Day Eleven

May 25, 2007

Today we got wake-up calls at 1:30 am. We left for Mt. Sinai at 2:15 am. It was pitch black in the desert. We were going to climb up to the top of Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise over the top of the other mountains.
Present day Mt. Sinai, in the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt), is where Moses is thought to have climbed the mountain and seen the burning bush, and later received the Ten Commandments. It is a treacherous mountain, not like the one presented in the movie The Ten Commandments. Over the centuries, many worshipers of God have placed steps going up the steep mountain (I shouldn’t call them steps, as they are multi-shaped rocks, placed in a tolerable order); it was a dangerous hike.
The plan was to ride camels up the first 2/3 of the trip, which was a man-made trail that the camels could handle, and then go the last 800 steps (non-steps) up to the summit. We wanted to get there in time to see the sunrise over the mountains.
It was chaos getting to the camels. The Bedouin guides were arguing vociferously with one-another (in Arabic) over who was going to lead our group. Our Egyptian guide told us to follow him to the camels, and not to get grabbed by one of the other aggressive guides. As we were walking through this crowd of Bedouins, camels and tourists, the guides kept grabbing our hands and trying to separate us from the group. We did not lose anyone, but one of us was left alone on top of her camel, in the dark, for about a half-hour, until she finally demanded that her guide leave his other riders and get her back to the group, although we really didn’t have a group going up the mountain. Instead, we were separated into groups of three riders and camels, and one Bedouin guide for each group of three. My camel’s name was Whiskey and this was not comforting to me. I later found out that several of the 300 camels that go up the mountain are named Whiskey. Maybe that’s because you would have to be either drunk or a religious fanatic to do something so crazy. I was a religious fanatic wishing I were drunk for this experience.
Riding a camel up the side of a mountain in the dark was at once both the most exhilarating and painful experience I have had for a long time; exhilarating because the air was cold, the profile of the surrounding mountains was visible in the starlight, the Milky Way band of stars was as visible as I have ever seen it across the sky, my camel seemed to have had a preference for walking as close to the edge of the trail as possible (perhaps he wanted me to have a more exciting view), and the thought that you were possibly following in the fateful steps of Moses, it was an extraordinary feeling. It was painful because a camel saddle cannot be sat in without absolutely crushing one’s groin; it has two horns that you wedge between and no stirrups for your feet, to support your weight. Really all of your weight rests on your groin. I don’t know how camel riders have done it over the centuries. Perhaps the Arabic custom of one man being able to marry several women is because most of the other men were sterile from riding camels all of the time (ha).
The remaining 800 steps up the mountain were exhausting and treacherous, especially in the dark; we had to use our flashlights to guide our steps on the rocks.
The summit was wonderful, the sun came up right on time, the air immediately began to warm, and we stripped off our jackets and began the long climb down. Our group decided to forego the camel ride on the way back down, opting for a climb down the roughly 4,000 treacherous steps down the side of the mountain. I’ll say this; Moses must have been in shape!
My legs felt like rubber about 2/3 the way down. We had no choice, however, but to keep plugging, step after step. The views on this alternative path were breathtaking, making the painful walk more that worth it. Every now and then coming down we would have to stop walking, and looking at our feet, in an effort to behold the scenery. All in all, it was once again a terrific day, one that I will never forget.

Me and my camel, Whiskey
Waiting for the sunrise atop Mt Sinai
View from the top of Mt Sinai
Sunrise from atop Mt Sinai
The start of 4,000 steps down
We made it all the way down
Mt Sinai from the bottom
The beautiful Red Sea

Day Ten

May 24, 2007

Today was a travel day so there is not really much to report. We went to the southern tip of Jordan, to the city of Aqaba, a port on the Red Sea. From there, we took a 2 1/2 hour ferryboat ride to the southern side of the Sinai Peninsula. The water of the Red Sea was crystal clear with hundreds of blue shadings. We went to bed early in preparation for our 2:00 am departure to climb up Mt Sinai, early enough to see the sunrise over the mountains from the top of the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments. We noticed that the Sinai (Egyptian) desert is much sandier and rocky than either the Syrian or Jordanian deserts. There is little-to-no plant life in most of the area. It would have been a horrible place to be wandering in the desert for 40 years. I don’t know how the Israelites did it.


