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Published: October 7th 2007
Suez Canal
Ship of the Desert.... :)Greetings dear reader,
From a couple of mad Kiwis a long way from home, we bid you hello! We have said goodbye to the Middle East and are heading north to cooler climes, but that's a story for another time.
I won't mention our three intermediate days in Cairo. Suffice to say we spent far to long in the McDonalds on Talaat Harb since it had good aircon and free wi-fi and got hustled by a very nice old man to buy some perfume. On the other hand, after that I was able to perfect my techniques for dealing with hawkers. A bit late, I know, but if any of you are coming out this way, let me know and I'll share my top travel tips for Egypt. I should give you a bit of warning about this blog entry. It's going to be longer than the longest one I've ever written and is full of lots of little things - it was a pretty frantic trip. There are tons of pictures and it's all a little bit disjointed, but I hope you get the idea.
We met our new tour group on Saturday
afternoon and were a little dismayed to discover they were all Australian! I kid, of course. There were three Kiwis - Jen, me and Bev, a dental hygienist Aucklander. We were joined by retired couple Sandra and Fred, art teacher Fran and Michael the court registrar and our guide, Bradley, another Australian (!) who would lead us fearlessly through the interesting lands ahead. That first day entailed a trip out to the Coptic part of Cairo, which meant braving the Cairo metro. It's surprisingly not bad, although like most of the Egyptian rail network it's a little out of date. Our tour guide was Ola, a twenty-something professional guide who works sort-of freelance for lots of tour companies. She was very well spoken and knowledgeable about both the Coptic and Islamic religions and their places of worship.
First stop was the Hanging Church, site of many Coptic miracles that I shall briefly outline here. Once upon a time, the Copts were told by the local Kaliph that they must prove the veracity of their religion by performing a miracle. He'd heard something from the Bible about the moving of mountains so he challenged the Copts to move a mountain
St Katherine's Monastery
Home of THE Burning Bush. It wasn't. outside Cairo. They were a bit stumped and so appealed to the head of the church - the Emperor in Rome. He dutifully arrived in Cairo and was also stumped. So he prayed in the Hanging Church for three days whereupon he was granted a vision of the Virgin Mary who told him to go out and find the one-eyed water carrier who would perform the miracle. So the Emperor strolled out into the market and found a bloke later to be known as St Simeon. Long story short, there was an earthquake in Cairo and the mountain moved and thus Christianity was saved in Egypt. The stone pillar where Mary appeared is still revered as part of the church. It really was quite gorgeous, a mix of Orthodox and Roman Catholic in it's style and decoration.
Sadly, we weren't able to visit the catacombs where the Holy Family hid from Herod while they were in Egypt as Ramadan struck and they closed early. Slightly bummed, we trotted down the street to the oldest mosque in Egypt and had possibly the most interesting experience we've had in Egypt. We were sitting in the front of the mosque and Ola
Sawa Camp
Jen on the beach. How's the serenity? was explaining Islam in a great deal more detail than Wahid did - she took her Islam a lot more seriously than he did - and we were asked to shift (not leave, mind you) by one of the imams as afternoon prayers were about to start. So we retired to the bask of the mosque as the prayer started and amazingly we were allowed to stay through the whole thing! Ola was able to translate and explain the entire process and we were even fortunate (if that's the right word) to experience an Islamic funeral in the midst of the whole thing. Half a dozen blokes arrived just after the start of the prayer and took the coffin to the front of the mosque accompanied by much wailing and gnashing of teeth from outside. Ola told us that this (and the sights one often sees on the evening news in places like Palestine and Iraq) is explicitly forbidden by Islam. Amazing eh? The whole experience was quite unreal. Ola (and the women in the group) weren't asked to shift to the women's side of the mosque and no one objected to her talking through the prayer. Certainly a unique
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Count them. Read T.E. Lawrence if you don't follow! opportunity for us.
But that was the last we saw of the great city as at stupid o'clock the following day we said our goodbyes for the last time to the insanity that was Cairo and headed out to the Sinai. There was a little trepidation at a seven-hour bus trip to St Katherine's but we were all mightily relieved to see that we'd been given a bus that seated 20 for the 8 of us. Nice. Mercifully, we had Christian drivers who were able to stop for brekky and weren't as fractious as the other Cairene drivers! We trundled along the highway to the Sinai past an almost unbroken line of military bases - presumably some kind of legacy of the 1973 war. I had a quiet chuckle at the heavily outdated kit that lined the road. Much of it was out of date in 1973! We bore down on the Suez canal quite quickly and all were dismayed as Bradley told us we went under the canal, not over it, so we wouldn't get to see anything. However, a quiet word to the driver and we were once again defying Egyptian law to suit us tourists! Our
The Obligatory Group Shot
Sandra, me, Jen at the back, Fran at the front, Michael, Bev and Fred. driver pulled a fast one after we got out of the tunnel and we were able to drive almost to the edge of the canal before a couple of soldiers gave us the bemused look they probably regularly give tourist vehicles and politely told us to turn around and not to do it again. It was very impressive to watch this enormous cargo boat easing it's way through the desert. I'm not sure the picture does it justice.
