Ride to Petra

After spending a pleasant evening in the Shara Mountains just outside of Petra and the Kingdom of the Nabateans I made my way thru narrow streets of the village of Petra to the entrance of the Nabatean Kingdom. After purchasing my ticket I followed the crowd to a staging area where one could climb on a horse and ride down to the actual entrance of the old Nabatean Kingdom, it was an interesting experience and the cost was included in the entrance fee. The horse handlers brought the horses up to the staging area where the rider stepped over the horse and easily took a seat on his stead and is lead off to the real entrance. Just a few yards from the physical entrance the horse is stopped and the handler helps the rider off and expects to receive a handsome tip, fortunately I had some small change which is often not the norm for an uninformed tourist.

Petra, Jordan

After a couple of days in Cairo I flew to Queen Alia International Airport at Amman, Jordan a small airport by international standards with lots of new construction. Everyone was very courteous and helpful. I rented a car and a GPS as I didn't want to head out into the desert without some assurance that I'd be able to find my way to Petra. Petra is a small town out in the middle of no where. I entered Petra and wound around up and down through the narrow streets, following the GPS I found my hotel high up on the mountains with a grand view of Petra and the mountains beyond. This was June and I had to wear a light jacket that evening as I took my evening walk not realizing how much walking I would be doing the next day during my tour of the valley of Petra.

Al-aqsa Mosque

The Al-aqsa Mosque is the most important Mosque in Jerusalem and is the third

holiest site in Islam it is located south of the Dome of the Rock with the Jewish Western Wall located to its west. In 1951 King Abullah of Jordan was assassinated there and the future King Hussein almost died there during this attack.

Touring this Mosque was very impressive, with all of the stained glass, chandeliers, stacks of Qurans at various locations, every sound seemed to echo and be amplified with all of the hard surfaces and columns, only the bright rug mitigated the echoes. The length of the building was astonishing with all of the columns making the building seem even larger.

One of the sites we visited was Shepherds Field just a few miles from Bethlehem near the village of Beit Sahour, a very sacred place to Christians, this the place were the Angel of the Lord told the shepherds of the birth of Jesus. It is a very interesting place with caves and chapel in addition we saw a shepherd tending his flock at the base of the hill. What got my attention was the Israeli settlement encroaching on this holy site and the land stolen from the Palestinian people. These are not settlements they are luxury condominiums which belies all of the stories in our media. Just to the right of the condominiums is an "Israeli only" road that is used to bisect Palestinian land cutting off the owners from their property. Once the land is unattended for 3 years the Israelis use "Ottoman law" to steal the land and turn it over to more settlers.

As I walked out of the church of the Nativity and proceeded across manger square I couldn't help but notice the mosque spire with the creasent and the Christmas Lutheran Church in the background with the cross on its bell tower. Just a great picture of the religions of Bethlehem reminding me of the foolishness of many so called religious people with their narrow minded belief that they and only they know the truth when in fact none of us no the one true God, even if there is one.

I had the opportunity to travel to Israel this summer and got to tour many different sites while there this was one of the most impressive sites on the trip. I was so overwhelmed with being there that I had trouble composing a picture, I took this standard picture that everyone else takes and walked around and took several more one of which I'll share at a later time with a little history of the Dome of the Rock.