Sand, Camels and Highrises: The Arabian Peninsula

“Auto racing is boring except when a car is going at least 172 miles per hour upside down.”-Dave Barry

Having spent the last four days moving about the Arabian Peninsula, we are now enjoying a day at sea. It gives us time to empty the sand of various colors out of our shoes, and get a bit of rest before the next phase of our trip. With three weeks in the Middle East behind us, we’ve seen some interesting variations in ways of life and situations of people.

This past week, as we visited several spots in the United Arab Emirates, as well as Qatar and Bahrain, we’ve seen a great deal of wealth, almost all of which is new and dizzying. These countries have not even existed for that long. What are now the nations of this region had long been protectorates or possessions of Great Britain, which exited at the start of the 1970s. Qatar and Bahrain had entered talks with what was then the Trucial States (now UAE) for confederation, but the deal fell apart when Bahrain pulled out. Qatar and Bahrain became independent countries in 1971, and the UAE was formed under a kind of federalist system from the seven Trucial States.

Oil is the main source of wealth of the region, but most have branched out into other arenas. Dubai, the best known of the emirates, has become a center of international trade. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, has taken up banking and finance, an interesting twist given the Islamic prohibition on charging or earning interest. Nevertheless, the financial institutions have found ways to function without involving themselves in interest. Qatar’s economy is based around natural gas (it holds nearly 6% of the world’s reserves). It also is the home of the growing TV network Al Jazeera.

Bahrain

After leaving Dubai (covered in my last entry), our next stop was Bahrain. The Lonely Planet guidebook called Doha, Qatar “the dullest place on earth” but if our visit was at all representative, I believe that title belongs to Bahrain. The name Manama, the nation’s capital and the place where we visited, means “sleeping place.” Yup, that’s about right. Though, seriously, it obtained that name from the astonishing number of burial mounds occupying this island. In fact, some 5% of the country’s land is occupied by burial tombs--more than 100,000 burial mounds nationwide. It seemed that every bit of land not occupied by buildings was a collection of what looked like gigantic ant hills. These were the mounds. We were told that many of the buildings had been constructed over mounds—if people want to live and work in this country, they really have no choice.

Bahrain was the first place on the Arabian side of the Gulf where oil was discovered, which came just at the point where the pearl industry had collapsed. The wealth shows in the same way Dubai's does: lots and lots of construction, primarily of highrises.

Part of our visit here was a drive partway out on the King Fahd Causeway that connects Bahrain & Saudi Arabia. It was finished in 1986 and cost US$1.2 billion. We went up into an observation tower at the border point, and got a decent view over Saudi Arabia, as well as over the several-mile backup of trucks waiting to be inspected for entry into Saudi Arabia. Kind of like what the U.S. land border might look like if 100% inspection went into effect.

That evening, the ship treated all passengers to a trip to the Formula One speedway, where we partied in the Sheik’s VIP guest tower and watched a racing demonstration. As we entered the women had to opportunity to get a henna tattoo. I now have one going down my lower arm and onto my hand. It’s temporary—I’m told it will fade in a few weeks, but it’s a fun decoration for now and, best of all, involved no needles in having it applied. These tattoos apparently are a wedding tradition in the area: one guide on a later trip asked me if I’d been recently married.

Qatar

Our visit to Doha, Qatar, turned out to be pretty interesting, Lonely Planet notwithstanding. We visited a Sheik’s private museum, which contained all sorts of collections, ranging from ancient fossils (we’re talking 200 million years old here) to currency (we saw bills issued by the city of Savannah, Georgia, Iranian bills with pictures of a young and older Shah, and many other colorful currencies that nationals of the countries in question had never seen), to weaponry, to old cars. My favorite among the latter was a motorcycle that had belonged to Lawrence of Arabia—presumably, not the one he was killed on, as it was in pristine condition.

We then visited a camel race track, which was fascinating. No races were going on, but we did watch the camels being exercised and trained. Camel racing is a major sport of the elite here. As Islam prohibits gambling, the government provides for a prize purse instead, with prizes running in the equivalent of millions of dollars. It would have to be fairly rewarding—a good racing camel costs about $2million.

The camel jockeys used to be young boys, but it was found bad for their health, and so the practice was stopped. Instead, now, they use robots as jockeys. The robots are small and often brightly colored. They even wear caps. They’re operated by remote control, by which their trainers operate whips to get the camels to move faster. There is only a very small grandstand area at the camel race track. This is because very few spectators sit in the stands. Instead, they get in cars and follow the camels around the track, using a parallel track meant for cars. It was on this track that we stood to watch the training process.

Most of the camels came by in tight racing packs, but there was one adolescent camel who came prancing by at his own pace. When he saw the audience, he turned into a ham, and flirted and played to the audience. He was utterly charming and had us all laughing.

Qatar was memorable for one other thing, I’m afraid: its immigration process. There was a great deal of confusion about what kind of visa would be needed for the U.S. citizens. Beth and I had obtained our visas in advance, others pre-requested visas and had them waiting, still others obtained visas on the spot. None of these factors was a predictor of how easy or difficult immigration clearance would be. I sailed through; Beth with the same visa was tangled up for a while. Some with no visas also sailed, while others were held up. It was the longest clearing of immigration I’ve ever seen from a cruise ship. Thank heavens ours is a relatively small ship—heaven knows what they’d do with a mega-liner.

