that have plagued the region.  This castle was better preserved than others I’ve been to and we had fun wandering through the rooms and windy passages.

Ajloun Castle

Selling tea and coffee

Scenes from inside Ajloun Castle

For use in a catapult

These icky things were everywhere

We stopped off to buy some fresh cherries

After Ajloun Castle we headed to the great Roman site of Jerash…one of the best-preserved and most explorable cities in the eastern Mediterranean.  Jerash is quite large and probably could’ve taken a whole day but we only had a couple of hours and my camera battery was dying.  Much of Jerash began as a Roman settlement in the 1st century AD and after an unprecedented amount of growth the city found itself astride the lucrative trade routes that the Nabateans of Petra had been guarding so closely for so long.  Only 100 years later things started to change in Rome and trade began to suffer.

Christianity became the official religion in 324 and as such many more buildings and churches were added but by the 7th century a Muslim victory over the Byzantines marked a new occupation in Jerash and ultimately, in a story that has become quite familiar to us, the city was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 749.  For 1000 years the city lay deserted until Burckhardt (of Petra fame) and his European colleagues “re-discovered” it and like Petra it became an important tourist and archaeological site.

Hadrian’s Gate at Jerash

Close-up of the gate

 The Oval Plaza

The Cardo (roman road)

The Nymphaeum

South Theater

Temple of Artemis

Temple of Artemis

The Oval Plaza from afar

North Theater

Musicians in the North Theater

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing this

My last day in Madaba was spent wandering around to all of the various churches housing the mosaics for which this city is famous for.  The most important is a massive mosaic discovered in the Greek Orthodox church that is the oldest known map of the Holy Land in existence.  The map is enormous so it was very difficult to take pictures of the whole thing so I’ve only included pieces here.  In recent years, many, many mosaics have been discovered beneath the modern buildings all over town.  Madaba, in seems, was the location of very important Christian mosaic art in the 4th and 5th centuries AD.  The remarkable map of the Holy Land was discovered in 1884 during which land was being cleared to build a new church.  I’ve included a few other mosaics from elsewhere in town though they don’t seem to photograph especially well.

And with that my friends the Mini-Extravaganza has come to an end.  I hope you all had fun looking at pictures and maybe learning a little bit more about the Middle East.  Thanks for reading!

Church of the Mosaic Map

Picture of the Holy Land Map mosaic in its entirety

Main portion of map: bottom oval is Jerusalem (center and most important) and above with boat is the Dead Sea)

Jerusalem and Bethlehem (starting with “BH” on the right)

Mosaics believed to be part of a mansion discovered during construction of new house

Close-up

Wadi Araba Desert

Expedition Wadi Araba minus Audi who is taking the picture

Desert

The original itinerary for this trip had me set to visit the protected area of Wadi Rum in the desert between Aqaba (the port of entry) and Petra.  The problem with Wadi Rum, indeed in all of Jordan, is that it’s not very well set-up for solo independent travelers.  There is very little public transport within the country and since Jordan is so small it’s easy to taxi around (though that can get very expensive when traveling alone).  In Wadi Rum, the standard tour is private and there are no group tours to be joined.  The procedure is that the Bedouin guides will pick you up at the visitor center and take you on a jeep tour, maybe do a hike or some camel-riding or rock-climbing and then you spend the night under a traditional goat-hair tent.  Sounds fun right?  Or at least something interesting to do for one night?

Flowing water in the desert?  Who knew?

Sami and Ali making the dam for the swimming hole

Chantel enjoying the swimming hole

Unfortunately, since I was traveling alone it was prohibitively expensive.  I could’ve offered to pay the rate for two people but that would’ve meant spending about $350 US for two days and that doesn’t even include transport costs to the site.  I was really hoping to find someone in my hostel who wanted to share a tour but that didn’t work out and when I polled the local travel agencies they were asking for over $500 for a day and a half!  So, I resolved that I would not get to spend the night in the desert after all until Sami and his friends said I could instead go to Wadi Araba with them.  To be sure, Wadi Araba isn’t as scenic as Wadi Rum but it’s much closer, has many fewer tourists and since I mostly wanted to sleep under the stars and a full moon I didn’t really care about the scenery.

Lunch: cheese, hummus, tuna and some unidentified meat.  We tore off pieces of soft bread and used it to pick up the food.

Fayed enjoying the water while Audi plays the flute in the background

After our hike we stopped for tea with some guys that Audi and Sami knew

I think these flowers are oleander?

A Bedouin family washing in the stream

Playing with the super macro setting on my camera

Goats are funny

So that is how I found myself on an expedition into the Wadi Araba desert with four Bedouin guides and one Belgian woman.  I met Sami about 9 am and while he went for supplies I hung out at his family’s house drinking tea and observing the Bedouin life.  Now is as good a time as any to return to the history of the local Bedouins so here is some background.  As we learned earlier, in the 1980s the Jordanian government removed the Bedouins who were still living in the caves in Petra and put them up in free housing near the village of Wadi Musa.  The houses are all quite large with lots of rooms as the families are big with lots of kids.  There are still 25 families that live in the caves and though I saw Sami’s personal cave I get the impression that pretty much everyone splits their time between the Bedouin village and their caves in the hills of Petra.  Sami said that the families are still allowed to remain in their caves as long as they’re not in the main tourist part of Petra and since the city is so large it is easy to find places far enough away from the tourists.  All the local Bedouins were given jobs within Petra mostly as tour guides, donkey drivers and the women and children sell jewelry and other goods.  Further, the men are likely to conduct longer tours and treks for tourists.  For example, the following week would find Sami and his friends on a 7-day trek with a group of Australians.

