Sights in Middle East
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Palmyra Museum
Only the keenest of archaeologists would benefit from a visit to Palmyra's modest museum. With its poor labelling, it adds little to the experience of Palmyra. There are a few highlights, however, including a large-scale model of the Temple of Bel that gives a good impression of how the complex would have looked in its original state, and some fascinating friezes depicting camel trains and cargo ships, attesting to the importance trade played in the wealth of Palmyra.
There are some dynamic mosaics found in nobles' houses east of the Temple of Bel, including one representing a scene from the Iliad in which Ulysses discovers Achilles disguised in women's clothes, concealed…
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Sea Castle
Built by the Crusaders in 1228, the Sea Castle, connected to the mainland by a fortified Arab stone causeway, sits around 80m offshore on a small island that was formerly the site of a temple to Melkart, the Phoenician version of Hercules. One of many coastal castles built by the Crusaders, it was largely destroyed by the Mamluks to prevent the Crusaders from returning to the region, but its renovation was ordered by Fakhreddine in the 17th century.
The building consists of two towers joined together by a wall. The rectangular west tower, to the left of the entrance, is the best preserved, measuring 21m by 17m, and has a large vaulted room scattered with old carved…
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Ruins at Jerash
The ruins at Jerash (known in Roman times as Gerasa) are one of Jordan's major attractions and still have the power to evoke the ghosts of Rome. It's one of the best examples in the Middle East of a Roman provincial city, and is remarkably well preserved.
In its heyday, Jerash (known in Roman times as Gerasa) had a population of 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants and, although it wasn't on any major trade route, its citizens prospered from the good agricultural land that surrounded it. The ancient walled city that survives today was the administrative, commercial, civic and religious centre of Jerash. The bulk of the inhabitants lived on the eastern side of Wadi Jerash (now the…
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Sayyida Zeinab Mosque
The splendid Iranian-built Sayyida Zeinab Mosque on the site of the burial place of Sayyida Zeinab, granddaughter of Mohammed, is about 10km south of the city centre, in a neighbourhood that is popular with Iranian pilgrims and is now home to most of the city's Iraqi refugees. Stylistically, the mosque is similar to that of Sayyida Ruqqaya in the Old City, with a glistening gold onion-shaped dome, intricately decorated blue tiles covering its façade and two freestanding minarets.
Women will have to don a cloak, available at the entrance, before entering, and men should wear trousers and a long-sleeved shirt. The main entrances to the sanctuary are on the northern and…
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Lot’s Cave
Lot, the nephew of Abraham, features repeatedly in the colourful annals of the Dead Sea’s southern shores. Lot’s Cave, just past the Lisan Peninsula, is where he and his daughters apparently lived after fleeing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife famously turned into a pillar of salt after looking back at the smouldering city. In an eyebrow-raising incident of incest that’s remarkable even for the Bible, Lot’s two daughters spiked their father’s drink, had sex with him and then nine months later gave birth to his grandsons/sons Moab and Ben-Ammi, the forefathers of the Moabite and Ammonite peoples. The cave, a 10-minute climb up a steep flight of…
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Cilicia Museum
The gorgeous collection of Armenian religious and cultural artefacts at the Cilicia Museum is one of Beirut's best-kept secrets. And secrets play a major role in the history of this museum, as most of the collection was smuggled out of what was known as Turkish Armenia in 1915, by monks from the Monastery of Sis in Cilicia.
Given just several days to flee the genocide by the Turks, the monks removed as much of their treasure as they could and began their dangerous overland journey, eventually arriving in Aleppo (Syria). In 1930 they finally settled in Antelias, just north of Beirut.To get to the museum, take the LCC bus 6, or any minibus going north to Jounieh and Byblos…
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Al-Mina excavations
In an impressive setting leading down to the ancient Egyptian (south) harbour, the Al-Mina excavations incorporate remains of Roman and Byzantine Tyre. Upon entering, a double line of columns to the right is thought to be part of the agora (market place). Further down is a long colonnaded road leading directly to what was the southern harbour. The marble sections of the pavement date back to the Roman era, while the black-and-white mosaic street is Byzantine.