This hassle probably cost the merchants of Doha some income. A number of people came back to the ship in early afternoon, and would have gone out again to do some shopping, but decided against it because they didn’t want further immigration tangles. An object lesson for the U.S. (interestingly, a number of USCs on the ship refused to believe that Qatari citizens often receive similar or worse treatment by U.S. immigration officials).

One interesting thing about the immigration inspectors—they were all women and all fully or near fully veiled. This was one of the few places we’d seen local (as opposed to expat) women in jobs, and the only one with them in government jobs. We were told that this is because the majority of college graduates in Qatar are now women, and the government seeks degrees for these types of jobs.

Abu Dhabi

After Bahrain and Qatar, we were back in the UAE for the next two ports—Abu Dhabi and Fujairah. Getting a little jaded by city of new highrises upon city of new highrises, I was ready for something a little different, and so scooted immediately out of the city of Abu Dhabi to visit the oasis city of Al Ain. Al Ain is one of the largest cities in the UAE, but does not feel like it because of the marked lack of highrises. The buildings are all low rise and villas, and are built to fit in with the beautiful green landscape of the oasis that it is.

As a natural oasis, its groundwater is close to the surface and supports a good deal of plant life, most dominantly the date palm. With over 200 varieties of dates, this plant has long been a mainstay of Bedouin existence. Although no Bedouins live in the desert anymore—the government has settled them into lovely not-so-little villas—the date continues to be the staple of the diet in the area. We watched as a date picker VERY quickly climbed a tall palm and collected dates, then shimmied back down to offer us all fresh dates. Yum—unlike any date I’d ever eaten.

We toured a number of archaeological sites in Al Ain—civilizations here date back some 5,000 years. Yet, the carvings on some of the tombs are still clear, and the rooms in the ruins of old homes still distinct. We shared one visit with a group of schoolgirls, many of whom were anxious to test out their “American English” on us. Apparently, Snoopy is a popular figure among this group. The girls were very sweet. The day ended with a visit to a camel market. Camels in this part of the world serve three functions: racing (the most expensive camels), transportation (the mid-priced camels), and food (the lowest-priced camels). This market was definitely of the meat variety. Camel meat is the traditional main course for wedding dinners. Though we had no chance to try it, we were told it tastes much like beef, only fattier.

Fujairah

Our last visit on the Arabian peninsula was to the emirate of Fujairah. The approach to this port was interesting, as we passed on the way in what must have been a couple hundred oil tankers, all sitting in a line pointed toward the port, but none of them moving. We later found out that their owners had halted them there to wait for oil prices to go down further, at which time they'll each take their turn filling up and departing.

The only part of the UAE to be physically separated from the other emirates, Fujairah is not as far along in the pervasive construction of high rises as Dubai or Abu Dhabi. But it had its own charm, derived from the landscape. Most of Fujairah is either gray rock mountain or red sand desert. Here I went on a desert safari, riding in an off-road vehicle through the mountains then up and down the tall sand dunes. The views were breathtaking, and the ride was most comparable to a roller coaster. I should have realized what was up when we reached the dunes and our driver put on a cowboy hat. He had a good time scaring us to death as we shot up, down and around steep dunes.

The one thing I realized as I looked at the tracks behind us was that this cannot be good for the desert environment. I know that one of our new friends on the ship does not approve of dune bashing for this reason. But I have to guiltily confess that I found the trip exhilarating and the landscape beautiful beyond description.

We are now en route to India, and I will update the blog after our two-day Mumbai stop.

A note re photos: Although, as you can see, I can upload individual photos to this blog, I’m finding it impossible given the ship’s bandwidth limitations to post my full photo gallery. So, unless I can find a way to get it loaded from here, I probably won’t be posting my photos until after I return home in December. Then, of course, there will be many hundreds of them.

Dubai--Shiny and New

“If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” Edmund Burke

All that glitters…is Dubai. After so many days of seeing the ancient, our 2-1/2 days in Dubai concentrated on the new. Indeed, except for the museum, which did a wonderful job of portraying Emerati life through the years, and the souks (more about that later), everything we saw was shiny and new.

Dubai is a place to look at the buildings: skyscrapers are rising all over. With its highest building in the world having been overtaken by Taiwan, an even taller building, the Burj Dubai, is under construction. Right now, they are keeping the ultimate height a secret so that some other city doesn’t immediately try to do them one better. The buildings themselves have only one unifying theme: be different. All sorts of twists, turns, shapes and toppings mark the skyline of Dubai.

A wonderful way to see Dubai was the double decker hop-on-hop-off bus. It took us first to the terrific Dubai Museum, where we saw the growth of Dubai over the years portrayed through diorama and artifacts. Archaeological discoveries indicate that Dubai was the site of fishing communities 4,000 years ago. Modern Dubai started around 1830 as a small fishing village settled by the Bani Yas tribe, led by the Maktoum family, which still rules today. The growth of pearl trading gave rise to Dubai as a trading center. By the 1870s, it was the principal port on the Gulf coast. The pearl industry collapsed in the 1940s, with the rise of cultured pearls, but other trade took over, and this “city of merchants” is even greater than oil as a source of wealth for Dubai.

And it is a good thing for Dubai that trade dominates, as there is only a 15-year supply of oil left in this particular emirate. In Dubai, 19% of the population is Emerati. 60% are Indian, Pakistani, or Filipino. These are the nation’s workers.