The moon over the mountains in the desert

Interestingly, the Bedouins all speak multiple languages: Arabic, English and their own dialect for sure but often French, Spanish and German as well from working with the tourists.  Even more interesting is that the vast majority of them are completely illiterate…they can’t read nor write in either Arabic or English.  This is starting to change as the younger kids attend the Bedouin school but Sami is 25 and says he’s never attended school.  He says he never wanted to attend school because afterwards you have to get a confining job and he wanted to be free and work in nature.  I wanted to point out that Ali (our jeep driver) could read, write, attended University and still ended up being free and working in nature but instead I said nothing.

So back to the desert trip.  While Sami and Ali were off getting supplies, I hung out drinking tea with Sami’s mom and sister.  I so wanted to take pictures of the house but it just seemed too rude.  The houses are quite large which really accentuates the fact that there is nearly no furniture.  There was a TV with stand in the main room but other than that the house was empty save for some gaudy silk flower decorations and a few family photos.  When they want to sit down they grab a thin mattress to sit on and everyone sits on the floor and drinks tea or eats.  I suppose if you never had furniture in a cave why would you need it in the house?

Sunset in the desert.  Unfortunately I never got a decent shot of the moon once it was dark.

Sand dunes

More sand…

By mid-morning we set off for the desert and our first stop was near some free-flowing water where Sami and Ali built a little dam to create a small swimming hole for everyone to cool off in.  Now, I imagine if you grew up in the desert then this body of water would seem like a reasonably significant swimming hole though to me it was little more than a puddle.  Since it was only big enough for one of us at a time I opted to just stick my feet in.  Still, it was cool and refreshing and we had lunch there and took an afternoon hike and relaxed into the afternoon on our little mattresses.

By late afternoon, we headed out again towards the sand dunes where the guides said the best sunsets are to be seen.  The sand dunes were fun to play in…kind of like snow but  warmer.  We climbed up them and slid down them and generally had a blast waiting for the sunset and for the guides to make dinner over the fire.  After dinner we sat around the fire drinking gin and orange soda before falling asleep on our mattresses under the full moon and the stars.  It was surprisingly warm in the desert at night…I expected it to be cold after the sun went down but it was probably 2 am before I needed the blanket.  We were up early the next day as Chantel (the Belgian woman) needed to catch a flight and I needed to meet Celestino as we were sharing a taxi up the King’s Highway to my final destination:  Madaba.  One last post from Jordan and we will finally be all caught up.  Stay tuned for the last and final post here on the Mini-Extravaganza…

Ali the university-educated-Jeep-driving Bedouin.  Any guesses on his age?  42 if you can believe it…Bedouin life can be harsh

Our meal made over the fire…chicken with tomatoes, potatoes and onions.  Yummy.

The Monastery

On Day 2 in Petra I got up bright and early to miss the massive tour groups and even though I didn’t begin my climb to the Monastery until 9 am I was one of only about five people at the top which was fantastic.  At the bottom of the hill the local Bedouins will try to rent you an “air-conditioned taxi” (or a donkey to the rest of us) saying that the donkey will get you there in 20 minutes and walking is 1 hour.  I suspect that’s a bit of salesmanship on their part as it only took me 25 minutes to walk to the top.  Admittedly it’s about 900 steps and straight up the mountain but it wasn’t too bad as Petra isn’t nearly as hot as Egypt is in May.

 An air-conditioned taxi

Views on the hike up to the Monastery

 Close-up of the Monastery

 The urn on top of the Monastery

 More close-ups of the Monastery: the doorway is about 2 stories high

 And again…

After finally reaching the top, the Monastery spreads out before you surrounded by amazing scenery.  The Monastery is considered to be the most awe-inspiring monument in Petra and while it is not as well preserved as the Treasury, it is much larger though less ornate.  The Monastery (a misnomer for sure) was likely a temple and the original complex probably had walls around the front yard to contain the crowds who would gather there.  If you walk past the Monastery a bit you’ll find some amazing views of Petra, Wadi Musa, Wadi Araba (the desert) and of Israel.  I’ve included some of those views here.

 Temple of some variety

 Views over the Wadi Araba Desert and Israel is in the distance

 Some cute goats across the valley…

 …who arrived to attack me 10 minutes later as I was eating an apple.