You really know when you get into the Sinai. It's like driving onto Mars. The pink and yellow granite and sandstone hills rise from the desert and the whole landscape is a beautiful shade of red. It was a long and tiring trip but we were all amazed by the sheer scale of it all. We were told that there's little historical evidence of the Israelites wandering out there for forty years and I can see how. There's nothing there - in most places there isn't even a scrap of vegetation and there's certainly no water! We were all quite glad to roll into St Katherine's and have a good stretch. After a rest and a buffet lunch we adjourned to
the monastery of St Katherine to climb Mt Sinai. Quick joke before we start - we were driven to the trailhead by Alaa (say it out loud) and guided up and down by Musa. Not funny? Musa is Arabic for Moses! Anyone who's been here will know one can, if one chooses, climb the 3,750 Steps of Repentance which were laid by a monk some time in the 13th century as a penance. Thought for today - don't. There is a camel path to the top that is about 6 km from bottom to top and you still have to climb 750 of those steps. It's hard work - steps is a bit generous for a lot of it! We were all well knackered when we got to the top and so relaxed in the late evening sun before marvelling at the beautiful sunset going down over the mountains. Stunning. We were all left wondering what God was thinking when he spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush and then sent him up the blasted mountain to get the 10 Commandments. TWICE. Moses must have been well miffed. It was really worth the effort though - I cannot describe the
views but you can get a rough idea from the piccie of Jen and I atop the mount.
Three hours from St Katherine's is the Red Sea resort of Nuweiba. Most tourists from the west head for either Dahab or Sharm el-Sheik but Intrepid wouldn't dream of going somewhere so touristy, so Nuweiba it was. After a quick stop for a couple of beers and some snacks, we adjourned to the north of the town to our accommodation at Sawa Beach Camp. Salama, the owner, was a cheery bloke whose life was a mix of snorkelling and sleeping. Not a bad way to make a living by any stretch of the imagination! For 24 hours we were basically able to forget about everything and just chill out on the beach admiring the mountains of Saudi Arabia across the water. It's a pretty basic camp - sleeping on mattresses on the floor in grass huts, but it was lovely. Mostly it was the quiet that got me, especially after 5 straight days in Cairo. Kylie told me the Red Sea snorkelling was pretty good and I have to say she was right! Now bear in mind that I can't see
a heck of a lot while snorkelling and there is some question as to why I bother, but we had an excellent guide in Salama and the life on the reef just off the beach was more than active enough for a blind bloke like me to see plenty. Jen and Brad saw a turtle that the rest of us missed and we also went chasing a big ray, but it was too quick for us. On the other hand, we saw tons of beautiful tropical fish, some pretty corals and at least three or four lion fish - close enough for me to make them out clearly. Really amazing. After a quiet evening, we were treated to a Bedouin speciality called magrouhba - like a rice and chicken upside down cake. I ate too much. Again. That just keeps happening here!
It was an interesting drive back to the city to catch the boat to Jordan. Nuweiba was originally developed to service the huge numbers of Israeli tourists coming down from Eilat at the top end of the Red Sea. Problem is that with the intifada and the Sharm el-Sheik bombings in 2005, the Israelis have pretty well
The Treasury
Or al-Khaznej stopped coming. There are all these little beach camps and flash resorts sitting empty and more than a few half built and not likely to be finished any time soon. It's a sad thing when a bunch of extremists can go and ruin so many people's livelihoods for some perceived altruistic reason. I'd very happily go back to Sawa, it was lovely. Nice to feel like we were actually on holiday, even for a little while. That feeling was firmly squashed when we got to the ferry terminal. Bradley warned us that the service wasn't the most reliable. The ferry arrived in port at 1:45 when it was supposed to depart at 2:00. Whoops. We got away by about 3.30 and were in Aqaba by about 5. We were hustled off the boat nice and quickly to get our Jordanian visas and were given a very warm welcome by the police sergeant at the terminal. Well, most of us. Fred had disappeared off the bus and followed all the Arabs into the Jordanian nationals part of the terminal and was promptly handcuffed and about to be led away when he was rescued by Bradley! On top of that, Bradley was
lectured by the nice sergeant and threatened with having his visa declined because Intrepid don't use Jordanian guides. A bit of fast talking and he got away with that one, thank goodness. Having said that, we were constantly asked our nationality and saying New Zealand or Australia was enough to guarantee our passage - no one stopped us at Customs when Bradley said we were all Aussies going to Aqaba. Odd.
And so to Aqaba town. I guess I should start with the cab ride. We left the airport at about 6:45, just as the sun was setting behind the hills of the Sinai. We had a serious Ramadan moment as the two cab drivers did the 20 minute drive to the hotel in about 7 minutes. They were so keen to be home for dinner at 7 that we tore down from the terminal at about 140 most of the way. Sandra was not happy and both Bradley and Fred had to apply the imaginary passengers brake pedal liberally and often. Jen and I both found it a touch exhilarating. Teehee. Aqaba is a lovely little town. It seems well developed and very cosmopolitan. There are lots of
The Petra Amphitheatre
I climbed a lot of steps in the sun for this photo. Appreciate it. cafes and restaurants and even a proper mall. Mad eh? There's a lot of money here - a lot more than most of Egypt. The cars are nicer, the streets are cleaner and there's a definite feeling of prosperity. Jordan seems to be a long way ahead of most of it's neighbours - both economically and politically.
