A very quick shower, breakfast and we are at the ticket office by 6.30, when it opens. We want Petra to ourselves! Hahahaha we are very pragmatic people and we know it’s impossible, but at least we’ll avoid the hordes of people.

Even before you get into Petrá’s valley you start seeing carved temples.

Light plays with rock shapes.

Rising sun casts long Shadows, our early wake up is paying off, nearly nobody in the Siq, the passage way canyon you have to walk to get into Petra.

The Siq is only two kilometres long but with all the stops for pictures it takes quite a while to walk it.

No history for this post. If you want the history of Petra  get into Wikipedia.

The ultra typical picture but this time I like it more, I took it myself!

Camels resting, then they’ll start ferrying lazy tourists.

The amphitheatre matching the colours of the rest of the buildings.

Collapsed columns – As if sliced by a chainsaw

Legend has it that Samson got his strength from his hair… That cannot be true here!!

Stunning walls. The carved rocks are amazing, but the show nature produces is even better. I’d spend another one or two days walking along the different trails of Petra.

Panoramic view of the monastery.

Now.. which rock should I photograph. I’m wearing the clothes I use for the gym, don’t like how they look, but is the best for super high temperatures.

The landscape is amazing, but looking into the micro world pays back.

Amazing colours and shapes in Petra Rock.

Petra is the Greek for Rock. I wonder what the Greek for ‘Stunning’ is??

A very sad ass.. they really work them hard in extreme heat

There are not many trees, this one looks ancient.

Dermot on the ‘highplace of sacrifice’ of Petra.

I love taking self portraits!!!!

More colors.

Just about to leave, the heat has given me a headhache, I´ve drank 2 litres in the last hour. I can only thing on finding some sahed!

We’ve like Jordan, we have left the Red Sea and the desert of Wadi Rum for other time. People are very nice but they have had tourists around for too long, you always have to check prices before doing anything or maybe they try to rip you off. It’s a great country to visit, perfect to rent a car and enjoy the desert drives, and great to get a taste of the middle east.

I go back to Syria after leaving Dermot at the airport. While heading to the airport at 4:30 am we got lost, sleepy minds, bad signs and some wrong interpretations got us there 45 minutes before flight but he made it!

Another shared taxi to cross the border. The guy seems to be quite an asshole but it’s just going to be two hours so I don’t care. We cross with no incidents apart from the fact that he fell asleep driving. I saw he was tired so didn’t stop to pay attention to him, I saw how his head fell over the steering weel and a shouting insult in Spanish came from the inside of me produced by an instant deep hate. When we arrived I got my backpack and didn’t even say good bye, didn’t wanted to see his face again.

It’s 9 a.m. sky is blue. I’m back in Damascus, I’ll probably walk to the souq to have that amazing ice-cream again. I’m happy with myself.

Fernando

Crossing the border I had the welcome sign.

When I went to Podgorica, in Montenegro, I thought it was the ugliest capital on earth. Now I think it´s Amman. Concrete over concrete, disorganized, dirty…

In Amman I’m here just one day, waiting for Dermot who has come to visit for three days. We have rented a car to do as much as we can in just these days. It turned out to be a great idea since we have enjoyed the driving a lot and have been able to do everything we wanted.

It´s been very intersting going through Syria and Jordan, they are both Arabic contries with Muslim majorities, before them I had been in some Muslim balkan countries and Turkey that were Muslim but not Arabic. All is a bit different. The most obvious is the clothing, however many dress in western clothes now. The way of thinking is different too, probably further from the west than the other Muslim countries I´ve been. Here there´s an exception, the Christians I met in Syria were very western thinking and maybe this is because the west has some meaning of Christianity or at least of non-Muslim… we´ll keep thinking about this while travelling.

“And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo” (Deuteronomy 34:1) Where Moses was supposedly shown the ‘Promised Land’ by God. Not far is the place where Jesus is supposed to have been baptised.

If I’d be there with Moses after crossing the desert for weeks and he tells me that this arid place is the promise land I think I’d beat him. What a dissapointment. In support of Moses I have to say that this area was not as arid as it is now.

A dam and reservoir to store a very scarce commodity. WATER! We are going south to Petra, but instead of driving in the boring, and fast, desert highway we are going by the kings highway.

Relaxing in the Mountain Side Café. This bedouin had taken sofas up to the top of a hill where the kings highway goes, you have shade and all you want to drink with a stunning view. He had a funny Texan accent as he used to work for the Jordan army and stayed there for nine months.

The loo and its view amazed me!!!!!

We visited a crusader’s castle It had four floors! It could be a topic for a separated post to talk about what was the real mission of the crusades. Under the religious banner some historians add economical and imperialism reasons. The photo is pretty bad but I wanted to tell this little bit with some context.