On the way down I ran into my new friend Celestino taking a mule to the Monastery with a Bedouin guide.  Sami, the guide would ultimately be my guide into the desert of Wadi Araba the next day but more on this later.  Here are Celestino and Sami:

 En route to the Monastery: Celestino and Sami

 Near the Monastery

I headed back up towards the theater to do the walk up the mountain to the High Place of Sacrifice.  The walk was steep but short and you are rewarded with more views over  the valleys.  I’ve included pictures here of the sacrificial area as well as the views over the rest of Petra.  Descending down the other side of the mountain you come upon quite a few interesting sites including more tombs and caves…some of the caves are still occupied by local Bedouins.  Of interest here is the one tomb in all of Petra to have ornate carvings on the inside…all the rest of the tombs simply have flat walls and no columns.  Also, a recent excavation yielded about a dozen graves in one of the tombs.  All of the graves had been previously looted but they did find bone fragments and other assorted items you might find in a grave.

 Views of the Royal Tombs from above at the High Place of Sacrifice

 More caves: just in case anyone is wondering, the caves and the buildings of Petra universally smell of urine.

 Place of sacrifice at the top of the mountain

 Steps down from the High Place of Sacrifice

 More examples of the rock coloring

 Soldier’s Tomb

 Inside the Soldier’s Tomb looking out

 The only building in Petra with carvings on the inside

 Tomb with graves found inside

After the climb to the High Place of Sacrifice I was considering if I should do the last climb of the day…one that is up to the mountain across from the Treasury so you get to see the Treasury from above.  As I was walking back towards the the Petra gate I ran into Sami again and he offered to take me up to the view of the Treasury.  As it turns out, his cave is on the hike to the Treasury overlook so I got to see where he lives and take some good pictures of the Treasury from a different angle.  On our way down the mountain we ran into a couple of other Bedouin guides who said they were taking a Belgian woman on a desert tour the next day and if I was interested I could join them.  This was fortuitous as I had at this point given up the idea of spending the night in the desert of Wadi Rum as it is prohibitively expensive when traveling alone.  More on all of this in tomorrow’s post.  After today’s third Petra post I have two more to share:  my trip to the desert of Wadi Araba as well as an assortment of items from northern Jordan including a float in the Dead Sea and a visit to the castle of Ajloun and the Roman ruins of Jerash so stay tuned for those as we wrap things up here at the Mini-Extravaganza.

 View of the Treasury from above

 Sami giving Stacey a mild cardiac episode on the edge of the cliff

The Treasury

The Siq

 Now that we have a little history on the origins of Petra let’s talk about the specifics of the lost city and surrounding area.  After having been recently voted to the 7 New Wonders of the World, the fortunes of locals and those in charge of Petra have increased immensely.  To be sure, the fees into Petra are exorbitant and changing on a quarterly basis throughout 2010.  The fees are designed to sting cruise ship passengers and day-trippers and to encourage people to stay (and spend more money) in the local modern village of Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses).  For my 2-day pass it was roughly 53 US$ and will increase to US$75 by the end of the year.  Still, people flock to this amazing place…the “rose-red city” named for the colored sandstone from which the buildings and monuments are carved.

After entering the Petra grounds, included in your ticket is a horse ride to the entrance of the Siq (which naturally I declined due to my aversion to riding on the backs of beasts of burden).  The Siq is a long, dramatic gorge cut into the sandstone which is the principal (and the only official) entrance into the city of Petra.  The Siq was formed when tectonic forces split the mountain in two.  As you walk, you don’t really notice the slow descent but ultimately the altitude drops roughly 500 feet from the entrance to the city center…equivalent to a 45-story skyscraper.  The Siq is cool and often dark with water gutters running alongside the original cobblestone road (see pictures of both from Part 1).  Finally, just when you think it can’t go on any longer…the Siq opens up to one of the most impressive monuments in the entire city…the Treasury.

 A close-up of the Treasury

 Another close-up of the detail

 It turns out the Treasury was built on top of ruins of old tombs

 The notches on the left are likely footholds for the carvers of the Treasury

The Treasury was designed to impress and as it is positioned opposite the main route to Petra the effect was very successful.  The Treasury enjoys a protected position from the elements so is the best preserved of the edifices in Petra.  Legend has it that the local bedouins named the monument as such because a pharaoh was believed to have been slowed down on his journey by having to carry all his treasure so he created this monument to deposit his riches in the urn at the very top.  For centuries afterwards marksman would shoot the urn trying to break and release the treasure but to no avail…they ultimately ended up only blasting chunks off the urn.  The Treasury dates to the 1st century BC and demonstrates how the Nabatean culture was an amalgam of the elements of Hellenistic (Greek) and Middle Eastern worlds.  One of the columns is obviously new, a brick-and-plaster replacement for the original which fell in antiquity.  This quite handily demonstrates an extraordinary feature of Nabatean architecture…these columns support nothing as they were sculpted in place and offered no real support to the structure.

Moving on down the road one comes to the massive theater of Petra.  It is clearly classical in design and though it was built before the Roman occupation it clearly demonstrates links between Nabatea and Rome.  As many as 8500 people could be accommodated and aside from the stage and backdrop, the entire structure was carved out of the mountainside.  Much renovation has been done here and much of the damage is attributed to the fateful earthquake of 363 AD.