From Aqaba we were driven by air-conditioned four wheel drive to Wadi Rum. Now I'm sure no one knows anything about Wadi Rum. I certainly didn't. You may recall a film made in the 60s about an English bloke trotting around in the desert during World War I rallying the Arabs to attack Turkey? Lawrence of Arabia? Well Wadi Rum is where the real T. E. Lawrence rode around on a camel and there are a few little spots where he was known to have hung out. The other real gem in Wadi Rum are the inscriptions - Thamudic and Nabatean ones in particular - some of which are around 3,800 years old! We cruised around in the sand and admired the rock formations, the dunes and the canyons as well as climbing over a random rock bridge! It helped that our
The Colonnaded Street
Not the best, but check out the view. drivers were very good and also quite happy to race each other across the desert. They finally left us at a very well set up encampment run by the maddest Arab I think we've come across yet. Mohammed was quite simply bananas but the little faux-Bedouin encampment where we spent the evening proved to be very very comfortable. After the sunset, Bradley introduced us to a new sport - dune jumping! One simply runs up to the edge of the dune and leaps off, seeing how far one can get down the other side. It's great fun and we were all glad to not be wearing shoes as we were frequently buried up to our knees and deeper on landing. It was a bit of a mad way to end the day but all very entertaining. We were also treated to a bit of traditional Bedouin music, which was rather nice and a lot more melodic than some other Arabic tunes I've heard here. After a really early start, we headed east to Wadi Musa - the Valley of Moses.
What would we do in Wadi Musa I hear you ask? Simple. Remember Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The Monastery
Like al-Khaznej right? Still cool, even after those steps. That little temple at the end of the film where the Holy Grail is kept - that's Petra and Petra is in Wadi Musa. The inside doesn't look like that, I'll admit, but the outside is as stunning as it looked in the film. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I could probably ramble on about Petra for hours and pages but I'll save that for another time. I don't even know where to start. Maybe the beginning? The Nabatean city of Petra is reached through a 1.2km long canyon (al-Siq) broken through the ridge in an earthquake long since gone and this walk would be all the more atmospheric if not for the overwhelming stench of horses. These little carriages run up and down the canyon and aside from trying to run down the not lazy tourists they smell terrible. Note this carefully - do not ever hire one of the horses or donkeys at Petra - they are really terribly looked after and unfortunately stupid tourists perpetuate this appalling behaviour. Making a donkey climb 750 steps in the midday sun to the Monastery with an overweight tourist too lazy to climb is frankly cruel. Ok, rant over.
The Mosaic Map
The city is Jerusalem. No idea on the rest of it. If you work it out, tell me! The first view is stunning. The Khaznej (known as the Treasury, which it isn't!) is the sight everyone recognises, but there's so much more. The minor tombs in the outer Siq, the amphitheatre, the Palace Tomb and the colonnaded street are all just brilliant. This is the part of the city where you can see the beautiful colours in the rock, it's almost like oil on water.
Our second day at Petra we were up early and climbing to the High Place of Sacrifice. I can tell you, I'll bet the priests were well miffed when they had get oxen all the way up there. On the other hand it was worth the climb for the amazing views over the city and the desert. The walk down was possibly even better as we got to see the Garden tomb, the Soldiers tomb and the Renaissance tomb (which may have in fact been a banqueting hall!) and they are all quite unique and quite stunning. The Garden tomb gives you a rough idea of how the Nabateans carefully managed their water supplies to make the desert bloom so long ago. We had an odd little adventure here with a little
Bedouin girl who just walked alongside us asking for biscuits, chewing gum, dinars, the whistle on Jennifer's bag, you name it. She just wouldn't go away. It was really a little concerning that parents would actively encourage that sort of behaviour, but they did. Anyway, after a nice long break in the shade away from the midday sun, we decided to brave the climb to the Monastery. I knew a little bit about Petra, but the Monastery was something I didn't know about. It was a Nabatean royal tomb until converted to a church by the Byzantines, hence the Monastery. It's 750 steps up and it's very hard work. Very very hard work, but it's worth the climb. It's designed much like the Treasury (I should explain that - it's called the Treasury because people believed that one of the last Egyptian Pharaohs hid treasure in the large urn mounted on the top of the tomb. There are lots of bullet holes where people tried to shatter it!) but it's bigger and in better nick - it's not been shot at. Definitely worth the climb. It's suggested that you do it in the late afternoon. Take that suggestion.
There's
The Big Flag
It's a long way away. That's how big it is! a lot to see at Petra, so if you're ever in the neighbourhood make sure you stay two days at least. Most people reckon they could do three, especially in the hot weather when it's hard to climb hills! It's such an unreal place. It's so unlike anywhere else in the Roman world. Well, except maybe Palmyra, but more on that later...! We left Wadi Musa all a little tired from two solid days walking around in the sun and made the drive north. First stop was a little town called al-Karak where the remains of a lovely little Crusader castle sit on the hilltop above town. Built around 1099, the castle was occupied by Christians before being “liberated” (our Jordanian guide's words!) by Salah ad-Din in the mid 1100s. From there it was added on to by many people, the most significant additions being made by the Mamelukes in the 1400s. Unfortunately there was a revolt in Karak against the Ottoman Empire in the mid 1800s and the Ottomans shelled the castle heavily, destroying much of the top fortifications. Nonetheless it was an interesting little stop on the road to Amman.
However, the best of the day was
The Umayyad Palace
and the big flag again. It's impossible to take a photo on the Amman citadel without it! yet to come. We drove north along the spectacular Kings Highway admiring the amazing scenery and Jordan's rich, mountainous landscape before we dropped below sea level and went down to the Dead Sea. It mucked with my ears something terrible! If you've ever been here (and I cannot think of anyone I know who has!) then you'll know why the Dead Sea is so gee golly gosh darn cool! Floating in it is simply unreal. It's like being on a lilo in a way and you can even rest your head in the water and not sink. I tried really really hard to get deeper than my shoulders and discovered that all I could manage was to float upright! It doesn't initially feel any worse than the sea does normally except that Jen's itchy bites and my cut heels were stinging after about 5 minutes. I guess it's good for you right? Fred, Sandra, Bev and Fran got all covered in Dead Sea mud and we took photos and laughed at the silly buggers!
