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Peter O'Toole
courtesy of the Rotten Tomatoes website I was a young teenager when I first saw the movie “Lawrence of Arabia,” and fell immediately in love with Peter O’Toole as only a teenage girl can. In fact, if you mention “Lawrence of Arabia” to any woman of a certain age, she will get a spark in her eye and sigh, “Yes, Peter O’Toole.” Here was a man, handsome, courageous and strong; you just knew his swash wouldn’t buckle even under the harshest conditions.
There is a moment in the movie when Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) and Sherif Ali (Omar Sherif) peer over the edge of a cliff and Lawrence proclaims “Aqaba!” I vowed that someday I, too, would see Aqaba.
Aqaba today is a dusty, flyblown, rather dirty town. It’s a shame, really. Aqaba is on the Red Sea, and scuba divers come from all over the world to dive in the Red Sea. Aqaba has the only sea port in Jordan, and enjoys status as the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) offering taxes less than half that in the rest of the country, and free visas to visitors crossing at the Eilat-Aqaba border crossing. It also serves a jumping off point for visitors to
double parked
Downtown Aqaba; parking in the middle of the street was not uncommon. Petra.
Aqaba was also the birthplace of “The Great Arab Revolt” of 1916, started by Sherif Hussein bin Ali to overthrown the Ottoman Turks and create a single, unified Arab state. The Jordanian tourist information center points visitors to the movie “Lawrence of Arabia,” (Peter O’Toole!) which is a good thing, because local citizens don’t know much about it.
I try to see a new place with “local eyes,” and not to compare it to my home. But Aqaba’s trash-strewn streets, abandoned buildings, and cigarette butts that were thrown absolutely everywhere were just sad. This is a town that has so much going for it, I’m sorry its residents didn't seem to care about their city.
Case in point: on the coast next to the Movenpick Resort are the remains of the ancient city of Ayla. A sign proudly proclaims it as an important archeological site, excavated and studied by the University of Chicago from 1986 to 1993. Today it is covered with broken beer bottles and cigarette butts. Graffiti covers the signs, and it appears that no one has studied the site since 1993. Having just come from Jerusalem where historic sites are
studied and lovingly preserved, this came as rather a shock.
Next to the Ayla site was a ravine where the skinniest horse I ever saw was trying to browse amidst the sand and broken bottles. This didn’t make much sense to me until I saw the gaily decorated carriages across the street. I’d be afraid that this horse would die of exhaustion or sheer despair if asked to pull a carriage.
The upside was the people I met were unfailingly kind and polite. They tolerated my non-existent Arabic, and welcomed me to their country. I never felt a moment of hostility towards me because of my nationality (US) or gender (female.) These folks have a wonderful place, I just wished they realized it.
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