|
|
Syria, Jordan and Lebanon 22nd March - 15th April 2005
<- click on the thumb for a sketch of my route
Syria
Damascus
The Souq
The Umayyad Mosque (709-715 A.D)
Azem Palace
Old City back streets
Me with nargileh (water pipe) and chai (tea)
Damascus by night
Bosra
A small town on the border to Jordan, known for its Arabian castle built around a Roman theatre.
Palmyra
Wandering around in the ruins early in the morning.
Visiting some of the tombs surrounding Palmyra
Temple of Bel
The oasis arond Palmyra, seen from Temple of Bel
Visiting a Beduin family in the desert outside Palmyra
Sunset from the Arabic castle overlooking Palmyra
Palmyra - Aleppo via the desert
Beduins
Qasr al-Heir ash-Sharqi. Abandoned Arabic castle in the middle of the desert.
Rasafa. Ancient abandoned walled city. By the 5th century Rasafa had become an important centre of Christian worship.
Basilica St Sergius, in the middle of the city, dates from this time.
The last two picture shows the huge underground water cisterns.
Qala'at Ja'abar. Arabic castle in the Al-Assad dam.
Aleppo
Hotel Baron, where I stayed. A bit faded nowadays, but this is the hotel where Lawrence of Arabia and Agatha Christie stayed in Aleppo.
The souq
The citadel
Qala'at Samaan
Byzantine cathedral (490 A.D.)
Hama
Krak Des Chevaliers
The ultimate crusader castle
Apamea
Dead cities
Jordan
Amman
Dead sea
Petra
Petra by night tour, to get an impression of the Treasury lit up by candles.
Entering the 2km Siq at 6:30 am.
First glimse of the Treasury
The Treasury, where Indiana Jones entered to find the grale in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
The High Place of Sacrifice
Different tombs and scenery arond in Petra. Look at the colors!
Entering the Siq at 9:00 am the next day
... to see the Treasury in sunlight
The Monastery
The view from a view point close to the Monastery
Wadi Rum
On a hazy day. This is where Lawrence of Arabia was hiding before attacking Ottoman Turks in the First World War
Aqaba
Lebanon
Beirut
The new and rebuilt
The 1982 massacres at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps claimed the lives of somewhere between 800 and 3,000 Palestinian civilians, a large fraction women and children.
Ariel Sharon was found, even by the Israeli Kahan commission, to have been "indirectly responsible" for the mass killings.
The Holiday inn destroyed by the civil war
Rebulding just like it was
Some more civil war damage
Baalbek
Baalbek in the Bekaa valley was the Roman "capital" in the Middle East.
Temple of Jupiter. By far the biggest temple the Romans ever built.
Temple of Bacchus. The most complete Roman temple in the world.
Byblos
Some claim it's the oldest harbour in the world