To the right of the road, below a modern cemetery, are the remains of an unusual, rectangular arena, with five rows of terraced seating cut in to limestone. In the centre was a pool that may have been used for some…
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Tell Hesban
Amateur archaeologists will like Tell Hesban, 9km north of Madaba. Over the centuries this strategic hill has been a Bronze Age settlement, an Amorite capital (900–500 BC), a Hellenistic fortress (198–63 BC), a Roman settlement called Esbus (63 BC–AD 350), a Byzantine ecclesiastical centre (AD 350–650), an Umayyad market town (650–750), a regional capital of the Abbasids (750–1260) and Mamluks (1260–1500) and, finally, an Ottoman village. All these layers of history are on view, albeit faintly. The site is well signed, indicating the remains of a Byzantine church (the mosaics are displayed in Madaba), Roman temple and Hellenistic fort. There are lots of caves and…
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Alpaca Farm
Inspired by their love for South American wildlife and culture, Ilan and Na'ama Dvir flew 188 camelids (llamas and alpacas) here from Chile. Starting with 188 creatures, they now have over 500 at their beautiful Alpaca Farm tucked into a hidden valley about 3km from Mitzpe Ramon. The animals are being raised for their wool, which is for sale as hats and scarves. If your timing is right, you can see such activities as shearing, washing, spinning, weaving and, for kids, there is a llama ride. You can also stay in their attractive hillside suites. Each cabin is decked out with wood floors, cable TV, kitchenette and a great balcony for enjoying the views of the desert and all…
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Central Norias
Hama's most distinctive attractions are its norias, wooden water wheels up to 20m in diameter (the equivalent in height of a four- or five-storey building), which have graced the town for centuries. The land around the Orontes is considerably higher than the river itself, which is deeply incised into its rocky bed, making it hard to irrigate. The norias were constructed to scoop water from the river and deposit it into aqueducts, which then channelled it to nearby fields and gardens.
There have been norias in Hama since at least the 5th century AD, as attested by a mosaic displayed in Hama's new museum, but the wheels seen today are the design of the 13th-centruy…
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Shrine of the Book
Shrine of the Book is where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. The distinctive pot lid-shaped roof is meant to symbolise the pots in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were kept. The scrolls, totalling 800 in all, were found in 1947 and date back to the time of the Bar Kochba Revolt (AD 132-35). They deal with both secular and religious issues and were thought to have been written by an ascetic group of Jews called the Essenes, who inhabited the area for about 300 years.
The most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls is the Great Isaiah Scroll, the largest and best preserved. It is the only biblical scroll that has survived in its entirety, and takes centre place in the room. The 54…
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Hammat Tiberias National Park
Israel's spa craze actually has a 2000-year-old history which started at the hot springs of Hammat Tiberias when, during Roman times, they were the focus, if not raison d'être, of a community of 40,000 fervent bathers. Check out the history of the site at the Hammat Tiberias National Park, which features a small museum in what was originally part of a Turkish bathhouse. The main highlight is a synagogue dating from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, which has a beautiful zodiac mosaic floor.
Much has been made of the mosaic's curious mix of Jewish and pagan symbols, but somehow this seems quite apt in Tiberias, a town that, historically, seems to have been able to reconcile…
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Cave of Seven Sleepers
The legend of the ‘seven sleepers’ has several parallels throughout literature. It involves seven Christian boys who were persecuted by the Roman Emperor Trajan, then escaped to a cave and slept there for 309 years. This is one of several locations (the most famous being Ephesus in Turkey) that claim to be that cave. Inside the main cave – also known as Ahl al-Kahf (Cave of the People) – are eight smaller tombs that are sealed, though one has a hole in it through which you can see a creepy collection of human bones. Above and below the cave are the remains of two mosques. About 500m west of the cave is a large Byzantine cemetery, whose tombs are sadly full of…
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Almonit (Anonymous) Alley
It's easy to miss this tiny sidestreet while walking up King George St. But as a decidedly non-trendy, alternative hangout, the people that do come here appreciate its obscurity. The alley was originally named after Getzel Shapira, an American Jew who financed civic projects in Tel Aviv in the 1920s.
Later, Mayor Dizengoff, irritated that anyone with money could have a street named after themselves, ordered the street names changed and a clerk gave the alley a name that essentially means 'John Doe'.
Almonit sports a café, a secondhand bookshop, a vintage clothing store and a hairdresser fond of outrageous wall art (which is changed every couple of months). The most…
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Armenian Quarter
Somewhat shuttered behind high walls and enormous wooden doors, the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem plods along unnoticed, as it has for centuries. If the very presence of an Armenian Quarter strikes you as a bit odd, consider that Armenia was the first nation to officially embrace Christianity when their king converted in AD 303. They established themselves in Jerusalem sometime in the following century.
The Kingdom of Armenia disappeared at the end of the 4th century and Jerusalem was adopted as their spiritual capital. They have had an uninterrupted presence here ever since.
The core of the quarter is actually one big monastic compound. The Armenian presence in Jerusalem…
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Krak des Chevaliers (Qala'at al-Hosn)
Author Paul Theroux described Krak des Chevaliers as epitomising the dream castle of childhood fantasies. TE Lawrence simply called it 'the finest castle in the world'. Trust them. This remarkably well-preserved Crusader castle looks almost exactly as it would have 800 years ago.
Guarding the only major pass between Antakya in Turkey and Beirut in Lebanon, it was built and expanded between 1150 and 1250, and eventually housed a garrison of 2000. The castle held out against several attacks, but was lost to the Mamluk Sultan Beybar in 1271.
The castle has two parts: an outside wall with 13 towers and an inside wall and keep. The two are separated by a moat which was used to…
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Al-Hashemi Marine Museum
For proof that the Vikings made it to the Middle East, albeit only model ones, it's worth visiting this museum with its impressive collection of large, scaled-model dhows. A novel shop sells 21-piece knot boards (around KD25) and Gipsy Moth lanterns (around KD17) among other nautical souvenirs, such as barometers and sextants. You can even buy your own Nelson figurine, incomplete with one arm, at the bargain price of KD12.