Our final stop for the day was the top of Mount Nebo. Not a particularly exciting name, I'll admit but it is the fabled site
A Dead Sea scroll
I wish these museum people would light these things better. where Moses looked out over the Promised Land and promptly dropped dead. According to the Bible, he's buried somewhere nearby, but no one has ever discovered where! The mountain has been the site of various churches for a number of years and the chief attractions now are the stunning 6th Century Byzantine mosaic floors which have been lovingly restored and preserved by an Italian archaeological mission and a number of Franciscan friars. It's really quite an incredible spot. By all accounts you can see the spires of Jerusalem on a clear day. Thanks to the constant haze that has accompanied this trip, we could barely see the bottom of the hill!
From there we drove east to Madaba, a little town about 25km southwest of Amman. Quite why we were rooming here is anyone's guess, but we had a comfy hotel that served pancakes for brekky, had a swimming pool and free wireless web access. Nice. The highlight of Madaba is the Greek Orthodox Church where we went to see an Orthodox Sunday mass and the mosaic map of the Holy Land. This map is far from complete any more but by all accounts it has gone some way
Mais and family!
Mais' mum, Liwa and Mais. Mensaf in the middle. to identifying the locations of a number of otherwise unknown ancient sites. Sadly my ancient Greek isn't remotely good enough to actually place any part of the map in context. I can pick Jerusalem, but that's about it! I hope the picture does justice to what is a simply unique historical document as well as a really stunning mosaic!
The second to last stop in Jordan was the capital, Amman. Even the Lonely Planet calls Amman a bit dull and in comparison to Cairo and Damascus, it kind of is. It's much much more westernised than either and clearly has a great deal more money than either, but that is part of what makes it so dull. We drove across the city to a little spot called Iraq al-Amir where Intrepid has a responsible travel gig with a craft village. Set up by Queen Noor, the wife of the late King Hussein, the women in the village are taught traditional craft skills and sell their creations presumably mostly to tourists. The work was simply beautiful and we would have liked to buy several things, but we settled for a small piece of really lovely calligraphy on handmade paper. That
Kerak Castle
Well, what's left of it. seems to be the bane of this whole gig really, we keep finding things we'd love to take home but can't carry.
We drove into downtown Amman and stopped to have a look at the King Abdullah mosque, built by King Hussein for his father. It's a beautiful building and stands out amongst the dull white buildings of Amman's hills with it's enormous modern minarets and bright blue dome. Unfortunately it was closed at the time for prayers and we weren't allowed to go in. So, dejected we drove up to the Acropolis of Amman to see some brilliant Umayyad and Roman ruins and to have a wee look down on the city. From atop the citadel, one can see the largest flag on a flagpole anywhere in the world. The only bigger flag is the one in the DMZ in North Korea! Anyway, not the point really. There are two gems on top of the citadel. One is part of a palace built by the Umayyads which has been beautifully restored by Spanish and Italian archaeologists and the second is the national archaeological museum. It's not the best presented collection but it contains some unique pieces - some
In the Dead Sea!
I'm floating completely upright. It's such a weird feeling. clay figures that are nearly 8,000 years old, by far the oldest representations of humans ever found, as well as the Copper Dead Sea Scrolls. The copper scrolls basically contain an inventory of treasure and it's believed that it may be a list of items removed from the Temple in Jerusalem before it was burned to the ground by the Romans. Problem is, no one knows where this treasure might have wound up.
After a final explore of the acropolis, we wandered down into the city proper and had a fresh OJ before embarking on possibly the most exciting and random event of the whole trip. It was a one off experience, off the tour, and we certainly count ourselves lucky to have had the opportunity. While we were mucking around in the ferry terminal at Nuweiba we met Mais, a twenty-something Jordanian Christian who had been on holiday in Egypt and she graciously invited the whole group to her home in Amman for
mensaf, the national dish of Jordan. So she jacked up a cabbie mate to come into the city and pick us up and drive us out to her place in the 'burbs where we had
Jerash amphitheatre
and bagpipes. Weird! dinner with her, her brother Liwa and her mum! Mais and Liwa both spoke great English and their mother understood a huge amount so we were able to sit on the patio in the cool evening and have some fascinating conversations about Jordan, it's place in the world and in the Middle East, the King and the future of the nation. It was simply unique. The
mensaf was, by far and away, the best meal I've had on this trip. It didn't suit Jen so much as it's never going to be a veggie dish. It's slow roasted lamb on a bed of rice, cooked with basil, cardamom and saffron covered in a yoghurt and oil sauce (which the lamb is cooked in too!) and only eaten with the right hand. Bradley described it as being like edible playdough! The technique involved taking a piece of meat and some rice soaked with the sauce and rolling it into a ball (with one hand!) and resting it on your palm and thumb and dropping it into your mouth. We weren't all that good at it but the sheer entertainment of the meal more than made up for it!
The following
Temple of Artemis
With wobbly columns! day we headed out from Madaba for the less than certain border with Syria but with a real gem of a stop in between. We rode in the Love Bus (!) which you can see here in the carpark at the Roman city of Jerash. It's an amazing vehicle, with just enough room for the eight of us provided Bradley rode in a deckchair! Brilliant! It's all part of the less than serious approach to road rules and driving in the Middle East. I don't think I've worn a seatbelt for nigh on five weeks.