The desert of Sinai
The Red Sea

Day Nine

May 23, 2007

Today we experienced Petra!! You have all seen nuggets of Petra—Raiders of the Lost Ark was filmed here. The sandstone rock formations in Petra, Jordan should be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In fact, there is a voting campaign in progress to make it so. Over hundreds of thousands of years the strong winds mixed with sand, and the flash floods across the sandstone rock has formed the most beautiful, and colorful rock formations imaginable.
Surrounded by the mountain peaks of the Trans-Jordan Rift, the ancient city of Petra was built by the Nabateans, who inhabited the mountains of central Jordan, at around the time of Christ. They made most of the carvings in the multicolored rock walls. The Romans took over the area in the late 1st century, and realizing the awesome beauty of the city, paved many of the roads with large rectangular rocks, a common Roman motif.
There was a one-kilometer walk down sand trails to get to the Seek (gorge), narrow passageways which are 100-200 feet deep in the mountain. The walking trails are at the bottom of those gorges, as is the ground level of all of the carved stone monuments. The first quite recognizable building carved into the rock walls is the temple/treasury building. This is the main scene from the Indiana Jones movie. It was an absolutely incredible carving.
A little past the temple is the start of 850+ stair walk up to the top of the mountain. I use the word “stair” quite loosely here. Actually, they are slanted, sandy rocks, of varying, shapes, sizes, heights, widths, and angles. It was not a walk for the faint-of-heart. It took a couple of hours of walking up steps, around ledges (overlooking 500-1000 foot drop-offs), and along dusty trails.
We walked along a sandy road to another Seek that has, at its top the monastery, and surprisingly, the Queen’s (of Jordan) jewelry shop. It was interesting to see the number of elderly ladies making the treacherous climb, presumably to get to the tent-covered jewelry shop at the top. What really amazed me was that the little shack on top of the mountain took Visa. I won’t say that I bought Linda something there—I may want to surprise her—but I did use my Visa card on that mountain.
There was a donkey-ride vendor hawking rides up the last half-mile trek to the monastery. Edward, Larry, and I had somehow separated from the group—we were, in Larry’s words “snorkeling, not speed boating, through the water”. We were proceeding slowly enough to see the beauty around us. Anyway, we had no intention of riding the donkeys, but as we kept ignoring the vendor his price kept going down—it started at ten dollars a person and finally went down to three dollars. We decided to take the ride to catch up to the rest of the group.
Riding the donkeys (who only understood Arabic commands) was a hilarious adventure. Larry tried to take pictures of Edward and I riding the donkeys, while he was riding his donkey. On the other hand, I was holding on for my life. Edward, the youngest member of our group, and Kuwaiti in origin, looked like Clint Eastwood riding in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He was at home in the saddle. I looked like I was sitting atop a large slippery pyramid. And to add to that, about a third of the way up the mountain, we came to more stairs (ha-ha) up the mountain. I was not about to ride an Arabic speaking donkey up narrow, uneven, sand-covered steps while overlooking several-hundred foot drop-offs. Certainly I trusted the donkey’s sure footing, his strength and his skill (and besides, we saw lots of donkey poop on the trail); what I didn’t trust was his motivation—I figured he might be tempted, at some point, to fire his heavy load (me) down into the canyon. Really, how much do you want to trust a donkey? I had reached my limit. We dismounted and humbly walked up the rest of the way to the monastery. The donkey vendor, however, kept all of our money.
We ended our day by going to the hotel pool (our first chance for swimming on the trip). The huge pool patio overlooked a expansive valley with the mountains of Petra all along the horizon. It was the most beautiful view from a pool that I have ever seen. I will include a picture in tomorrow’s blog. The water was ice-cold—I think it was colder that the beer I drank while standing in the pool, seriously!
It was a long day. We climbed rocks from about 9:00 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon. My legs were looking for a lawyer because of my abusive treatment of them this day. It was a day that I will never forget! Thanks to God.