On the wall of the museum is a certificate, dated 2002, from the Guinness World Records announcing that Al-Hashemi II, the huge and unmissable wooden dhow adjacent to the museum, is the largest wooden boat on earth, measuring a world record-breaking…
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Tomb of Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon
The tomb of Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon is the final resting place of the Spanish physician, also known as Maimonides or Rambam, who worked in the court of the Muslim ruler Saladin. This revered rabbi, who died in 1204, was one of 12th-century Egypt's most highly regarded sages. Legend has it that before his death in Cairo, he instructed followers to load his remains onto a camel and bury him wherever the camel expired. The camel was apparently drawn to Tiberias.
Next to Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon's tomb lies Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai, the Holy Land's most eminent sage at the time of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Ben Zakkai is said to have faked his own death, escaping the…
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Old City
In the late afternoon, with the sight of golden light bleaching the ancient stone buildings, the sound of church bells clanging in the distance, the smell of spices wafting out of the bazaars and a distinct awareness of tension in the air, the Old City really is a feast for the senses. Within its mighty walls you can sleep in 700-year-old edifices, haggle over everything from souvenir T-shirts to ancient artefacts and taste the delectable food of the Levant.
But far from being merely ancient and spectacular, the Old City is above all a holy place, containing a number of sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Church…
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Takiyya as-Süleimaniyya
Lying immediately east of the National Museum, Takiyya as-Süleimaniyya was built over six years, beginning in 1554, to a design by the Ottoman Empire's most brilliant architect, Sinan. A favourite of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Sinan would later create the splendid Süleymaniye Mosque that dominates Istanbul's skyline.
The Takiyya (an Ottoman term for a Sufi hostel) is a more modest affair than the Istanbul mosque, blending local Syrian styles (the alternating Mamluk-era black-and-white banding and honeycomb-style stonework over the main entrance) with typically Turkish features (the high central dome and pencil-shaped minarets). It has two parts: the mosque to the…
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Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Part of an attractive modern development that includes law courts and the municipal central library, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is home to a superb permanent collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works, as well as some fine 20th century avante-garde. Works by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin, Degas and Pollock feature prominently and there are some works by Jewish post-Impressionists Chagall and Soutine. The jewel of the collection has to be van Gogh's The Shepherdess (1889).
The museum often screens films and holds special exhibitions - check the Jerusalem Post on Friday or ask at the tourist information office for the Tel Aviv-Jaffa tourist booklet which usually…
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Al-Aqsa Mosque
The name Al-Aqsa means 'farthest mosque' and is in reference to the isra Mohammed is believed to have made on his way to heaven to join Allah. While the Dome of the Rock serves more as a masthead than a mosque, Al-Aqsa is a functioning house of worship, accommodating up to 5000 praying supplicants at a time.
Believed by some to be a conversion of a 6th-century Byzantine church, Muslims maintain that Al-Aqsa was built from scratch in the early 8th century by the son of Abd al-Malik, patron of the Dome. Clarification of the issue is complicated because nothing much remains from the original structure, which was twice destroyed by earthquakes in its first 60 years. The…
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Souq al-Hamidiyya
Just to the south of the citadel, Souq al-Hamidiyya is the long, covered market that leads into the heart of the Old City. A cross between a Parisian passage, a department store and a Middle Eastern bazaar, its main thoroughfare is lined with clothes emporiums and handicrafts shops, while its narrow side streets are crowded with stalls selling everything from cheap shoes to kids' toys.
A vault of corrugated-iron roofing blocks all but a few torch-beam-like shafts of sunlight, admitted through bullet holes punctured by the machine-gun fire of French planes during the nationalist rebellion of 1925.
Although the street dates back to Roman times, its present form is a product…
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Souq Saroujah
A charming, laid-back neighbourhood of narrow alleys lined with small shops and punctuated by medieval tombs and mosques, Souq Saroujah is a fascinating place for a stroll.
In medieval times the areas immediately outside of the city walls were developed as burial places for the dead; you can still see this today, with large areas of cemeteries lying to the south of the old cities of both Damascus and Aleppo. Occasionally, however, the needs of the living would overwhelm those of the dead. Such was the case with the area now known as Souq Saroujah. During the Ayyubid era the fields just north of the Barada River became a favoured location for the tombs and mausoleums of…
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Great (Omari) Mosque
Facing the northern tip of the harbour is the Great (Omari) Mosque, said to be one of the best examples of 13th-century Islamic religious architecture. Originally a fortified Knights Hospitaller structure and converted to a mosque after the Crusaders were driven out of the Holy Land, it was heavily damaged during the civil war and underwent a lengthy restoration. The main prayer hall once housed the Church of St John of the Hospitallers and its original walls can still be seen.
There are two entrances to the mosque: one down a maze of covered streets in the souqs to the north of the mosque; the other on the eastern side of the building (once the site of a palace built by…
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