Blogs from Middle East - page 876

once again, photos will talk for me ... read more

Baalbek, en árabe Ba'lbakk (بعلبك), es actualmente una localidad del Líbano de 25.000 habitantes a unos 200 km al este de Beirut. En la antigüedad fue un santuario fenicio dedicado al dios Baal; fue ciudad griega, y a partir de la época de los seléucidas se le llamó Heliópolis, siendo colonia romana desde Augusto. Es uno de los yacimientos arqueológicos más importantes del cercano oriente, declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la UNESCO en 1984. Es notable una zona de templos de entre los siglos I-III d.C. en honor de la Tríada heliopolitana: Júpiter, Mercurio y Venus. Las primeras excavaciones se iniciaron hacia 1900. En 1898 la visitó el Kaiser Guillermo de Prusia. Baalbek (Arapça: بعلبك) Lübnan'ın Bekaa Vadisi'nde kalan bir şehridir. Selahattin Eyyubi bu şehirde doğmuştur. Ayrıca bu şehir, 1984 yılında UNESCO tarafından koruma altına ... read more

So I have had no time for the past several weeks to update my blog and add the photos from the trip. The rest of Italy is up on facebook. Israel was wonderful. Saw a lot of friends, and relaxed quite a bit as well. Writting this from the train station in Berlin. Quick rundown of what I did in Israel: July 8- Haggai picked me up at the airport on Tuseday night. Met a lot of his family. Went out for a little and spent the night at his home. July 9- Spent the after noon at Haggais house. Watched cartoons with his nephew. Eat lunch with his folks. Around 3pm got on the bus to Ashkalon. Arrived in the earlz evening. Went out with Galia. July 10- Spent the day and night in Ashkalon ... read more

Into the arrivals gate she stepped, looking a bit confused perhaps, but with a big smile on her face. Welcome to Turkey, mom! We hopped a Havaş shuttle to Taksim and her adventures began. After lunch on İstiklal Caddesi, we headed to İstinye to take it easy for the rest of the day... until the party, that is. Lütfiye kept me up into the wee hours the night before, rolling grape leaves and cleaning the apartment - which was already spotless enough, in my opinion. Mountains of food were prepared and good friends came in from as far as İzmit to welcome my mother on her very first day. Exhausting, overwhelming, and splendid! My mother weathered her first full day in the country like a champ. After a large Turkish breakfast, we hopped a bus from ... read more

Pazar (Sunday), the 29th of June Otel Famýly; located ýn one of the ýnnumerable suburbs of Istanbul 5:05 AM Watchýng the sun rýse. It's turnýng the eastern part of the sky a mýx of purple, peach, and teal. The moon ýs stýll out, a thýn, sýlver, crescent, and I can just see the twýnkýlýng lýght of what may be Istanbul-proper from the balcony of my room. I woke up at 2:00 AM today, and stared at the wall for two and a half hours. Lýstened to the muzzenýns call to prayer at 4:30, and came outsýde at 4:45. A man walked by blowýng a whýstle: I can hear others lýke hým, father away. I want to say ýt was the call to prayer that woke me up today, but really ýt was my roomates snorýng. I´m ... read more