The Seek (gorge) in Petra
The temple/treasury in Petra
Petra
Raiders of the Lost Arc scene
900 steps up
Getting closer to the top
Near the top
Hey, this is getting heavy!
Blooming where you are planted
The monastery at the top
A memorial tomb, note the man in white
Our pool with a great view

Day Eight

May 22, 2007

Today was a long day of bus travel, from the northern Jordanian town, and capital city, of Amman, through the Jordan River Valley and across the desert to Petra Jordan. We will be visiting the ancient city of Petra tomorrow. Along the way today we stopped at the city of Madaba, a town mentioned several times in the Old Testament. Madaba contains a 19th-century Greek Orthodox church that was built around the remains of a 6th-century church. Among the remains of the earlier church is a mosaic floor that provides one of the earliest maps of the Bible lands. The craftsmanship is beautiful.
Our second stop was at Mount Nebo (also called Pisgah) where Moses looked over the Dead Sea and the Jordan River seeing for the first time the promised land. From the top of that mountain, we could see the same things, although our view was a little misty; in the distance we could barely see Jericho. What is amazing is the incredibly mountainous terrain from our site and the thought that the children of Israel crossed that area as a group.
Going south of the Dead Sea, we went into the land of Moab, where the Moabites live. There we visited the town of Kerak, the location of the crusader-built castle, now called Castle Kerak. The castle was built by French crusaders in the early 12th century, only to be taken over by the Muslims some 50 years later. Saladin led a Muslim army against the castle finally because the crusaders continually raided Muslim caravans passing through this important trade route. As the story is told, the last caravan to be attacked contained Saladin’s niece, prompting him to finally do something about the crusader influence in the area.
Tomorrow we will be hiking 4 miles (mostly uphill) through the ancient city of Petra, the site of filming for the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” movie. Some of the scenes will be familiar.

Castle Kerak on the left
Floor mosaic in Madaba
Moses' view into the promised land
Overlooking the Transjordan Rift

Day Seven

May 21, 2007

Today we visited Jerash, Jordan. Jerash is a well-known biblical site, mentioned many times in the Bible. For example, it is mentioned as the place of the Wadi Jabbok, the riverbed where Jacob wrestled with God.
Jerash contains the largest Roman archaeological ruin site in the world. It was constructed at the time of the Emperor Hadrian, in the 1st century A.D. It was simply amazing. It contained Hadrian’s arch, the Hippodrome (where chariot races and gladiator competitions took place), an oval marketplace, a theater and a temple; all of this separated by hundreds of Roman columns and limestone paved streets.
The temperature was very hot today, but with the low humidity, it did not seem too bad. We stopped at the Green Valley Restaurant where I had the absolute best pita bread (with poppy seeds sprinkled liberally on top) that I have ever eaten. I ate so much it was embarrassing. What can I say? I liked it.
Tomorrow we will drive through the Jordan river valley on our way to Petra. We will be traveling all day.
Jerash, the city built around the ruins
A column top in Jerash
Emperor Hadrian's Arch in Jerash
It's pita not pizza!
Roman oval market place in Jerash
The Roman theatre in Jerash
The sun behing a column
The Roman hyppodrome in Jerash
The Wadi Jabbok, where Jacob wrestled with God

Day Six

May 20, 2007

We were on the road all day today through the desert going through Syria and into Jordan, where we will spend the night in Irbid, just over the Jordanian border. The border crossing took quite a long time. At the crossing I wanted to cash $100 in traveler’s checks. They said there would be a fee of 70% for the service; they were going to give me back $30. I told them “la shukron” (no thank you).