And the nation’s workers were certainly busy in the souks. This giant maze of a marketplace was largely organized by merchandise, with the gold souk dominating. It did not take long to become overwhelmed by the glitter of 22 and 24 k gold shining from all the windows. Great fun, though, to step in and bargain. From there we wound our way to the fabric souk. It’s times like this that I wish I could sew. They had many beautiful fabrics, but I wouldn’t know what to do with them or even how much to get so someone else could do something with them.

The third major souk area was the spice souk, which also included markets for housewares and kitchen appliances. But the spice shops were the most enticing, with their exotic scents and enthusiastic shopkeepers.

We followed this with a trip up the Creek (the body of water than runs through Dubai and forms its heart) on a dhow—a large wooden boat. A good way to see the city from a perspective that did not involve being stuck in Dubai’s horrendous traffic. Particularly noteable was the way the Creek and its life were reflected in some of the buildings.

Our next day was a tour of the really, really new Dubai. So new, in fact, that the land it will stand on doesn’t even exist yet. Dubai is building islands around it. There’s the Palm Islands, formed in the shape of palm leaves. Then there’s The World, a group of islands that, when finished, will form a map of the world. Apparently, buying a piece of The World is the chic new thing to do for celebrities.

One highlight of the day was a visit to the Mall of the Emirates. Dubai does not lack for malls—there seems to be one at every turn—but the MOE has a very special feature: an indoor ski park. I don’t ski, but had great fun going into a surrounding restaurant and enjoying lunch while watching people ski. What a hoot! And, last night we had dinner with the ship’s doctor, who apparently was one of the people we saw on those slopes. He said it was good skiing, and he had a great time.

One thing I like to do in any city around the world is go into the local supermarket and see how the locals shop. Here the hypermarket prevails—really, a Costco with nicer interior. The women shopping there ranged from the fashionably barely dressed to full burka. Most women whose faces were showing wore very heavy makeup. The products themselves were what you’d find in most box stores in the U.S., though the produce and seafood selections had some unfamiliar items. I did see tapioca in its raw form for the first time. And, given a pretty good exchange rate, we picked up a few bargain souvenirs.

The ship departed Dubai last night under a sensational sunset. We expect to arrive in Bahrain in another couple of hours, then on to Qatar the next day. I’ll update next after those visits.

Oh Man, It's Oman

“I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.”
-Song of Solomon 4:6

I suppose I could re-use the “best laid plans of mice and men” quote for our visit to Oman, as nothing went according to plan. Nevertheless, I was thoroughly charmed by Muscat. Salalah, not so much, but only because we never left the ship there.

En route to Salalah, a passenger developed a medical emergency and we had to divert to Aden, Yemen, to evacuate the individual for medical care. It is good that the ship did that, but it did set the schedule back some at we arrived at Salalah several hours later than planned. It was always intended to be a stop of only a few hours, but became reduced even more, down to three hours.

Because we were docked more than 20 kilometers from Salalah itself, the decision was made not to let any passengers off. Indeed, the only reason we stopped at all was that the ship was picking up three containers (as in those huge truck-sized containers) of provisions. So, the ship threw a party on the dock with some of the officers serving, while pretty much the whole crew—including the captain and many of the senior officers—unloaded the containers and brought their contents aboard. It was a fascinating thing to watch, and gave something of an appreciation of what it takes to provide for a cruise ship of this size and a reminder of how hard the crew works (not that we don’t see the latter every day anyway).

Once the goods were brought on board, off we went, this time bound for Muscat. There, our plan was to spend the morning walking around the town, then go snorkeling in the afternoon. Well, the first part of that worked out fine. The port was a complicated thing, and we were not allowed to walk around it, so had to take a shuttle bus to leave the port vicinity. The morning shuttle took us to the souk (the local marketplace). There we wandered through its covered maze of shops selling everything from fabrics to jewelry to toys to pots and pans. We quickly found our way out of the tourist-oriented alleys and into the ones where the local women shopped. Barely giving us a glance, the ladies, all wearing abayas (the long robes) and a few in full burkas with faces covered, were intent on their goals, whether it be clothing trim, soap, or kitchen ware. It was a lively area.

One of the items most prominently for sale was incense, including frankincense. Oman has been the center of the frankincense trade since 5000 BC. Frankincense was used for funeral rites and for such purposes as payment of tribute to the Persian king. Together with myrrh, it was more valuable than gold during the time of Christ. It is believed to have been the first commodity to become the subject of international trade. It is a kind of sap, and is used not only for fragrance, but as a digestive aid, a memory helper and probably a cure for other difficulties that the salesmen of the souks were too gentlemanly to mention.

From the souk, we wandered around the waterfront area just a bit. The day was getting hot (the temperature already exceeded 100 degrees F and it was not yet noon. So a lot of walking was just not an attractive thing. We did see a couple of the famous traffic circles of Muscat, which include statuary of such things as giant water urns and coffee pots. The city is oriented toward the waterfront, and has a great deal of charm. Looming above the city is a giant white frankincense burner, a monument to the product once so important to the region’s economy.

