Here’s to Looking at You from the Middle East
Recently, I was perusing through hundreds of photos from our journey through the Middle East that through Jordan to Syria and finally Turkey. I realized that we never shared how we felt during that trip.
I am guessing that you can see the emotions reflected in Lyra...
From day one, we were out of our element...constantly being watched.
Above, Lyra is in an restricted tomb under the Great Pyramids which is “off limits” to tourists. However, with a little bit of backsheesh and a few watchful eyes from our guides, we were permitted to explore the tomb we were in. We were definitely traveling off the beaten path.
After a bit of climbing we took a rest at the base of one of the Great Pyramids. By the way, Lyra is a great subject, but she is an even better photographer.
After the Great Pyramids, we took some time to relax at the El Fishawy Café (shisha bar) back in Cairo. In Cairo, we never got used to being on display. In Korea, we seldom felt like the outsiders that we seemed to be in Egypt, even though the roots of our own culture come from the Middle East. I thought we might feel a little more at home.
During 2009, Cairo was a city that was on edge...Especially being baked by the mid-day sun during Ramadan...And I can not fathom being without food or water all day, covered from head to toe in a berka and baking in the desert sun.
It seemed like clock work, that squabbles broke out each day around 3:00 pm between cranky merchants and customers who had reached their limits...I probably would have done the same.
Soon, we escaped the heat of Cairo and were on to Jordan (video). Where we found ourselves in Wadi Rum, which is simply spectacular! Wadi Rum gave rise to epic landscapes with warm blue skis that I struggle to describe with words.
On our way through Jordan, we also spent a night in Petra. Carved out of sandstone, the ruins of Petra are astonishingly beautiful and more ancient than I had imagined. The earliest inhabitants dating back to 1200 BC.
After gliding through Jordan, crossing the Syrian border was a much more complicated than we expected. Our crossing point was desolate and we were even told that our visas were not valid!
Finally we got our entry stamp! Then once we got through the first check point, we had to drive to another check point where our bags were completely searched...even my computer.
Eventually, we got everyone’s visas straightened out and we were on our way to Palmyra...
Palmyra is beautiful ancient Roman city trapped by the sands of time in a Syrian desert. You can almost hear the faint echo of chariot wheels on the stones as you walk though its empty streets.
Even though Palmyra is deserted, thriving tourism supports a nearby community of local Syrians who are incredibly nice and and very eager to feed you dates.
Yes! Dates are definitely the happy fruit and in a land as harsh and violent as Syria, anything so sweet is most welcome...The dates were definitely worth the effort of getting into Syria.
After Palmyra, we were on to Damascus...quite a contrast to the ruins we had been touring along the way. Damascus is ancient, but just like Cairo, it was very much alive and vibrant.
Built upon layers and layers of history...Greek, Roman, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Modern, Medieval, and Socialist...Syria was amazing.
A beautifully dangerous place with a patchwork of people, culture and religion all competing for the same few meters of land.
Aleppo did not disappoint either. Like Damascus, Aleppo hides beauty behind the great walls of the Citadel and the surrounding Souq.
BTW...The above hammer scene caused a huge traffic jam in the adjacent street as cars in all directions stopped to see the sparks fly and listen to the rhythmic sounds of the hammers against Damascus steel. I should have put a stop to it, but couldn’t because I was too busy laughing at the ensuing commotion.
The people of Aleppo, just like the rest of Syria are truly an enigma of genius mixed with cunning and street smarts...
hmmm...
Steve Jobs’ biological father is from Homs, Syria.
As I mentioned, we were always being watched. Sometimes it was just the watchful eye of decal such as this...Other times it was more ominous.
If you like digging into enigmas, have a look at the Charlie Rose interview with Bashar Al Assad. You definitely have to be cunning to survive in a land like as Syria.
If the tension in Syria happens to be too much, an alternative to dates (remember, the happy fruit) is Arak. Then everything will be just fine...
As we said our good-byes to Syria, we left the Arab culture behind and found ourselves being watched by yet another layer of culture in Istanbul.
Above: Jesus looked on from a previous era as he stands in the walls of the Hagia Sophia. Originally, a cathedral, Ottoman Muslims retrofitted this magnificent church into a mosque upon the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It’s now a museum...
Being at the cross roads of civilization, Istanbul was even more layered with successive civilizations than Damascus, Aleppo or other cities we journeyed through.
Above, the head of Medusa stairs coldly into the distance while holding up a marble column in the great Basilica Cistern deep below the streets of Istanbul. There are two Medusa heads in the Basilica Cistern that were originally recycled from a previous Roman temple.
It is those very layers of history, culture, religion and humanity packed together in a tangled beauty that makes this part of the world so incredibly important.
And why try untangle this mes? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Or maybe you have bad intentions and want to feed the hatred found between layers of cultures and civilizations? Then pick a layer and ignore all others.
Embrace the tangled mess of history and revel in its diversity. This will lead to even richer layers of humanity for our future.
But I must say, the clashing of cultures makes for really great food...Just ask Anthony Bourdain!