Anyway, back to my point, if I can remember what it was.....ah yes, Jerash. One of the cities of the Roman Decapolis, it is one of the best preserved and well excavated Roman ruins in the region and has the lovely distinction of being quite recognisable as a city - it's easier to imagine it filled with toga-wearing Romans bathing in olive oil and gas bagging in Latin than pretty much anywhere else we've been. We were guided round by another one of our Middle East lookalikes - this time we had the Jordanian Sean Connery - seriously. He had the same soft burr
to his English that Sean Connery does. It was really quite lovely to listen to. Jerash is probably most famous for it's oval forum and it's stunning amphitheatre in which we saw possibly the most bizarre thing ever - men dressed as members of the Jordanian Desert Patrol (they're kind of as iconic here as Mounties in Canada) playing Scottish airs on the bagpipes. Jen took a video of their rendition of the first few bars of Amazing Grace and it really beggars belief at how astoundingly bad it is. But it was fun, if nothing else. The other real highlight at Jerash was the precinct of the Temple of Artemis. It's an enormous structure that really shows off classical architectural techniques at their very best. It's slightly disconcerting to see a bloke in his late 50s shoving a 30 foot high stone column and showing you how it flexes (and why it's still standing after the earthquakes that flattened the rest of the city). It'll be even more worth seeing in a couple of years when an Italian group have completely restored the main entrance and it's enormous triangular lintel.
Our arrival in Syria was completely painless. Pictures
The Forum
It's oval and has 94 columns. That's it really. of Abdullah II were replaced by pictures of Hafez al-Assad, the late-President of Syria and his son, Bashar al-Assad, current president. We had more trouble getting into Jordan than we did into Syria. We continued to the outskirts of Damascus in the Love Bus before embarking in local taxis to our hotel. We had been warned to expect that our hotel was a bit odd and that the rooms were underground but in all honesty it didn't matter. The sheer hideousness of the décor was counterbalanced by the fact that we were given a whole apartment! I'm not sure the piccies Jen took do the interior justice, but I certainly can't say that the place wasn't comfortable! It was built by a Syrian who had spent a number of years working in the Gulf and I think he was going for the conspicuous consumption look.
Our first afternoon was just a bit of an explore around town and a look through a jewellery souq, where Jen eventually bought a really cool lapis necklance and some beautiful topaz earrings for a whopping £20. (Have I mentioned that Syria is really cheap?) We ate in the Christian quarter, where Damascus is
The Love Bus
Gratuitous photo, but I had to! even less conservative and had a fantastic meal at one of the best restaurants in the town. Set in the courtyard of a beautifully restored Ottoman villa, the chefs at Elissar cooked some of the best Damascene food we came across. We all agreed after our first dinner that the city wasn't at all the way we expected. It's modern, clean and there is evidence of a burgeoning middle class and plenty of money. None of us were really able to articulate quite what it was that we did expect but it wasn't what we got! It's less conservative than we'd been led to believe and far from the capital of a so-called “rogue state.” It's a really great town actually.
The following morning we wandered down to the Old Town of Damascus and saw the two best sights in the city - the covered souq and the Umayyad Mosque. The souq is amazing, there's nowhere quite like it that we've been yet. Aside from the fact that it's utterly enormous, it's like a kind of medieval mall of sorts. The locals like to say the holes in the roof were made by French aircraft strafing the local people
Saladin!
Great statue eh? during the French Mandate, but really it was done quite deliberately to look like the starry night. We quite happily wandered from end to end looking at the many peculiar things that Syrians might buy. Of particular fascination were the fashions - so many Damascans (I think?!) are really well dressed and fashionable and yet some stores were doing a roaring trade in truly awful taffeta dresses and such things. There were shops selling things from huge sacks of saffron and paprika to the dried husks of seahorses and sea turtles. Amazing. At the far end of the souq is the Umayyad Mosque and this was probably the big stop for Damascus. Before we were allowed into the mosque, the girls all had to get appropriately dressed. As the mosque is one of the holiest sites in Islam and it's Ramadan, the long pants, long sleeves and a scarf look wasn't going to cut it and they had to pay a visit to the “Putting on Special Clothes Room” where they were all garbed up in the Yoda style. Don't ask me who the French girl was, she just got in the photo! Anyway, back to the mosque. Built in
705, the decoration was done by six of the greatest mosaic artists in all of Byzantium. Yep - done by Christians! It was an arrangement made with the Byzantines after the Umayyads took Damascus in the late 600s. They converted the church on the site to a mosque and asked for some help with the interior decoration and the results are mindbogglingly beautiful. The three cupolas in the courtyard and the façade of the main prayer hall are some of the most intricate we'd seen at this point and they were complimented by some really pretty scrollwork and bordering as well as a stunning ceiling over the portico heavily laden with Arabic calligraphy. Perhaps the big drawcard at the Umayyad mosque is what it contains - the head of John the Baptist! Encased in the impressive tomb you can see here, it commands a great deal of attention. We also met a lovely Iraqi family who asked us Jen, Fran, Bev and I to be in their holiday snaps! I've never met so many Iraqis as I did in Syria! We also popped in to the Mausoleum of Salah ad-Din (or Saladin, as he was better known!) near to the
The Putting on Special Clothes Room
Don't ask me about the French girl. I really don't know! mosque and the tomb of probably the greatest medieval general and Arab statesman is very small and plain. This may be because when he died his family discovered he was completely broke as he'd given away all of the wealth he'd acquired defeating the Third Crusade to the poor and they couldn't afford his funeral!