The afternoon is when things fell apart. We were supposed to have gone on a snorkeling trip we’d arranged through a group called Arabian Sea Safaris, which operates out of the Intercontinental Hotel. We went to the assigned meeting point—just outside the harbor gate, in front of the police station—at the appointed time, and waited 20 minutes past the appointed hour. No one showed up. Since it was impossibly hot at that point, we simply returned to the ship and jumped into the pool instead. When we finally were able to reach the group much later, they with much apology told us that an assistant had mixed up the reservation. A disappointment, but if that’s the worst that happens on this trip, we’re doing great!

Our evening sailaway was as charming as our morning in Muscat. At night, the newer buildings along the waterfront light up with colored lights, and the old forts are the focus of spotlights. It's colorful and very attractive.

So now Oman is behind us, and we arrived this afternoon (Wednesday) in Dubai. We will be here until Friday evening, so my next update will be after our departure then.

Luxor, Valley of the Kings, and the Nile

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert.
Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias, referring to a statue of Ramses II (Ozymandias is the Greek name for him).


Mrs. Eckert, my third grade teacher, encouraged me in my strange obsession at the time for memorizing poetry, and had me learn Ozymandias. She then explained that it was about Ramses II and the temples of Egypt. From then on, I dreamed of someday seeing what Shelley was talking about. Thank you, Mrs. Eckert.

Well, on Tuesday off we went from the ship again for our last overnight for a while, this time to Luxor. Our first day was devoted to Luxor Temple in the morning and Valley of the Kings in the afternoon. This turned out to be wise timing—the above-ground activity in the not-as-hot morning, and the more underground-oriented exploration in the heat of the afternoon. And Egyptian afternoon heat is, well, let’s just say impressive.

The temple at Luxor was built later than the pyramids—c. 1390 BC. It was started by Amenhotep III, and added to over the years by various other pharaohs, including Alexander the Great (who apparently styled himself as a pharaoh once he reached Egypt). Eventually, the village of Luxor had been built over it, but was later removed and the temple revealed. The avenue of sphinxes leads up to it—that avenue used to lead all the way to Karnak, 2 miles north. Inside the temple are what I thought at the time to be a dizzying array of statues and carvings (this was before I saw Karnak the next day).

In the Valley of the Kings, we concentrated on the royal necropoli—the tombs of a number of pharaohs. We went into four of the tombs: Ramses II, Ramses V/VI, Amenhotep II, and Siptah. Each had an entryway with elaborate carvings, a hallway sloping downward (at various degrees of steepness) with colored hieroglyphics and cartouches—many of them quite beautiful—on either side, colorful ceilings, and a sarcophagus at the end, most with still well-preserved figures of the pharaoh in question. Photos were not allowed inside, to protect the fragile antiquities, but no picture would have done justice to it.

Because of the prevalence of grave robbing, remains were often moved around. In 1881, archaeologists found a communal grave of 40 pharaohs, including some whose own tombs’ locations are known. The latest tomb discovery was in 1995 by the American archaeologist Kent Weeks. The tomb is known simply as KV5. It has more than 100 rooms, and is believed to be the tomb for 50 of Ramses II’s sons (he had more than 100). All we saw of it was a locked gate—the work on that one is still ongoing.

From there, we moved on to Hatshepsut’s Temple. Hatshepsut was Egypt’s only female pharaoh (Cleopatra was a queen, not a pharaoh). The daughter of Thutmose I, and married to his half brother Thutmose II who died young and left her as stepmother and regent for Thutmose III, she declared herself Pharaoh and ruled Egypt as a man for something like 40 years. The figures of her outside the temple show her as a man—those long pieces under the face that you see on statues of pharaohs are beards, connoting a man. If the beard is straight, it is the pharaoh in life. If the beard is curved, it is the pharaoh in death.

We then proceeded to the Colossi at Memnon. These huge statues are more or less just alongside the road. They are two figures of Amenhotep III, each carved from a single piece of stone and each 59 feet tall. In early days, one of the Colossi made a noise in the morning when the sun hit it, and was said to have cried tears. It was believed by the Greeks to be the god Memnon greeting his mother, Eos, the dawn goddess. Today it’s believed that the sound and moisture were caused by the passage of air through the stone’s pores caused by the warming from the sun. The noise and tears stopped in 170 AD when Roman Emperor Septimus Severus restored the Colossi. The Colossi used to guard a now-gone temple that likely was larger than Karnak. The temple disappeared to plunder, earthquakes and floods.

From there, we checked into our hotel and, as in Cairo, got there just in time to see the sun set over the Nile from our balcony. This was in many ways even more beautiful than in Cairo—instead of skyscrapers across the river, we were looking at lush greenery.

That evening held a special and truly spectacular surprise. A dinner for the 86 of us on the full cruise had been arranged inside the Habu Temple, the funerary temple of Ramses III. Arriving after dark, we entered the temple by torchlight to the strains of a trio playing the famous aria from Aida, with men dressed as ancient Egyptian guards standing attention along the way. Once we were in the main temple and seated, the temple was lit just enough to provide a breathtaking view of the temple in shadow relief. As we ate (okay, the food was all but inedible, but in that setting they could have served dog food and I’d still have been enraptured), the full moon rose over the open top of the temple. Such a sense of peace and awe!

The next morning ‘s view across the Nile was peppered by a couple dozen hot air balloons over the lush greenery and against the background of arid mountains. As we were watching the balloons at dawn, we gradually came to realize that we also were looking at Hatshepsut’s Temple from across the river.