Salt line on the rocks from the Dead Sea.

Floating in the Dead Sea. Don’t swallow it or get the salt in your eyes… it hurts a lot. The taste is alot worse than what I thought.

Canyon in the shade

We drove over 700 kilometers in this tiny country.

Sunset over the Dead Sea with Israel in the background. Pay attention to the colour of the water, doesn´t it look kind of metal? When you look at the water you can see how it has “something” floating, it´s not homogeneous.

No green to be seen anywhere. Brown and harsh landscape.

About to enter into Petra, but we´ll tell you about this long and hot day in the next post.

Petra´s pictures are coming on quite well. We are looking foward to post them.

Dermot & Fernando

On the road to Palmyra we see various potassium processing plants. In Syria most of this kind of business is owned by the government

Signs to Bagdad, we are not far from Iraq. The desert has many trucks, roads and hamsters, they are originally from here.

These first pictures are from the sunset on the day we came. We stayed in the Zenobia hotel, name of a Palmyra queen. From the hotel we can see the ruins(nearly as in the picture) as Agatha Christy saw them when she stayed here with her archaeologist  husband. Once she said that the good thing of having an archaeologist as a husband is that the older you are the more he likes you.

Palmyra is a mix of styles from all the cultures that came through here.

“Tadmor” was the old name, it meant “the wonder”.

I’m not sure how I saw him.

In the background the Tetrapylon, for columns formed by for pillars. Only one of them is of the original pink marble, the rest are glueish things done by archaeological restorations of the 60s. Here I have to say something that may be a bit polemic. This thing of ruins being beautiful or not depends very often on the level of restoration. Even this restoration from the 60’s is an outrage archeologically speaking, it makes the ruins look more beautiful. If nothing was restored then everything would be flat and trying to imagine how the ruins were would be difficult. On the other hand if the ruins are over-restored it’s not fun either as you don’t believe anything and it looks like a theme park. Palmyra has reached a good balance, maybe these 60s restorations were not that bad.

On top the Saladin castle.

The sun is about to disappear leaving a silhouette of a ruined funeral tower.

Palmyra became important as an oasis when it became a stop between Mesopotamia and Arabia and also being an important stop on the silk road from China to Europe. Before Palmira existed the caravans had to go around hundreds of kilometres to the north, through greener and cooler places , as far as Turkey and reaching Istanbul by land or getting a freighter to a Mediterranean port. The location of the Oasis of Palmyra greatly reduced the transportation time and therefore attracted many merchants that then changed their routes.

It’s existence is known since the second century BC, but it’s peak coincided with the Roman empire. Rome decide to keep it as an independent city. The Romans also defeated the Nabataeans(in Jordan) in the south which meant Palmira received a lot of the traffic that was going through Petra. (I can’t wait! I’ll be there in just a few days!).

How could all this be built? Same as we were saying about the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, spending a lot of money. Palmyra was so important, and independent, they spent a lot of tax money on building it. It was a service city with taxes for caravans, for each camel, horse, the use of water, there was a charge for any activity performed in the town, even for the practice of prostitution.

Sunrise in Palmira. The sun that will melt us later at 44 degrees is rising.

A sunrise is always more intimate than a sunset, there’s less people, or nobody like in this case. At 4.45 the alarm clock rings, that sound when it’s for work is a horror but when it sounds to go to see something beautiful seems to sound different.

Yes, maybe I’ve published too many pictures… I just couldn´t choose!

I’m feeling good, Palmyra is just for me in this private sunrise. This is a real luxury, a place like this for oneself.

Palmira has charged to see it’s “treasures” for 200 years.

The sun lights up the mist, the columns seems to emerge from it. The light hurts my eyes but I want to keep looking.

You can’t just leave Palmyra without seeing some of it’s dozens of tombs that surround the old city. They had several floors with a lot of sarcophagus by floor, some had a place for 300 bodies. They may be less photogenic than the ruins of the city but maybe more interesting. Later on they started to hide the tombs underground.

I like the colour of the camel’s kilim.

Qasr al-Heir al-Sharqi are two castles one in front of the other. Here is probably where the expression “in the middle of nowhere” was invented.

The other Fernando Ayuso of the trip waving to the camera.

Rasafa castle with 550 meters by 400 in the walls. There’s not much left.

This picture would mean nothing if the water wouldn’t be from the Euphrates river. From the Qala’at Ja’abra  castle, where the picture was taken, you cant see the end of al-Assad reservoir as it is 80 kilometres long. Years ago the Euphrates river is estimated to have been seven times bigger. When I saw it I realized why it had so much importance in history, the water always bring food, progress and civilization.