That afternoon we went for a wander down to a church on the wall of the Old City where St Paul was lowered in a basket to escape the wrath of the cities Jews. It's a lovely little spot, very simple and very pleasant. As we wandered back through the Christian quarter I got this funny idea that I needed a haircut. Well, not so much a funny idea because I needed a haircut, but I'd pretty much resolved myself to going to a bloke Bradley knew in Aleppo and we happened to wander past a trendy looking barber's shop so I said ah well and wandered in. The barber spoke no English at all, but fortunately the bloke from the shop over the road did, so he translated for me and then sat back with the rest of the group to see what
happened. Well, suffice to say that I have never had a haircut like it, and I don't expect to have another one like it again! I got a great haircut, for one thing, but it was all the other fandangle stuff that came afterward that really made the day. I had my eyebrows and sideburns trimmed, some of my facial hair plucked with taut twine (and yes, it's as painful as it sounds!), a moisturising masque and steaming, a face massage and had my face and hair washed. It was a fantastic experience that I would happily recommend to all the blokes out there. If you're ever in Damascus and in need of a mop chop, let me know - I can put you roughly in the right place to get it done!
We got in a last burst of culture the following morning and visited the National Museum. Sadly, no piccies as they weren't allowed indoors, but the collection is quite impressive and as the French have recently been through and helped remount and relabel a lot of the collection, the artifacts up to and including the Hittite period are really well set out and labelled in three
Umayyad Mosque
One of the Cupolae languages, although the presentation and labelling got more dire the deeper one got into the museum. At the far end was a stunning reconstruction of an Ottoman reception hall done in the 50s and all the documentation was in French. It stretched me a long way, but I think I got the gist of it. The only thing I don't know was what the point was! Other random highlights were the Dura horse armours, some amazing Qu'rans that would rival the Book of Kells for artistry and a brilliant Roman sarcophagus labelled only in Arabic, so I can't tell you any more than that! In advance of the following days activity we saw, reconstructed in the basement, a Palmyrene tomb. They're quite odd things - the corpses were mummified and then put into long people sized slots in the walls with the open end covered by a sculpted panel representing the deceased. It was most interesting as the sculpture is quite clearly Roman, yet with a clearly Asian bent to it. Funnily enough, the whole city is a bit like that.
Which, conveniently, segues us nicely to probably one of the best preserved Roman cities in the world, and
The Tomb
of St John the Baptists head. Odd. certainly the best in the Middle East - even better than Jerash. Palmyra was a trading city on the Silk Road and was already rich and well developed when it was annexed by the Roman Empire in the first century AD. It's probably most famous for it's last ruler, the Queen Zenobia. She claimed descent from Cleopatra and in all probability murdered her husband, the king Odenathus. She declared Palmyrene independence and ruled through the 260s and into the 270s before being beaten in two epic battles by the Emperor Aurelian. It's an amazing site, known best for it's enormous temple of Bel (or Baal as he's sometimes known) and it's phenomenal colonnaded way. The colonnades are perhaps what immediately sets Palmyra apart from other Roman cities - each one has a small mount on which used to stand statues of prominent citizens, statesmen and royals (none of which exist sadly) and most of the columns are engraved with text in both Greek and Palmyrene text trumpeting the achievements of the statued individuals. The Temple of Bel is the largest intact structure there and has unfortunately suffered from the Arab attempts to fortify it during the Crusades, which largely involved
My mop chop
He was well good. Well good. pulling down the pillars and making them into walls. Sods. The temple is known for it's sculpture and two large lintels that had fallen from the top of the temple were the best - they were heavily decorated on the bottom so they could be seen from the ground. We had to lie about in the sand to see it but they were very impressive. The temple
naos had been successively used as a temple, church and mosque and all the remnants from each still existed - it's one of the few places we visited that the Christians didn't obliterate everything.
One last thing I want to mention about Palmyra - Lonely Planet says the museum isn't really worth seeing. Lonely Planet is wrong. They say it's only worth it for the scale model of the Temple of Bel, which is good, but they neglect to mention the impressive collection of funerary statuary, the collection of tear bottles (for bottling the outpourings of grief!), a hundred year old collection of traditional Bedouin clothing and of course the mummies! There are only four, but they're worth seeing - hidden away in a darkened room on the upper floor, one of
Colonnaded Street
but in Palmyra this time! the museum staff showed us up there! The most astonishing bit is the cloth remnants that the mummies were wrapped in - including Chinese silk. Absolutely fascinating and definitely worth a visit. Oh, and the Traditional Palmyra restaurant occasionally does camel steak, if you feel so inclined. Not on this occasion sadly.
The following day was a big one for me, one of the main reasons I wanted to come on this trip. We were off to Krak. Yep. Krak des Chevaliers, the greatest castle in the history of castles. Construction was started in 1031 by the Emir of Homs but in the 1100s it was enlarged by the first three crusades, reaching it's zenith when Richard Coeur de Lion added a tower and strengthened the main gate in the 1190s. The castle was finally lost to the Mameluke sultan Beybars in the 13th century and not by force. The garrison (at it's height, 400 knights and 4000 retainers) had dropped to a about one tenth of that and while the soldiers could have held out for years there was little hope of rescue so they left the castle in return for safe passage. Beybars then put his own
stamp on the castle, strengthening the outer walls and rebuilding the main gate, covering the front of the castle with Arabic script. The castle went basically uninhabited during the Ottoman period and it eventually came to house a number of families from the surrounding areas, including our guides parents! They were finally evicted in the early 30s when the French did some serious restoration work on some of the walls. The Syrians have done more work on it recently and the castle remains in really good nick. The barracks, gothic portico and chapel are some of the best bits, the chapel all the moreso as we were treated to a young village kid singing calls to prayer and Bradley pulling out an 11th century Christian chant in reply. Cool eh? We took way too many photos of random towers and walls and stuff. It was great. I was really chuffed to have been able to see it.