Off we went then for a morning at the Temples of Karnak. Believed to be the largest temple complex ever built, it grew in stages over an astonishing period of 1500 years, and covers 247 acres. We entered past rows of rams and other statues, and spent two hours exploring this amazing complex. Perhaps most impressive was the Great Hypostyle Hall, which has 134 columns each of which take 6 adults to stretch arms around. Fifty men could comfortably stand on top.

We then boarded our bus for the three-hour drive back to the ship in Safaga. Much of the drive was along the Nile. It was fascinating to watch life along the Nile: farming, water carrying, donkey carts, laundry, etc. Much of the terrain was lovely. The homes were generally made either of mud or brownish brick, and a few were painted bright colors. Some had no roofs or just straw on the top. We were told that, as long as there’s not a roof the house could be considered unfinished for tax purposes.

The terrain became ugly as we drove past miles of phosphate mines. The port at Safaga is the center for the export of phosphates and, once a year, for embarkation for the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

When we arrived at the ship, we saw much of the crew lined up in front of the ship. As we got off our buses, they broke into song and impromptu dancing (led by the Captain, who proved himself quite the ham). Perhaps the funniest was their rendition of “Dance Like an Egyptian.” About half of this very international staff knew the little dance that goes with it—the other half just looked at them in amazement. It was one of those fun little moments.

After our return was a scheduled 3 days at sea. That’s what’s given me the time to catch up on this blog. Our next scheduled stop is tomorrow at Salalah, Oman. Unfortunately, we had to make an unscheduled stop at Aden, Yemen, in the wee hours of this morning to evacuate a passenger with a medical emergency. The captain advises that word from the hospital in Aden is that the gentleman is doing well and is in stable condition, which is a relief. It does give us only a short time in Salalah, so have had to cancel our excursion to see Job’s Tomb and tap a frankincense tree. I’d been looking forward to that (strange, I know, but I loved the idea of tapping that tree), but I’m glad that the cruise line takes no chances with a passenger’s health.

Wadi Rum--Valley of the Moon

'The desert is an ocean in which no oar is dipped'—T.E. Lawrence, from Seven Pillars of Wisdom

So why does the name Wadi Rum ring a bell? Did you see the movie Lawrence of Arabia? It’s where T.E. Lawrence encamped to launch the attack on Aqaba. It’s also where some of that movie was filmed (“The Red Planet” also was filmed here).

Upon our arrival at the Rum Desert, which the Bedouin call the Valley of the Moon, we piled into 4-wheel drive, open backed trucks for a jiggly but fun ride. Stark and beautiful, the desert changes mood as the light changes in the course of the day. Even in the duration of our trip of barely more than an hour, we saw these shifts a number of times. Our stop at Wadi Rum was particularly memorable, as we explored the gorge where T.E. Lawrence and his men sought shade and looked on the red sand and stone pillars (as in the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, his famous book). A breathtaking sight.

Piling back in our trucks, off we went to a Bedouin camp for dinner. The Bedouin in Wadi Rum live in goat-hair tents, and these were the shade provided for our dining. Dinner was cooked in a hole in the ground, and the gracious Bedouin were our hosts for an evening of entertainment and good company. Dining was on cushions on the ground, with a slightly raised platform.

The high point of the evening, and perhaps the trip to this point, was the rising of the nearly full moon over the tall pillars of stone. Silence prevailed as we all watched this magnificent sight.

After dinner and goodbye to our hosts, off we went across the desert by night to find our bus and make the trek back to the ship in order to fall into bed so we could get up early the next morning and head off for our last overnight trip for a while, to Luxor. That is the next installment.

Side note: I am indeed keeping an eye on the news (mostly via a satellite version of the Washington Post). So this quote from T.E. Lawrence seems apt not only for the politics of the region in his day, but for today and elsewhere as well:

“Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” T.E. Lawrence, from Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Petra, the Rose Red City in Jordan

It seems no work of Man's creative hand,
by labor wrought as wavering fancy planned;
But from the rock as by magic grown,
eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!
Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine,
where erst Athena held her rites divine;
Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane,
that crowns the hill and consecrates the plain;
But rose-red as if the blush of dawn,
that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;
The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,
which Man deemed old two thousand years ago,
match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,
a rose-red city half as old as time.

-John William Burgon, Petra

Monday morning, we made our way to the entrance to Petra. I’d heard of it, and even seen pictures, but nothing could prepare me for what lay ahead. Accompanied by our guide Saleh, we were among the relatively sparse numbers on the path to Petra. Another path ran alongside the walking path, this other one filled with men riding horses or donkeys up and down the path.

Those animals are used to offer rides to and from the entrance to the siq (the narrow gorge that leads into Petra). From the entrance, those who want to can get a carriage to take them the mile or so through the siq into Petra. However, no one in our little group needed the lift going in, so off we trudged.

Just the siq alone was amazing. High walls of multi-shaded sandstone rose on either side of us, with each twist and turn showing a different set of shadows and lights. The sides had much to reveal as well. From time to time there was an icon carved into the walls—these were for the ancient camel caravan drivers to give sacrifices to get blessings for their journeys. Many of the rocks formed shapes that hardly seemed accidental. One appeared from one side to be a fish but from the front to be an elephant. Had the ancients in this arid land ever seen an elephant though? It seems unlikely.

Along the sides were aquaducts and dams, built to keep the gorge from flash flooding during the rains of the winter season. To us it seemed incredible that this place ever sees rain, but apparently it does.