Overlooking the water we eat an Euphrates fish with biblical flavour

With this we finished the visit to Syria. My father has loved it, he says he’ll come back. He’s flying back home next day and I’ll go to Jordan to swim in the Dead sea.

After Jordan I’ll have to come back north to Syria and Turkey to go to Georgia, so I’ll tell you some conclusions when I’m back.

See you soon!

Fernando

Seventh century, after days in the desert rationing water, not being able to have a shower, under the heat, smelling like a camel and seeing nothing but a horizon dirtied with dust you arrive to Damascus.You leave the caravan in a safe place and after having a bath in the Hamman you go for a walk to wind down. The alleys, with no choice, take you  to the Umayyad mosque, the exterior impresses you but once you go through one of the doors you have no breath. Khaled Ibn Al-Walid created it with one premise: “A mosque that has no equal and one which was never designed by anyone before me or after me”.

Imagine spending seven years of taxes from all the country, this is what the Caliphs(Islamic figure similar to the pope) did. He brought to Damascus thousands of artisans from Egypt, Byzantium, and Persia, chose the best Muslims or Christians, covered the walls with mosaics, hung 600 gold lamps, made antique columns and collected tons of lead to cover the roof. Ten years the work lasted and what rose up was a mosque that became the most espectacular. Isn´t seven years of tax it a bit too much? Couldn´t they have spent the money in the poor people? After all it is one of the five pilars of Islam:”giving of alms”.

There’s a head collection inside. Well, is small, but it’s like a small collection, they have Saint John Baptist that is a very well considered character for Muslims. They also have Saladin’s head. I imagine a shelf with the heads in small urns with the name under it kind of like heads in Futurama.

It has three minarets. The tradition says that in one of them is where Jesus will appear on the day of the Final Judgement. I can imaging him up there with his ultra white tunic, in the background a thunderous sky, violent wind whirlpools, grey clouds full of lightning never seen before, the hair all messy by the wind, a halo of light around his head, people down in the patio, most frightened for the sins they committed, waiting for their moment. The idea of the Judgment Day is a bit tragic, isn’t it?. Christianity has a benevolent good so I don’t really think it would be like this.

One of the things I like about mosques is that it is not only a praying place. It’s a place to retire, to rest in the hot hours of the middle east. The shade, the fountains, the silence make it an ideal place to rest.

Not all is rest, the mosque is like a recreational park for children, they play, slide, chase each other, there is no traffic. It makes the perfect place for them. The Christian churches are more of a distant place, silent, supreme respect, a place with no interaction with less relationship with the people.

Damascus is the place that has been inhabited non stop for the longest time. There is evidence from 5000 BC and has gone thought a lot of things during this time. Here has been the Mameluks, the Nabataeans, the Romans preferred to destroy it and built Bosra more to the south(I talked to you about it in the previous post). During the Umayyad with the caliphates it got to it’s zenith by becoming the capital of Muslim. It suffered crusaders attacks and with Saladin, Damascus re-emerged again. The merchant offered Chinese porcelains, spices, ivory… It silks were well known in all European courts. The French controlled Damascus and the country for 35 years, but it’s stay is anecdotic only some greetings are kept.

In the year 1400 Tamerlane(Turk-Mongol leader of the 14th century) set it on fire for three days bringing with him the surviving artisans to Samarkand, he also collected artisans from many other places, in two months I’ll see what Tamerlane achieved there. I have great expectations, it is one fo the most significant places of this trip.

If you come get lost into the Christian, the Muslim and Jewish neighbourhoods, each half open door will show you an amazing patio with fountains and plants. Some of the best houses have been converted into restaurants or hotels.

This is waht you see looking up in the old city, you always have shade so it´s a bit more fresh.

The locals call it “Cham” that means facial beauty, maybe this is why it’s in the UNESCO list.

Water melon getting cold in a fountain in a patio.

Christians have the life a bit difficult here as the law is run under Muslim rules and it is a conservative country. As an example, if a women is pregnant and not married she could end up in jail.

In the hotels you can knock on the door and take a look. they are old rehabilitated houses, some as this Talisman Hotel have many luxurious things that you can imagine, even a pool. It worth getting into all of them.

In a house in the Jewish area we saw the studio of the Syrian sculptor Mustafa Ali, it´s kind of his exibition place as well as a cultural center. That night there  was a Syrian-Brazilian band playing.

Since 2002 a lot of Spanish tourists are coming as the Spanish royalty came to visit and it was shown on the telly. I’m very surprised that an appearance like this can involve so many visitors. Seems that the Syrians like Spanish people, when I tell them where I’m from they always smile. Specially now after winning the world cup. They congratulate me, even though I did nothing.  I didn’t even see the final!