 The Theater

 Some more examples of the rock’s coloring

Next up:  the Royal Tombs.  The first tomb on the cliff is the Urn Tomb which is reached by the modern steps leading from below.  The whole structure is thought to be a tomb of someone extremely important…probably a Nabatean king though who isn’t exactly known.  Set into the facade between the columns are spaces for three bodies which is a unique configuration for Petra where normally bodies were placed inside the tombs.  Later converted into a major church (perhaps a cathedral?) the large interior room features a Greek inscription in red paint recording the dedication of the church by Bishop Jason in 447 AD.  Further down the way are several other Royal Tombs of lesser importance and while we didn’t explore all of them they are all very impressive with similar features to the Urn Tomb.

 One of the Royal Tombs: the Urn Tomb

 The Silk Tomb…unremarkable except for the brilliant coloring

 A rain gutter

 More Royal Tombs

 The Urn Tomb again (note the 3 spaces for bodies between the columns)

 Inside the Urn Tomb

 The ceiling of the tomb…the black stuff is from burning fires inside

 The Greek dedication by Bishop Jason

 From the inside of Urn Tomb looking out

As you enter the city center you find yourself walking along the Colonnaded Street that stretches out ahead towards the mountains.  This area is largely ruinous although it its heyday all the land on either side would have been covered in buildings, houses, markets, temples, etc.  In fact, many archaeologists theorize that much of Petra is still hidden beneath the dusty soil and that what has been exposed so far is just the tip of the iceberg.  The road continues downhill until you end a the swanky restaurant run by the Marriot.  Beyond the restaurant one begins the uphill climb to the most impressive monument of all…the Monastery…which we will visit in the next post.

 The Colonnaded Street

 Colonnaded Street looking back at Royal Tombs

 Tenemos Gate

 The Great Temple

 Some toppled columns at the Great Temple

 The Great Temple was formerly covered in colorful stucco…this is all that remains

Another example of the colorful stucco

Caves and building from Little Petra

Next up after Egypt was Jordan to see the ruins of Petra (also known to some of my readers as the backdrop from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).  The border crossing between Egypt and Jordan is one of great debate.  There are two ways to go: a ferry between Egypt and Jordan on the Red Sea or a land-crossing from Egypt, into Israel and then into Jordan.  Theoretically, the ferry is the best option as you avoid the dreaded Israel stamp in your passport.  Why the problem with the Israel stamp? Because if you’ve been to Israel a person is generally precluded from entering any other country in the Middle East with the exception of Egypt and Jordan with whom they have a treaty.  So…if I were planning to head to, say, Syria I couldn’t if I’d previously been to Israel.  It seems like a no-brainer…take the ferry.  Unfortunately the ferry runs on some crazy schedule where it may run 6 to 8 hours late or it may not run at all.  In my case, I didn’t care about the Israel stamp as I do not intend to return to the Middle East on this passport so I opted for the land crossing which was a smart decision as I was checked into my hotel by 6 pm on Sunday…everyone who took the ferry that day didn’t arrive until after midnight.

Ahh Petra…the incredible old city tucked into the desert of Jordan and only recently rediscovered by a Swiss adventurer in 1812.  Like many of the archaeological sights in the Middle East, Petra has been inhabited and occupied by several different groups over its centuries of existence.  In prehistory, the region of Petra saw some of the first experiments in farming and served as an important route between the great ancient powers of Mesopotamia and Egypt.  The first significant mention of Petra occurred in the Old Testament as the Israelites approached Edom after their forty years in the desert.  Contrary to geographic evidence, the local legend maintains that in the hills above Petra God ordered Moses to produce water for the Israelites by speaking to the rock.  Moses instead struck the rock and the spring that gushed is today named the Spring of Moses (which is now marked at the entrance to the modern village surrounding Petra: Wadi Musa).  Over the following centuries possession of Petra changed hands from Assyrian to Babylonian to Persian and this instability ultimately led the way for new people to claim the area of Petra as their own.

 Paintings on the ceiling in Little Petra

 More ceiling paintings

 A tomb

Example of the rock coloring in Petra

Much of the existing architecture in Petra is attributed to the Nabateans, a tribe of Bedouin nomads who previously inhabited northern Arabia.  The traditional occupation of the Nabateans was to raid the plentiful caravans that passed through the Petra valley en route to other parts of the ancient world.  Ultimately the Nabateans gave up this endeavor in favor of charging the merchants they previously plundered for safe passage and used the area as a place to do business.  For several hundred years the Nabateans successfully defended their position and became wealthier and wealthier from their profits from trade of items such as copper, iron and Dead Sea bitumen (used for embalming in Egypt) as well as spices and other commodities.  During the 1st centuries BC and AD, Petra was at its zenith with a population of 30,000 and was a thriving, cosmopolitan city.  Of course, things were not to last…with the discovery of other trade routes by sea, Petra began its slow decline and ultimately fell into the hands of the Romans.