You know how I said earlier that there was nowhere quite like the souq in Damascus. Well, it was certainly dull compared to the souq in Aleppo. Our hotel there was right in the middle, which is a great place to stay,
and the markets here are, for want of a better word, real. Almost no one spoke English worth mentioning and it was the place that people actually still came to shop. You name it, you could probably buy it in the Aleppo souq. Seriously - we saw a bloke selling Cialis out of a suitcase on the side of the road. Not kidding. We were guided through the souq and the Aleppo citadel by Ahmed who was probably the most demented bloke we have come across on our travels yet. Well, except Mohammed in Wadi Rum, I think he was actually crazy. We were standing up on old Aleppo city wall checking out the view when he managed to rope four random Aleppine teenage girls to come and chat with us while he made jokes and with us about them and presumably vice versa. It was all too bizarre for words watching this crazy little bloke quizzing these girls, who were in about 5th form, about the demographics of Syria. Truly odd. I think they will be more careful where they go walking on Saturday mornings from now on! We were given a guided tour of a running
hammam which
Palmyrene Triumphal Arch
It's bent, but I'll tell you about that another time! was a little bizarre, but fortunately there were no naked men having their ablutions! Ahmed's tour of the citadel at Aleppo was quite fascinating as he really knows his stuff and his English was probably some of the best we came across. We talked about Arabic castle design, the symbolism of lions to the Arabic military ethos and finally, during a tour of the Sultan's personal bathhouse, what Ahmed got up to in the
hammam when he was younger. He's mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide to Syria, so if you ever visit Aleppo not on an Intrepid tour, look him up, it's worth it!
It's at this point I'd like to pontificate, if I may. Syria is a country that has been done a great disservice over recent years. We visited six weeks into the peak season and frankly it was dead. The tourists don't come in the numbers that they used to. The politicians and media of many nations have made people afraid of this lovely country and it's really a bit of a poor effort on their part. Syria is an amazing place to visit, full of brilliant sights, great food and some of the warmest,
The Temple of Bel
Main Gate. Once faced with bronze doors. Must have been amazing! most welcoming people you'll ever meet. While some people like to say that Syria is a “rogue state” and the country seems to want to distance itself from the rest of the world I can only say that I would get in here while the getting is good. Who knows if or when this region might go bananas and it would be a great shame to not have the opportunity to see and do some of the things we've done as well as meet some of the people we've met. You could do a lot worse than visit this ancient and fascinating part of the world.
Would you believe we had more trouble getting out of Syria than in? I wouldn't have believed it! I think the border guy just had a bit of trouble with computers and inconsiderate Western tourists who have their passports in English. We all now have a number written in the back of our passports and all speculation leads us to think that this number is our file with the Syrian Secret Police! No idea what else it could be.....
It was a pleasant cruise from Aleppo to Antakya through the Turkish countryside
Camel Wrangling
Jen took it and it was too cool not to show you all! to a really cute little boutique hotel downtown. Antakya is interesting as it's probably better known to most people as Antioch. Yep, Antioch. Yet to wander around this town there's no way that you'd know that this was once one of the greatest cities in the Middle East. Ah well. Bradley suggested that we visit the Antakya Mosaic Museum and I can heartily recommend it! There are some of the most fantastic tile constructions I've ever seen - from a distance most of them could be paintings. It's hard to believe that someone could make something so detailed with just small bits of tile! I can only hope that some of the pictures do it justice. I remain astounded that these artists could work in such detail with small bits of pottery. We had dinner that night in a local restaurant and I got to have my first Efes Pilsner in Turkey (and boy was it good!) and my first proper Turkish doner kebab. They don't do them like they do them at home, that's for sure, but it tasted brilliant.
We climbed aboard our first long-distance bus in Turkey the next morning and headed north-west from Antakya towards
Krak des Chevaliers
The view from the hotel! a place called Selime. We were picked up by Denis (not the Menace, he says) who was our guide in Kappadokia. If you've never been to this part of Turkey - go. Seriously. It's beautiful. Our first stop was the Ilhara Valley, a 14km long gorge running from Selime to Ilhara township, filled with the rock-hewn churches and homes that dot the landscape of Kappadokia. It was our first introduction to the frescoes that fill these churches and the heavy symbolism that dominates. We walked through about six or seven kilometres of the valley and it was just nice. A cool shady walk along a small river was really quite pleasant after the heat of the rest of the Middle East. From Selime we drove north to Goreme, the heart of tourist Kappadokia via one of the most bizarre sites we saw anywhere on this trip. The underground city at Derinkuyu was cut directly into the volcanic tuff below the original village as a refuge for the population in times of strife. Built with stables, storage rooms, it's own winery and chapel with a built in confessional and pillar for crucifixion - seriously. Religious punishment according to Denis. The nicest
bit was that even 65 metres underground, the temperature was a pleasant 15 degrees Celsius. Nice in boiling Kappadokia.