Damascus is strategically situated on the commercial route from Bagdad to the Mediterranean, also the routes from the Caspian see. In the museum of the city, ancient silks from China can be seen. If this wouldn’t be enough, Damascus(and Aleppo) is situated on the way to Mecca for the millions of Muslim Turks, this has brought a huge amount of people over the centuries. One of the people that came through here was Mahomet himself refusing to go into the city because he said “I want to get into paradise only once”.

The souq with the caravan stops. Time leave it’s mark.

A local sweet so my dad can try it. He nearly finished it all! I had to rush to try it.

The modern city with five million inhabitants The modern city extends for miles into the foothills of Jibal Lubnan Ash Sharqiyen mountains. These mountains are also full of history, here Cain and Abel are supposed to have fought and Abraham hid in a cave, the biblical presence is constant.

After Damascus there’s less of Syria to visit. The days with my father have been very busy as we had to use the time in the right way for the short visit. I’m writing this after he left. We are going to Palmira, one for those wonders that exist in the world and that is totally worth a visit. From Syria we only have good feelings. They told me in Turkey: “good people”, and it’s not normal from neighbours to talk well about the country next to you.

A stop on the way, a traditional house made of adobe. Many Bedouins are not nomadic any more and they settle for at least a few months. Some start cafes on the most common roads.

Syran desert has no sand as the one in Sahara. On the back a bedouine tent.

Palmira’s post is nearly ready I’ll tell you about very soon.
Fernando

A very quick post to tell you what Bosra is. I don’t have much time working as sub-guide. It is a challenge making a “father” feel good in a Muslim country and it requires nearly all my energy so I can’t spend that much time in the blog.

Coming back to Bosra, which is the topic of the day. There was a moment in Turkey I was a bit bored of Roman ruins and I was very close to not go and see “another“ ruins in Syria. The curiosity convinced me and I’m glad I did it. It would have been a pity missing Bosra. The further I go from Rome, the more Roman settlements I visit, the more I realize how impressively powerful the empire was. In February I was in Rome, it’s July and I still walk in it’s territory, this was the roman region of Arabia and Bosra was its capital in the 2nd century.

The main reason to come here is to see the theatre , it would be nearly impossible to be preserved any better. It’s only two hours driving south of Damascus nearly at the border with Jordan. The theatre has the peculiarity that it’s done with Basalt, a very strong volcanic rock of the area, that gives it the dark colour.

The city next to it is also built on basalt and has all the things the Roman cities have, the public baths, the agora, the columns… There are two enormous cisterns that received the water by an underground aqueduct from the mountains 30 kilometres away.

The desert covered the the city in sand for centuries making possible the great conservation of 70 years ago when it was found. The sand preserved the ruins from the weather and humans leaving them as they are now. Saladin fortified the theatre defending the city from the crusades and Mongols.

Church on the way back to Damascus, our base. Also in basalt and prepared for a wedding.

What a better way to finish the day than tasting the local bear? The truth? It’s pretty bad. The most similar to a real beer is the Lebanese one. Lebanon also has good red wine. Well Lebanon must be a very cool country everybody here talks about how great it is. I’ll have to leave it for another trip though.

The next post will be about Damascus. The city that once was the most important in Islam when religion was at its height. We’ll see what we find!

See you soon.
Fernando

I’ve been in Maalula, north of Damascus. Here Aramaic is still spoken, and it sounds so remote I want you to hear it, is like hearing an echo of a language that star Ted 3000 years ago and that has been sounding until now.

Click to hear a pray in Aramaic language: Arameo(may be slow).

The first day my Father was in Damascus we went to the National Museum, we took a guide that spoke in Spanish and the museum was the right place to start. We went through all the Syrian history from the beginning to the end and we had a contest on how much we would see in Damascus and the country for the remaining the days.

The most fascinating objects  are the ones that have something written in Aramaic. Seems unbelievable that there is still something of a language that is so old, the language that Jesus Christ spoke.

From these fascinating and intriguing objects, the much more amazing thing is a six centimetre stone on which is written the first alphabet ever. It is the first time that instead of writing sounds “ce”, “be”, “to”… that consonants have been independent from the vowels. Whoever did it had to be an extremely intelligent person to be able to abstract the sounds and divide them, in one side the consonants and in other the vowels, then complete the sounds of the consonants.  I’ve been impressed thinking on the proccess it took to reach this.

About the Arameic, there has been created an Aramaic Institute, until now it’s a language passed from generation to generation in a speaking way by the Maalula people and other villages. In the Institute they want to teach how it’s written so it’s not lost.

I think it wont get lost, it has proved that it is a survivor.

I leave you today so you can come back to the modern world, try not to think that anything we do is difficult that it will last 3000 years or that is as important as inventing the alphabet.

See you soon.
Fernando