Under the Romans, Petra became a principal center of the new Providincia Arabia and  underwent something of a cultural renaissance with the theater and the Colonnaded Street both renovated.  During the 2nd and 3rd centuries things started to fall apart though and by 300 Petra was in serious disrepair.  A massive earthquake in 363 sealed the deal and flattened about half of Petra.  Still there were a few hangers-on until another massive earthquake in 749 destroyed the rest of the city and nearly everyone remaining were forced out.  The Crusaders occupied a few small forts in the area but these were inconsequential and as far as records go,  the last person other than local Bedouins, to see Petra was in 1276.  It would be more 500 years before anyone else would see the city of Petra.

In 1812 under Arab disguise, the Swiss explorer Jean Louis Burckhardt entered the Siq (the long canyon entrance to the city) with a local guide.  From that moment forward, Petra was no longer a secret and tourism was launched in Petra.  Still, Petra was far off the beaten track and difficult to get to until the 1980s when a regular bus service was launched from Amman.  It was in the 80s that the Jordanian government realized what a cash cow they had in Petra and they ordered the relocation of the local Bedouins who occupied the caves and buildings within the city to a concrete block village about 4 km away where they were provided with free housing, education, electricity, etc.  I have much more interesting information on the local Bedouins to come but will save that for another post.  The pictures here are largely from Little Petra which is a smaller settlement I went to see the first night as well as a few random shots of the sandstone and various artifacts around the site.  The bulk of the buildings and descriptions in the main sections of Petra show up in the next several posts.

Some caves

Some camels

A jinn-block (likely for protection of the water supply)

Some of the original cobblestone through the Siq (more on the Siq in Part 2)

A gutter along the road through the Siq

Sunset

St. Katherine’s Monastery

View of the garden and cemetery

Outside the church of St. Katherine

The minaret

First off, let me apologize for being so far behind on blog posts.  After crossing into Jordan I found myself so busy with all of the adventures there are to be found near Petra that I didn’t have time to work on the blog.  I’m now at my last location before I head home and unfortunately this hotel has a terrible internet connection and its been slow going try to get my photos uploaded.  It seems to work better from the lobby so I’m going to try and get caught up in the next couple of days…otherwise the last couple of posts will probably be finished after I’m home on Monday.  Ok, back to regular stuff…

Having been born a heathen, I will readily admit that I’m not super familiar with the biblical stories that include Moses and his crew so I apologize in advance for any errors I make in the subsequent descriptions.  I’m relying on my guidebook and Wikipedia for my information so who knows how accurate they are?  Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let’s have a look at St. Katherine’s Monastery.

Where it all began was with the Burning Bush through which God is said to have spoken to Moses.  Interestingly this bush holds significance for Jews, Christians and Muslims which has allowed the three great monotheistic religions to come together peacefully to maintain such an important religious site.  Round about 337 AD it was determined that a sanctuary needed to be built at the site of the Burning Bush which quickly became a refuge for pilgrims, hermits and other characters crossing the desert.  Between 537 and 562 Emperor Justinian expanded the site by building fortifications that remain today (more details on the construction below).  The number of pilgrims traveling to the site dwindled considerably until the body of St. Katherine was “discovered” on the top of Mt. Katherine where angels were said to have brought it there after she was persecuted for confessing her faith to Jesus.  During the Crusades from 1099 to 1270 the site attracted lots of pilgrims and eventually St. Katherine was considered a major saint in Europe and the site was renamed to St. Katherine’s Monastery.  The church and the monastery have remained under the power of the Greek Orthodox Church and about 25 monks still live here.

Outside the entrance to the church.  We couldn’t take photos past this point

The Burning Bush

The monastery is constructed as a heavy fortress and as it’s built into a hill the height of the walls vary ranging from 30 feet to 60 feet and the thickness of the walls is 6 to 9 feet.  The original ancient gate to the fortress has been sealed but the hole above it used to pour boiling oil over invaders’ heads remains and is noted in the picture below.  The fortress was so well-built that the walls have remained virtually unchanged for 14 centuries with the exception of the north wall which was damaged badly in a storm.  Napoleon rolled in around 1801 and financed the repairs to the north wing which is surprising since we know he had no qualms about defacing the Sphinx.

Much of the monastery is closed to visitors including the library which is said to be second only to the Vatican in terms of important ancient documents.  The most impressive site inside the walls is the Church of St. Katherine’s though as expected we were not allowed to take any pictures here.  The entry doors are beautiful carved wood and are original to the era of the Crusades.  There is also a mosque within the fortress which was created to placate Muslim invaders and to encourage them to tolerate the monastery.  Interestingly, the current servants of the monastery are descendants of the original Bedouin servants and are Muslim though they do retain certain Christian beliefs such as celebrating the feast of Moses on the mountain peak and they believe in the Prophet Aaron and the Christian saint of Georgius and Katherine.