Now, Goreme. Nestled in amongst the many valleys, it's a small town that exists almost only for tourists who come to see some of the best examples of homes and churches cut into the volcanic tuff anywhere in Anatolia. In all honesty, perhaps the nicest thing about Goreme was catching up with Rachel and Nick as they also take the long way home via India. Don't we all look happy?! It's nice travelling with a group, but it's really pleasant to actually catch up with people you know! We're both looking forward to seeing Anna in Zurich! Perhaps the most interesting thing we did in Goreme was attend a lecture. Well, a demonstration of sorts. The largest carpet shop in Goreme is run by a Kiwi woman who's been selling carpets in Turkey for nearly 20 years and frequently gives these demonstrations in which she outlines the things that make Turkish carpets interesting, different and unique in the carpet world. We learned about nomadic carpets (a form all but extinct), village carpets (the next one on the block to go),
The moat
Now filled in. Mostly. palace carpets, kilims, prayer rugs, donkey bags, salt bags and even more things I cannot remember. Jen and I both rather loved a huge deep purple palace carpet that unfortunately retailed at $4,000 USD. Bother. Maybe one day right? As bizarre as it might sound to some, it was a really informative and entertaining talk and we had even more fun afterwards opining on the merits of the various carpets that some of our number had decided to purchase.
Feeling thoroughly smarter we spent the afternoon strolling around the Goreme open air museum, ducking in amongst the tour groups to see some of the really stunning churches that make this region famous. The frescoes are all really well preserved and some are quite beautiful. Some of the churches are decorated in a much more primitive style and yet these are also very interesting in a completely different way. Fran noted that some of the art looked almost Aboriginal in it's style and execution. Sadly, Jen and I both came down well sick on our last day in Goreme, so we weren't able to really hike out into the valleys and get a good look at the fairy chimneys and
Us!
As if I need to prove I've been there! :) the rose coloured rocks, but I'll get some piccies from the people who did and you'll at least get an idea what it looked like - so will we!
I'll tell you something for nothing okay? The overnight train from Ankara to Istanbul is described by the Lonely Planet as the only train in Turkey worth taking. My advice - don't. Take the bus - it's quicker and probably more comfortable. It costs more, but hey, the bus service in Turkey rules! The train does have one advantage though - it arrives on the Asian side of Istanbul and one is treated to that most magnificent view of Sultanahmet as one rides the ferry over to down town. It's worth it. So since we only had one day in Istanbul and decided that given we were going to be up at stupid o'clock the following morning to fly to Budapest we'd take it pretty easy so after a long hot shower we got out and had a very light brekky we wandered down to the waterfront and leapt on a boat up the Bosphorus. Yep. All the way up to the Black Sea. It was, aside from a little
The Gothic Portico
Nicest bit of the whole castle! chilly, a fantastic boatride past some of the really great sights of Istanbul. We saw some of the city walls and forts that once defended the Bosphorus, the waterfront homes of the very wealthy of the city, a couple of stunning Byzantine churches converted into mosques and the two great bridges that join the two continents. At the Black Sea end (and it's not Black, by the way!) we visited Grizele Castle, an old Byzantine fortification that provided some stunning views of the entrance to the Bosphorus and let us to sit in the sun and admire some of the enormous boats that sailed past. For our last evening on the tour Bradley took us to a fantastic mezze restaurant in the middle of downtown Istanbul and seriously, it was like Cuba Street on acid. Magnificent. Slightly oddly we found a Marks and Spencer, a Topshop and a Gloria Jean's - not the sort of things one expects to see, but then Istanbul seems to do that a lot!
I thought I might close with some thoughts on the Middle East as a travel destination. The tour we've just been on cannot come highly enough recommended. We have visited
The most average golfer ever.
Arabic transliteration is never good, by any stretch of the imagination! some of the most brilliant places - Krak des Chevaliers, Palmyra, Damascus, Petra, Goreme and of course Istanbul - and it's been one of the most eye-opening things I've ever done. It's almost as if I knew that the way this part of the world is often portrayed was rubbish, I just had to see it for myself. We met some of the most amazing people, who were almost invariably friendly, welcoming and just plain lovely. They were always happy to help, even though we couldn't communicate by anything but pointing a lot of the time, and the people who did speak any English were really rather chatty. It was also nice not to constantly have to stop people foisting things on you the way they do in Egypt. Sadly almost everywhere we went, from Sawa Camp to Aleppo to Goreme, people told us that the tourists just don't come so much anymore. They seem to be turned off by the smallest things and foolish recommendations by governmental departments advising against travel. I think we've been in about the safest part of the world for a tourist anywhere, especially once we got into the Sinai and off the main tourist
Ahmed and the girls
I wish I could have understood all that conversation. It was mad. trails in Egypt. Maybe not on an international scale, but on a personal level it's been really pleasant. Honestly, I think that if you've ever had the urge to come here, then do and do it soon, because it won't be like this forever and who knows when it all might go to custard. Turkey especially is changing at such a rate that even the locals can't keep up with the incredible liberalisation of it's society away from the traditional conservative Muslim roots.
That's tour number two in the bag ladies and gentlemen and we made it (with our bags this time!) to Budapest as well. It's a great town, but I'm not telling you anything about that at all. Hehehehe. We're five weeks down already and I cannot believe how fast it seems to be flying past. We'll be in Greece before you know it and over the hump as it were on the way home. Highlights to look out for in the next one - Budapest, Bucharest, Brasov, Sofia and the full tour of Istanbul. The back blocks of Eastern Europe are calling. Loudly.
Hope you're all well and enjoying this little missive of mine. With
a bit of luck it means I won't bore you all stupid when we get home!
Talk soon,
Al and Jen
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Sarah
non-member comment
So jealous!
Hi guys, so great to see your piccies, but it's just giving me very itchy feet!