90 Kilometers to Iraq

Day Five

May 19, 2007

This morning we left Hama, Syria, the fourth largest city in Syria, which is some forty miles from the Mediterranean Sea. Hama is within the Fertile Crescent, an downward shaping arc goes around the northern edge of the Shamiyeh desert. The Fertile Crescent is basically located on or near the waterways in the region, the Mediterranean and the Euphrates River. It arcs from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq, then northward around the desert, then back to the south alone the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, and then into northern Egypt. It was obvious to us that outside the Fertile Crescent area is nothing but desert.
Palmyra is along the ancient trade route that crossed the desert, making a straight line from the Mediterranean to the Iraq. It was in its heyday at the time of Christ. The trade route changed when the town was devastated by the Mongols in the late 13th century, and then later abandoned under the Ottoman Empire. Some of the ruins at Palmyra are nearly 4,000 years old. The Palmyra area contains the largest ruin field in the world.
On the road to Palmyra we could see the dramatic shift in the environment, from lush vegetation, to sporadic vegetation, to rocky desert. It happens very quickly, within 45 minutes. In the desert we came within 90 miles of Baghdad. We stopped at the “Bagdad” Café, a small partially-tent structure in the middle of nowhere. It is owned and run by Bedouins, who hand-make beautiful jewelry. I was talking to one of the young Bedouin traders, and wanted to buy something, but had unfortunately not been able to cash a traveler’s check anywhere in Syria. They wouldn’t cash traveler’s checks even at the best hotels in Damascus. I said to him “My friend, you do not take traveler’s checks here, do you?” He gave me a puzzled look, and replied, “Sir, we Bedouins . . . we in desert! We both had a good laugh.
We had an amazing time walking through the ruins. When you see the size of the limestone and granite columns and ponder the construction techniques involved in raising the huge stone beams fifty feet into the air, you get a real appreciation for the magnitude of the efforts made by previous Syrians, especially when you imagine what the original structures looked like. It boggles the mind.
When the provincial governor heard of our visiting his territory, he offered us a private invitation to the Festival of Syrian History, expressed in dance, the final performance of which was to be given in the ancient Roman-style open theatre in the ruins, the evening we were there. We were delighted to attend. The performance was at night; it was the best dance troupes of the entire country of Syria. There were magnificent lighting effects on the ancient stone stage background. The costumes were unbelievable and the dancers were spectacular. It was an extraordinary event, one which I will never forget.
Before the show, we went up to the Arab Castle, on top of the mountain overlooking the Palmyran ruins. All-in-all, it was another extraordinary day.

The Palmyra ruin field
The world's largest ruin field
A BIG gravemarker
Just holding things together
Palmyra Ruins
Palmyra ruins and the Arab Castle
The Baghdad Cafe

Day Four

May 18, 2007

Last night we stayed at the Al Amad hotel overlooking the valley and opposite of the castle, Carc de Chevaliers. One energetic member of our group suggested that we might want to walk up to the castle in the morning, a four-mile walk uphill. Everyone agreed with his lively suggestion. I decided to put the matter before the Lord, ha. I prayed that if God wanted me to wake up early and walk up that mountain, for God to wake me up a half-hour before my alarm. I woke up many times last night, but never close to the time of my alarm. You could not have opened my eyelids with a pair of needlenose pliers when the time came. So I decided that God did not want me to walk up the mountain. For many the walk was horrible; Allen, Larry and I, on the other hand, had a refreshing ride up the mountain. Gee, weren’t we smart.
The castle was built in approximately 1000 AD. It was originally built by the Crusaders and was only taken by an enemy one time. A large Moslem army convinced the Christian occupiers that the Pope had made peace with the Moslems and that they should open the doors—they were no longer at war. Once the doors were open, the Moslems sent the Crusaders home telling them never to come back. Looking at the castle from the base, it is easy to see why it was never overtaken; it is truly a fortress.

Carc de Chevaliers
Castle entrance tunnel
Carc de Chevaliers
The top of the castle

Day Three

May 17, 2007

It did something truly unbelievable in Damascus today—IT RAINED AGAIN, but not enough to slow us down. We went first to the National Museum of Syria and saw among many other things, one of the major archeological finds of the last century, a small clay carving of the Ugaritic alphabet, giving archeologists and historians insight into the language and history of Syria, and thus, civilization.
We left Damascus and took a one-hour drive to the scenic mountain village of Maaloula. The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Sergis sits on top of the mountain overlooking the village. The church was constructed in the 4th century AD and is the oldest active Christian church. Maaloula is one of the few areas where Aramaic is still spoken. A woman from the St. Sergis church quietly said the Lord’s Prayer for our group. There was something very special about sitting in the oldest Christian church and hearing for the first time in my life the Lord’s Prayer spoken in the language of its first utterance.
The other important site in Maaloula is the Monastery of St. Thecla, who was a student of St. Paul’s and a female apostle according to the Coptic tradition. The monastery, which is carved into the side of the mountain, was constructed in the 1st century AD and is now the home of a Covenant of St Thecla (nuns).
The elevation of Maaloula is 4800 above sea level. The views are magnificent. There are caves in the side of every mountain and the houses seem to be extensions of the caves into the modern era.


Maaloula, Syria
Maaloula, Syria
Maaloula, Syria
Maaloula, Syria

View of Maaloula from St Sergis Church
The Shrine to St Thecla
The trail of St Tecla