But the siq was just the beginning. When we reached the start of one particular curve, Saleh had us line up against the right wall, then together step to the left while looking forward and up. The collective gasp was the payoff (and his declaration at that moment that “I love my job” was understandable—as a native Jordanian he is justly proud of this awe-inspiring sight). Just entering our line of vision was the Treasury, a massive building carved (that’s right, not built, but carved) into the sandstone. As we’d later see, its pale pink color would shift throughout the day as the sun hit it in a variety of ways.

The Treasury, completed in the 1st century BC as a tomb for a Nabatean king, supposedly gets its name from when pirates hid their treasure there. Up the front stairs and inside its impressive outer door is another inner door leading into darkness. It is here that “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” was filmed.

It took us a while to tear ourselves away, but eventually we did and proceeded on through the ancient city. This UNESCO World Heritage site is believed to have been founded in the 5th century BC by the Nabateans. It was rediscovered in 1812 by Johann Ludwig Burchardt, after many years of rumors of its existence. Burchardt was a Swiss explorer who embraced Islam and lived under the name of Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah. He traveled all over the Middle East, including making the pilgrimage to Mecca, but died at age 33. A short life, but one that gave much to the world.

But I diverge. Buildings and tombs abound throughout the city, most of them carved by hand from the canyon’s sandstone. We strolled down the Street of Facades, a series of tombs along the outer gorge, stopping to look into caves and holes along the way. The inevitable Roman theater turned up, though this one was built by the Nabateans albeit during the Roman period.

Petra means “stone” in Greek. Clearly a fitting name.

During our time in Petra, just as in our time in Egypt, we were approached by hawkers trying to sell all manner of souvenirs or rides on camels. There was a particular poignancy about these men and boys (yes, they were all male). Many of them or their families had once lived in the caves of Petra, but had been removed by the government to a housing project on a nearby hill, ostensibly to offer their children a chance at education and a better life. But they come back to their old homes every day, to make a living and to hold onto a piece of their past. Are they descendents of the ancient Nabateans? It’s unlikely. But it was nevertheless their home that we were gaping at.

On a cheerier note, and back to the travel narrative, after a full morning in Petra, we made our way back out the siq (gee, it didn’t seem that long or steep coming in) to a quick lunch, copious amounts of water, and a trip to our next stop: Wadi Rum. See the next installment for that.

Cairo and Giza

The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from The Ladder of St. Augustine

The past few days have been so full and so wonderful it is hard to pick out the high points to cover here. Our six days of off the ship, then on again every other night to toss some fresh clothes in the suitcase, then off again, are at an end, and we have three days at sea ahead of us. I’m not ordinarily a fan of sea days, but in this instance I can certainly use the “vacation” from my trip.

But I get ahead of myself. Going back to where I left off, we made our way to Cairo and checked into the Four Seasons just before sunset. Not a shabby hotel by any means. The Nile-view room was something really special. And the sight of the sun setting over the Nile was not to be forgotten. We then headed off to the Egyptian Museum. They had a private opening for us, so the 100 or so of us who went on this excursion were the only people there other than the staff. What a great way to see a museum.

Egyptian Museum

The museum is filled with sarcophagi and other treasures found in the tombs, pyramids and other sites around Egypt. One of the major exhibits is in the Tutankhamun Galleries. As is generally known, King Tut was a minor pharaoh who reigned only for 10 years (1336-1327 BC) and died at age 18. The reason he is so famous is that his was the only tomb to survive intact to modern times, until it was discovered in 1922 by the famed egyptologist Howard Carter. Said Carter of King Tut, “The only remarkable thing about his life was that he died and was buried.” Oh, but what was buried with him!

Some 1,700 objects from the tomb are in the museum, including numerous treasures and jewels (and alabaster jars containing his internal organs). Imagine what riches must have been in the tombs of the more significant pharaohs, like Ramses II. Unfortunately for us, tomb robbers over the years emptied those tombs of their treasures long ago. But the treasures of King Tut give us some small inkling of what might have been there. I missed the touring exhibit of the treasures in the U.S. some 20 years ago, so am thrilled that I got to see them here.

The other high point was the Mummies Room. The mummies of pharaohs minor and major were quite the sight. I don’t think they ever intended for the world to see them as they are now, partially unwrapped and desiccated, but it nevertheless is an extraordinary thing to behold. Their golden death masks, some of which were also in the museum, more likely convey the image they were going for.

Cairo

The next morning we were in for a visual treat to start our day: across the Nile, between the skyscrapers, what did we see but the pyramids! I must have spent a good half hour just sitting and staring at them, and watching the feluccas (sailboats) get ready to start their day.

We then headed off to old Cairo. Probably the closest thing I’ve ever seen was in the old section of Shanghai. Shopkeepers sitting in front of their shops, offering their wares, with many shops offering related items in sequence one after another. Lush looking fruits and vegetables were sold on almost every block. On one block, there was a coffee shop under what looked to be an apartment building. We watched as women in the building used ropes to lower baskets. Men would come by and put clothing in them, then the women would raise the baskets again. Interesting way to take in laundry (which was hanging from balconies all over the building to dry).