Getting back to Moses…his significance here is that he apparently escaped Egypt at the age of forty to the site of the monastery where he encountered Jethro’s seven daughters watering their flocks at the well.  After marrying one of Jethro’s daughters, God revealed himself to Moses in the miracle of the Burning Bush and ordered him back to Egypt to lead the children of Israel back to Mt. Horeb to serve Him.  The Children of Israel crossed Sinai in the 13th century BC on their way to the Promised Land of Canaan.  There is some debate about their route but 50 days after departing the bondage of Egypt they arrived at Mt. Horeb where they received God’s Law from which they were called to build their religious and social organization.  It is said that Moses’ well has never run dry and that the Burning Bush is the only of its kind in Egypt.  All attempts of transplanting a portion of the Burning Bush have failed miserably.

I’m not sure I was supposed to go in here but the door was open so I did.  It was just a tunnel to the inside with a closed door but it was fun to crawl around in the walls of a fortress.

Inside the wall

The outside of the walled grounds include a garden that grows here because monks carried fertile soil into the desert for their fruit trees and vegetables.  There is a very small cemetery and because of its small size the monks adopted a rather interesting method of disposing of dead bodies.  When someone died he was buried in the dry sand and the oldest body in the cemetery (which had decomposed by this time) was removed from the cemetery and the bones stored in a big pile in the Charnel House.  The rather macabre photos of the skulls and other bones are shown here.  The remains of the archbishops were contained in their own special niches as noted below.

This is it for Egypt.  If my Internet connection remains stable we should be seeing scenes from Petra later this week.  Enjoy the photos!

Skulls of dead monks

The archbishops got their own niches

Non-skull bones go in a different pile

View of the fortress walls from outside the complex

The column in the middle of the picture is where they would pour boiling oil over intruders (the original entrance has been sealed and a new entrance is beside it)

Final view of the monastery

The Canyon

 The divers are supposed to enter the water in the light blue section…I didn’t see anyone accomplish this feat because of the wind and currents.

As I mentioned yesterday, Red Sea diving got bagged for nasal congestion which is actually OK as far as underwater pictures go as they are often best taken when snorkeling and nearer to the surface for light. The snorkeling right in Dahab is predictably mediocre but a few sites just outside of Dahab are really nice. On my first snorkeling adventure I headed out to the popular dive sites (that are also great for snorkeling) of the Canyon and the Blue Hole. The Canyon was a bit of a drag as the weather was horrendous and the currents strong. I didn’t even try to snorkel here after I watched about 20 divers get in the water and then get sucked down the beach where they got right back out again.

The Blue Hole

 I wasn’t sure if this guy was the stinging kind or not…you can’t quite tell but he was lavender-colored.

 Clam

 Long, skinny fish

 Divers below me

 Next, we headed to the Blue Hole which fortunately enjoys a more protected position than the Canyon plus the winds were starting to die down a bit so we were able to snorkel here.  The Blue Hole is a very famous and very dangerous dive site if one chooses to dive recklesslessly.  The hole is more than 250 feet deep (recreational diving stops at 100 feet) and at about 180 there is an arch that leads to the other side of the hole.  It’s very tricky and very dangerous and even extremely experienced divers have died here.  In fact, there are many plaques and memorials affixed to a cliff near the site with the names of people who have perished at this site.  Of course it is possible to dive the Blue Hole safely by not attempting the arch and merely going straight down the wall of the hole to your maximum safe depth.  Most of the first pictures you see are from the Blue Hole.

The second snorkeling trip was to Moray Gardens and the Three Pools.  Thankfully the weather had calmed considerably by the end of the week and the snorkeling was a dream here.  I got caught in several schools of fish which was fun and saw lots of other great tropical fish and healthy coral.  The latter set of photos you see are mostly from my adventure at the Three Pools.

I’m fairly light on content and heavy on photos today so I’ll call it quits for now.  St. Katherine’s Monastery is tomorrow and then I’m headed to Jordan for Petra and the desert among other, no doubt, fantastic locales.  Type to you soon!

 Reflection of the waves on the sand at the bottom

Sea slug

A view of Dahab

Examples of seating in restaurants by the water

Sunbeds and pillows

After a very busy and hectic first week in Egypt, I was ready for a break.  And when one wants to just chill out and relax in Egypt, they had to Dahab on the Sinai coast of the Red Sea.  Dahab (meaning “gold” in Arabic) is an old Bedouin village that was originally known for its  laxness with regards to marijuana and super-cheap accommodations and food.  The rules have tightened on the weed and much of the old laid-back nature has been replaced with progress.  The dusty path along the water has been paved and many of the old Bedouin style pillow-seating on the ground has been replaced with proper tables.  The prices have gone up and things are much more developed.  Still, it’s a great place to come and do nothing and is a very active SCUBA diving area with pretty well maintained reefs.

More sunbeds

And at night…

My favorite: Friends Cafe

Restaurants along the water

It’s been a bit of a mixed bag for me here in Dahab.  The plan for me was to hang out in Dahab for a week and do some diving before heading to Jordan at the end of this week.  You know what they say about the best-laid plans?  As it turns out I am currently afflicted with a raging sinus infection that unfortunately precludes me from doing any diving.  I am blaming this directly on the pollution of Cairo.  Further, the weather here has been a little challenging in that there have been hurricane force winds which make the conditions for both diving and snorkeling rather difficult.  I have been able to get out on the reef and do some snorkeling but not as much as I would’ve liked.

