Petra

Jordan is synonymous with a great basketball player, an English model, an unsuccessful Formula 1 team, one of Josh's cousins and of course the Jordan–Schönflies theorem in geometric topology. But it's also home to one of the seven wonders of the modern world, Petra.

We left the house on Wednesday at 6:33am, took a car to the Jordan River/Sheik Hussein border crossing, a taxi to some town we still aren't sure of, a minibus to Amman, a taxi through Amman, and a minibus to arrive in Wadi Musa at 3:07pm.

We spent all of Thursday in the Nabataean city of Petra. The first 3 hours were spent with our excellent guide Wael Al-Sa'ad. Here he is showing us the various products which were traded by the Nabataean caravans.  

 

Before you reach the city you must pass through a narrow shaft called the Siq which helped to defend the city against invasion. Here we are at the end of the Siq with the overexposed treasury behind us.

And moments later with the Treasury, also known as Al Khazneh.

Tourists these days are not allowed inside. But here is a picture from 1938 of an archaeologist called Henry Jones Jr. on his last crusade.

Here we are getting married again in the traditional Nabataean way.

The entire site has over 500 tombs.

The amphitheatre was built by the Nabataeans based on Roman design.

One thing that we weren't prepared for was the interesting colours of the rocks. The oxidation caused all colours from turquoise, to yellow to black.  

The Romans took over Petra in the year 106 by restricting the water supply to the city. This view shows the remains of the Roman street with the Palace tomb in the background. 

We took some donkeys, or more accurately, they took us up the 800 stairs to the Monastery.

That's Yaz in the middle

Here are some dogs leading a donkey

At the end of the day we climbed to the high place of sacrifice to see everything again but from higher up.

Israel: Bicycles, Birds and Buildings

This week also saw a lot of sitting around the house, mostly because it has rained almost every day.

One afternoon we went with Eyal (Yasmin's Bro) to HaYarkon Park in the north of Tel Aviv. We saw people, trees and a Nutria.

The next day we walked along the Tel Aviv port area which is now shops, restaurants and a little market.

The highlight of our week was a visit to Agmon Hula in the super north of Israel.

As mentioned in a previous post, lots of birds stop in Israel for a rest as they migrate south for the winter.

Here are some of those birds. (Clockwise from Top-Right: Marsh Harrier, White-Throated Kingfisher, European Stonechat,  Female Mallard, Spur-Winged Lapwing & Eurasian Collared-Dove)

At the park we met Gaia (Yasmin's second cousin once removed). She works in this hut and told us about all of the birds. Later we had dinner with her in Metula which was as nice as it was north.

The blue one is a common kingfisher

 In the evening, hundreds and thousands of common cranes returned to the park to sleep. 

Behind you!!!!

A few late comers

It's getting close to the actual Odyssey, so we have finally begun making plans. Yaz even did a walking tour of Strasbourg on Google Street View.

The week finished with another great day in Tel Aviv spent with Meir (Yasmin's Parents' Friend of Over 40 Years)

We first went to the new wing of the Tel Aviv Museum. The building has a really cool design with wide open spaces but unfortunately we couldn't take a camera in.

Meir has lived in Tel Aviv his whole life and explained to us the history of the city and importantly the architecture. Here a few snaps of the buildings from the 20's and 30's which have been restored. Many are of the Bauhaus style and are preserved as a UNESCO site.

Just Another Week in the Holy Land

It's been a while since our last blog entry, mainly because we've spent a lot of time doing nothing. But here are some photos from when we went outside.

On Annouska's last day in Israel we went to the Ramat HaNadiv Memorial Gardens. 

Within the garden is a section for the blind, in which the idea is to smell the plants. 

Lia (Yasmin's mum) took us to the coast to see the migratory birds. They are on their way south (to the right of screen) for the winter.

On Friday we went for dinner in Jerusalem and stopped for the view at the Armon Hanatziv Promenade. As you can see, the sun never sets on the old city.

Andre (Yasmin's dad) keeps making us drink. This is very old Armagnac from Condom.

We went to Nazareth on Tuesday night to see Lia's sculpture in an exhibition about childhood.

Here is my creepiest photo of it.

Some boys smoking nargilleh in Nazareth.

We also paid a quick visit to the Basilica of the Annunciation. This is the site where Mary became pregnant from God (who she wasn't even married to). And that's the moon.

All throughout are mosaics of Mary presented by different countries. One of these two is from China. Can you guess which one?

 

On Thursday we took a quick trip to Megiddo, aka Armageddon. It will be the site of the end of the world, but looked very nice to us.

There are tunnels underneath, this is Josh.

It was the best of times, it was 11:11:11 11/11/11.

Finally, a collage of Yaz in the sun