We then visited the worship sites of three religions: the Hanging Church (Coptic Christian), Ben Ezra Synagogue right next door, and the Mohammed Ali mosque. The contrast between the ornate icons that filled the church, the simple designs of the synagogue, and the ornate designs (but no representations of people or animals) of the mosque was striking. Then we were off to:

The Pyramids

The only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to survive, the pyramids started to appear around 2700 BC. Napoleon calculated that the Great Pyramid has enough stone to build a 3-foot high fence around all of France. Imagine, this pyramid was already ancient at the time of Christ’s birth, and was further in time from that event than we are today.

There were at some point a total of 12 pyramids at this particular site, many of them having little junior satellite pyramids for the children of the kings entombed in the larger pyramids. The ruins of some of the pyramids now gone are visible.

Also at this site is the infamous Sphinx. The sphinx was carved around 2550 BC from a single outcrop of bedrock. Made during Chephren’s reign, it is said to represent him. Tuthmose IV rescued the sphinx from the sand around 1390 BC, and it was again excavated in the 19th century by the Italian archaeologist Caviglia. It is 72 feet high, 164 feet long, and faces east to greet the rising sun. Which means that, in the afternoon when we were there, the sun was behind it. I think that any time you see it, it’s a spectacular sight.

We did have a bit of a to-do while trying to get into a tomb near the sphinx. Some men started fighting, and several people said they saw a gun. The tourist police cleared the area, and so we never got into that tomb. Not to mind, though. As I’ll discuss later, we saw plenty of tombs in Luxor.

A word about security in Egypt: we were required to have with us an armed guard. Ibraham, our guard, hardly seemed threatening—he’s a very sweet young man who is the proud father of a month-old son. But I’m glad he has decent employment--apparently that is increasingly hard to come by for young men in Egypt. In addition, we were required to move about in a bus convoy with a couple of trucks full of tourist police as escorts. Ostensibly, it’s to reassure tourists of the safety of Egypt, given that tourism is its 4th largest industry and growing. I suspect it’s also to offer gainful employment to young men. If it works, more power to them.

That evening, we returned to the pyramids for a sound and light show. The show itself was pretty hokey, but it was great to sit for an hour and gaze on the dimly lit pyramids and sphinx under a nearly full moon.

We then hauled back on a late bus for what was supposed to be an 11:00 pm rendezvous with the ship in Suez. We were late getting there, but the ship was even later. It had to drop anchor rather than dock, and anchored a good distance out at that. Then one of the tenders broke down. In the end we didn’t get back on the ship until 2:00 am (really 3:00 am, as we were changing time zones overnight and the ship was already ahead). But I have to hand it to the ship’s captain: he was right there to greet the tender, and was the first hand in the bucket brigade that pulled the luggage off the tender and up the gangway.

Because of the delay in Suez, we were late getting into Aqaba, our jumping-off port for Petra and Wadi Rum, so got to sleep late that next morning. Which was much needed for a long, exhausting and exhilerating day in Jordan.

My next entry will cover Petra and Wadi Rum.

The Place That Alexander Founded

“…[I]t attempts to collect and summarize all human knowledge…”
Wikipedia’s entry on Wikipedia


It felt a little funny to be in Alexandria (the name of the town where I live in Virginia), yet be so far from home. But Alexandria is where the ship docked and where we started our day. As it was Friday, the Islamic Sabbath, the streets were quiet with only a handful of shops open or people out and about. There we visited the catacombs, tiers of burial chambers carved into the rocks some 2200 years ago. Not as creepy as I’d have expected, they seemed now to be more an experience in archaeology than a place of burial.

Next were the ruins of an ancient Roman theater, small by the standards of the time (2d century AD) but in pretty good shape and a reminder of that old Roman presence.

Another reminder was Pompey’s Pillar—one of those obelisks that has a way of turning up in ancient cities. Of course, this pillar has nothing to do with Pompey. It was originally thought to be a memorial to Pompey, a rival to Julius Caesar who Caesar had killed in Egypt in 48 BC. Turns out there’s an inscription on the pillar that makes it clear that it’s in honor of Emperor Diocletion. It was erected in 300 AD.

Alexandria itself is some 2340 years old, founded by Alexander the Great as Egypt’s new capital. One of modern Alexandria’s more interesting sights is its library. However, it is unknown if the new Star Wars-looking library is on the site of the famous ancient one, since no one knows for sure where that was located. The ancient one was, in a way, the first Wikipedia . The Library at Alexandria was part of Mouseion, or House of the Muses, a forerunner of the world’s universities. It was founded by Ptolemy I, a general of Alexander the Great, who seized Egypt after Alexander’s death and founded a dynasty that ruled for 300 years. He and his son after him established the Library and decreed that copies be made of all the world’s books and writings. Said to contain the sum total of knowledge available to the ancient world, it was known as “the most learned place on earth” and was said to hold ½ million texts (we’re talking circa 300 BC here—well before the printing press’ invention).

It is unknown how the library was destroyed, or even exactly when. Many stories abound, ranging from in battle with Julius Caesar’s troops to having its contents used over the years for heating fuel after interest in learning declined, to destruction by fanatical Christians. But no one knows.

From there we made the three-hour drive to Cairo, accompanied by our guide Magdi, an Egyptology lecturer at a local university. I cannot do justice here to all the information he imparted, as my brain couldn’t hold it all. But I’ll try to give the highlights in my next entry, on Cairo and Giza.

A Brief Visit to Rhodes

"...What little town by river or sea-shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return..."