Some local kids trying to catch some fish

Another famed thing to do in Dahab is to climb Mt. Sinai (where Moses allegedly received the Ten Commandments) near St. Katherine’s monastery and watch either the sunrise or the sunset.  Most people who do this do the sunrise as it’s more spectactular…they are picked up from their hotel at 11 pm, bused to the mountain where they climb for 3 hours and then wait at the top of a very cold mountain (about 8000 feet) for the sunrise…and come down afterwards to visit the monastery.  Those who know me well know that I am not a night person and the thought of hiking up a mountain in the middle of the night appeals to me not at all so I signed up for the day hike even if the views weren’t going to be so spectacular.  Unfortunately it is pretty quiet in Dahab at the moment and most tours need at least two people to go…since I am but one person I have to wait for two other people to sign up before it’s determined I can go.  Annoyingly, the two other people who signed up for the hike canceled at the last minute so I didn’t get to do it and only got to see the monastery.  I considered switching to the night hike but they weren’t going that night since the monastery is closed on Fridays and suddenly I was rapidly running out of days.

So, no diving, no hiking, minimal snorkeling.  Things have not been going as well as they could here in Dahab.  And to add insult to injury I ripped a really lovely quarter-size hole in the butt of my swimsuit bottom at the Blue Hole snorkeling site.  Fortunately it was just through the first layer of fabric but still.  And then my underwater camera quit working.  I took all of these things as signs that I needed to get the hell out of Dahab so am leaving a day earlier than planned and am headed to Jordan on Sunday morning.  Despite the mishaps, I did enjoy myself and have had plenty of time to just sit around drinking karkade (cold hibiscus tea) and fresh lemonade, eat some sea-critters, catch up on my reading and blog posts and chat with the locals but it is now time for me to move on.

I’ve got a couple of posts coming up from Dahab:  some underwater shots taken before the camera hit the skids and some shots of the St. Katherine’s monastery so stay tuned for those.  This post has a few pictures of the restaurants lining the coast in Dahab so you can get a feel for what they look like and it’s about time for some food pics so I have included those here as well.  Two more posts from Egypt and then we’re in Jordan.  Wish me luck on my border crossing on Sunday.

If you don’t like cats I would advise you to stay out of Egypt as they are everywhere.  This little minx stepped on my keyboard and managed to shut off my mouse touchpad which took me a full 10 minutes to figure out how to fix.

Chicken shawarma and grilled vegetables

The two best drinks in Egypt: karkade (cold hibiscus tea) and fresh lemonade

Shrimps portuguese

The “salad” course varies by day and by restaurant.  Usually there’s hummus, some vegetable (this is shredded carrot) and another dip of some variety

Egyptian breakfast: on the left is fuul (fava beans boiled with onions, spices, etc.), on the right is scrambled eggs with red and green peppers, the bottom is feta mixed with tomato

The fish I selected for dinner…

…what it looked like once it was cooked.

Bedouin chicken

Lots of balloons flying…

Not my balloon but one leaving as I waited

Early the next morning I was picked up from my hotel and taken to the launching area for my first hot-air balloon ride.  There were quite a few balloons up in the air as you can see which was really an impressive sight.  I was in a smaller 8 person balloon with 4 Americans, 2 English and 1 Canadian…maybe they organize us by language?  Who knows…  At any rate, we watched the crew setting up the balloon and I can assure you that more time is spent in set-up and take-down than in actual flying.  It looked like a lot of work.  I’ve included some scenes here of the set-up, the actual flight and the take-down.  Flying in a hot-air balloon was not at all scary…very relaxing (though the burners for the hot-air felt like they were frying you) and we had a nice flight over the Temple of Hatshepshut and the Valley of the Kings from yesterday.  And…an Egyptian landing (very smooth).  Apparently our other landing options were:  American (bumpy) and English (the basket hits the ground, tips over and we all fall out).  I was grateful for the Egyptian.

My balloon in varying stages of inflation

This burner is HOT!!

View of some local houses once we were in flight

View of Hatshepsut’s temple from the air

Showing the stark contrast between the fertile Nile Valley and the desert

Shadow of our balloon

Pilot post-Egyptian landing

Crew taking down the balloon after we landed

It was hot as Hades in Luxor (113 degrees) and fortunately my hotel had a pool so I spent a few hours relaxing there before heading to the other main attractions in Luxor:  Karnak and Luxor temples.  Karnak is the largest pharaonic temple in Egypt after the Giza pyramids and covers a full half of a square kilometer.  The temples within Karnak vary greatly as they were constructed over 1300 years and each pharaoh left his mark on it.  The only common these is the worship of Amun, Mut and Khonsu who make up the Theban Triad of Gods.  Karnak Temple is yet another entity who has suffered at the flooding of the Nile River and as such there has been some damage to the temple over time.  Indeed its great monuments have suffered to some degree as well as some locals pilfered large stones to build sugar cane factories in years past.  Some shots of Karnak are included here.

Scenes from Karnak Temple

To “cut” the block of rock for these monuments they’d bore holes in the slab around the perimeter of what they wanted, fill them with wood, wet the wood, the wood expanded and broke of the piece of rock they needed (for 3 sides) then they chiseled out the last side.

So perfect it looks like the carving was done yesterday.

There are 134 columns like this within Karnak temple

Avenue of the sphinxes in Karnak

Karnak Temple as you approach the complex

At this point I was on the edge of melting but we trudged on to Luxor Temple which is smaller and more compact than Karnak.  The avenue of the sphinxes lines the approach to Luxor Temple and at one point stretched all the way to Karnak.  The Egyptian government is excavating and demolishing anything in the path of the Avenue of the Sphinx as they try to uncover the originals beneath the modern city and this task is estimated to take until 2030 to reconnect the two temples.  The project is exceedingly controversial as it has caused the displacement of many locals who were not fairly compensated for the loss of their homes.  Nonetheless, the project moves on and will be a very impressive sight to see when they get it finished.  Some pictures from Luxor Temple are of course included here…

Luxor Temple

Evidence of a Christian occupation of Luxor Temple

Still functioning mosque in Luxor Temple.  This temple has been used by pharaohs, Christians and Muslims over time

 Avenue of the sphinxes at Luxor

The Valley of the Kings.  It’s thought this site was chosen because of the rock formation above that looks like a pyramid.

After my adventures in Aswan, it was time to jump on a train and head about 3 hours north to Luxor.  Luxor is one of the most touristed cities in Egypt as it is the location of many burial tombs of various pharaohs and nobles from centuries past.  The biggest draw is perhaps the Valley of the Kings which is a valley in the desert housing 63 known tombs of Kings including the famous tomb of King Tut (though more are likely to be discovered).  There is also a corresponding Valley of the Queens with fewer tombs though the tomb of Nefertari is said to be the most amazing tomb in either valley.  Unfortunately, that one will cost you $5000 to see and you will need special permission from the head of antiquities in Egypt.

Examples of the inscriptions from inside various tombs in V of K

Note the stars at the top of this one.  These stars covered the ceilings of every tomb I entered as well as the ceiling of some parts of the Karnak Temple (tomorrow’s post)

You may recall in Cairo that I mentioned that the creation of hidden tombs became the norm in the New Kingdom as an effort to prevent looting of the pyramids.  Indeed the pyramids were often looted almost immediately after their construction and given the difficulty of creating such huge monuments it is theorized that pyramid construction eventually fell out of favor and most royal burials were moved to Thebes (present-day Luxor).  In fact, the tombs were also looted there with the exception of the most famous tomb of all…that of King Tut.

It is worth mentioning here that while King Tut is perhaps the most famous Egyptian pharaoh, his reign (and his tomb) are rather unremarkable.  He took the throne as a nine year-old boy and died at the young age of 18.  He left no male heirs, was likely seriously disabled and it is currently theorized that he died of a severe strain of malaria.  So why is he so famous?  Largely because his tomb is the only tomb in the Valley of the Kings to be found almost completely intact including both his mummy and more than 1700 objects to give clues about life in ancient Egypt.  Opened in November 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter the tomb of King Tut is the only one in the valley to still contain his mummy…the rest of the royal mummies (as well as all of the artifacts found in the tomb) are now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo as we’ve seen previously.

So…in the Valley of the Kings I was allowed to enter three different tombs and all three were interesting and unique in some way.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos because of the damage caused by our camera flashes.  I did find a few pictures elsewhere on the web of the inside of the tombs and have included them here.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

After the Valley of the Kings it was off to see the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut.  Queen Hatshepsut is an intriguing character because she is the only female pharaoh to ever rule over Egypt and how she came to that post is a rather interesting (and still somewhat debatable) story. As the story goes, she was the daughter of Tutmosis I and since he had no sons of his own his daughter’s husband (Tutmosis II) was set to inherit the throne.  Apparently Hatshepsut was a strong-willed woman and her husband extremely weak-willed (some say this was by design as she had her eye on the throne since she was a teenager).  Unfortunately, Hatshepsut was widowed before she was able to produce a male heir so rather than allowing the son of one of her husband’s lesser wives to take the throne…she herself assumed the throne.  She was rather conniving in how she did this as female pharaohs were non-existent so she first took over as a regent for the infant heir (Tutmosis III) and then banished him to military school for 20 years ultimately naming herself queen though keeping with the traditions of male pharaohs by wearing the false beard and short kilt of the other kings.  Admittedly, the time of rule under Hatshepsut was a peaceful and prosperous one for Egypt though ultimately Tutmosis III returned to power and angry at his step-mother he is said to have defaced her tomb and attempted to remove all evidence of her existence from Karnak Temple.  Quite an Egyptian drama…

The rest of the pictures here are from Hatshepsut’s temple…tomorrow it is hot-air balloon rides and a trip to both Karnak and Luxor Temples here at the Mini-Extravaganza.  Stay tuned…

Various scenes here and below of the Temple of Hatshepsut

Colossi of Memnon

Sunset over the Nile