John Keats, from Ode on a Grecian Urn

Rhodes is located in the Aegean Sea, about 10 miles from Turkey’s coast. It is most renowned for something that has not been there for some 2300 years, and stood only for 66 years: the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The statue was built as an offering of thanks to Helios, the sun god, by Chares of Lindos. The immense statue is said to have straddled the harbor but was destroyed 66 years after it was built in the earthquake of 292 BC. Fearing it was cursed they never rebuilt it, but the statue lay where it fell for eight centuries It was eventually sold to a merchant who they say needed 900 camels to take it away. How big was it? Supposedly, 30 meters tall (the Statue of Liberty is about 50% taller).

Our time today in Rhodes was spent in the old walled city--the photo shows a piece of the wall and interior structure. During the third century BC, Rhodes was a center of learning to rival Athens or Alexandria. Many famous Romans, including Cassius and Octavian, studied at the School of Oratory there. However, when Rhodes backed Octavian against Cassius after Julius Caesar’s death, Cassius attacked in revenge in 42 BC, bringing widespread slaughter and destruction. It’s believed that he destroyed some 3,000 statues.

In AD155, an earthquake devastated the island. After that, it was invaded by, in turn, the Goths, Arabs, Sacracens, and Turks. From the 12th to 16th centuries, the Knights of St. John established a military base here. During their stay, they built streets, houses, churches, and the famous Palace of the Grand Masters. Suleyman the Magnificent defeated them in 1522, and it stayed under Turkish rule until 1912. Then Italy controlled it until after WWII, when it went back to Greece.

Athena's City

“Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts and eloquence.” John Milton, Paradise Regained

We arrived yesterday morning, and were quickly whisked off to our hotel. It didn’t take long to settle into our room and then head off to explore the city. After going across the street to the Parliament building to watch one of the more interesting Changing of the Guard ceremonies I’ve ever seen, our next act was to test out the Athens Metro system, of which the city is justifiably proud. It is clean, quick, cheap and efficient.

Our first stop was something of a completion of a full circle from my first trip outside the U.S. many years ago. That was to England, where during a visit to the British Museum I got an earful from a couple of Greek women about the outrage of the Elgin Marbles being in London and not Athens from where they came (not to mention that that fine ancient Greek statuary was named for the British Lord Elgin who had removed them from Greece).

So it was fitting that our fist visit on this journey was to the building for the new Acropolis Museum. It’s not actually open yet, but the public is invited to come see its architecture and view the one small exhibit that is there. The museum was built in part to respond to the British refusal to return the Elgin Marbles and other antiquities removed from Greece—they’ve always claimed that Greece does not have a place to properly display them. This museum should give the lie to that. It’s a beautiful building. Perhaps its most interesting feature is its glass floor, where you can look underneath to see the ruins that are preserved under the building.

Since we had limited time in Athens, and hadwe both been up the Acropolis before, we bypassed that climb and instead set out to wander the streets and byways of the Plaka. It was a great place to soak in atmosphere and watch people (who in turn were no doubt watching us), even as we dodged cars and motor scooters driving its narrow streets and sometimes it sidewalks.

We then went to the ancient Agora area, to walk where the likes of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle once walked and talked. I tried to imagine them there, even as I forgave Socrates for the curse he imposed on first year law students throughout the Western world—the Socratic method.

From the top of the Agora we had a wonderful view of the city and of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis. Then it was back to the hotel, where we watched the sun set over the Acropolis from the amazing rooftop deck of the Hotel Grand Bretagne.

Unfortunately, more exploration of Athens this morning was not to be—there was a general strike starting at 11:00, so the cruise line had to get us out of our hotel and to the ship before the strike began. In fact, the mass transit workers had already started their strike and we passed huge masses of commuters at bus stops, trying to figure out how to get to work or get home with no buses or subways operating, and precious few taxis out and about.

So today was really all about getting on the ship and getting unpacked and settled in. A nice touch was a “block party” whereby at 6:00 everyone went out into their hallways to meet their neighbors and enjoy some wine. It was a nice way to start a cruise.

We're Off!

O we can wait no longer!
We too take ship, O soul!
Joyous, we too launch out on trackless seas!
Fearless, for unknown shores, on waves of ecstasy to sail, ...
Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration.

-Walt Whitman, “Passage to India,” from Leaves of Grass

Well, the day is finally here. In a matter of hours, I’ll be leaving for National Airport for a flight to New York, where Beth and I will meet up and fly to Athens, arriving on the morning of the 7th. We’ll have the day to explore, then attend a party that the cruise line is throwing at our hotel for those doing all 71 days of the cruise. The next day we’ll have a little time in the morning for more exploration, then off to Piraeus to board the ship.

I’m looking forward to seeing our hotel, the Grand Bretagne. I’ve heard so much about it. It opened in 1874 as a hotel, but about 12 years before was built as a mansion for a wealthy Greek. Its more unpleasant history is that it served as Nazi headquarters during the German occupation in WWII. It overlooks the Parliament and Syntagma on one side; the Parthenon on the other, and I’m told is located near the Plaka and ancient agora, so will be a well-situated base for exploration.

With us on this trip will be two Flat Stanleys (google it!) sent along by a couple of students from Beth’s former school. So, in addition to the blog, there will be a Flat Stanley journal. At the end, I’ll need to get a picture of Flat Stanley with Flat Fido, who still stands guard over my condo.

And away we go!