Recently in _Middle East Category

Sabina Lohr visited Salalah, Oman, just after monsoon season. While there, she got a unique taste of the region.

In Salalah, Oman, the annual khareef, or monsoon season, brings cool relief from the oppressive summertime temperatures felt throughout the rest of the country. Each year, many Middle Easterners travel to this town of 180,000 in the Dhofar region of Oman, on the Arabian Sea northeast of Yemen, from late June through September, when its desert skies fill with a drizzle that turns its brown landscape a temporary green. But after the khareef, during the autumn and winter, when the skies dry out and temperatures hover in the low- to mid-eighties, this little part of the earth becomes an ideal escape for Westerners craving a wintertime respite.

For my first visit to Salalah I wait until just after the end of the monsoon season, arriving in late September to find rolling hills blooming with grass, flowers, and foliage. The desert, starkly beautiful itself, is still visible through the greenery. My guide, Ali Amer Al-Mashani, leads me to a roadside stand where strips of camel meat hang to dry before being wrapped in foil and cooked over coals (above). I eat some, tangy and delicious.  We make our way to another stand where we buy coconuts, drink the fresh milk inside and peel and eat the soft, wet and sweet coconut meat.

Our pal Ford Cochran was in New York City this past weekend for the opening of the Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And even better, he got a private tour of the exhibit from its curator, National Geographic Fellow Fred Hiebert. Here's a snippet from Ford's post on BlogWild:

...He steers me to a case containing fragments of three golden bowls, looking modest compared to most of the pieces on display throughout the gallery. Why these? "These pieces," says Fred, "this is native gold, more than 4,000 years old, the native wealth of Afghanistan. One looks Mesopotamian. One has motifs from the Indus Valley. When these were made, Afghanistan was already at the center of trade."

When farmers found the bowls in 1966, says Fred, they didn't know the cultural history recorded in them, but they knew the gold's worth. They cut the bowls into equal-sized pieces so they could share the wealth. Some of the fragments were recovered, and the design of the bowls is still preserved. 

I saw the exhibit when it was at the Smithsonian last year and it was breathtaking (my colleague Amy Alipio openly admitted that it made her cry). See the rest of Ford's post for other curatorial insights, and be sure to check out the show yourself if you're in New York City; it runs through September 20th. 

Photo: Ford Cochran

Israel is in the news nonstop this week, with the pope's visit making headlines and today being Israeli Independence Day. Inspired, IT Editor Janelle Nanos is revisiting some of her favorite holy sites from her recent trip.

I don't tend to do much heavy reading while on vacation, but I quickly learned that along with the numerous guidebooks I brought with me to Israel, it probably would not have been a bad idea to toss a Bible into my suitcase. Luckily, my tour guide, Ziv Cohen, had one with him at all times. The heavily dog-eared tome provided us with a handy, albeit ancient, reference point which underlined the significance of the sites we visited, and spurred a favorite quote from the trip: "In Israel, the Bible is our GPS."

Driving in the van between destinations, I'd grab the book and thumb through its thin, onion-skin-like pages. And like an onion, Israel's history enfolds layer-upon-layer, which explains the fact that sites like the tomb of David is housed in the same building where it is said the Last Supper took place. (The tomb is on the first floor, the "upper room" as it is known, is just upstairs). As you can see from the many tabs Ziv uses as a reference, Israel's role in the Bible can't be covered in a mere blog post. But after the jump, I share some travel highlights from the Biblical stops along my trip. 

In response to our Mother's Day Special, we received essays from readers describing memorable trips they've taken with their moms or their kids. Here Peggy Goldman describes sightseeing in Israel with her sons.

I had been living in Israel for about six months when I was presented with the opportunity to tour the country with my two adult sons. At the time, my husband and I were living in Eilat. My younger son, David, was also in Israel for the summer, and Dan, my older son, came over to join us for some sightseeing.

We drove around the Sea of Galilee, and then up into the Golan Heights. We peered out of the lookout posts at the abandoned Syrian bunkers that overlook the green rolling farmland below, and we mused over the intricacies of Middle East peace, wondering how, in such a beautiful place, people couldn't just figure out to get along.

We walked the long trail at Tel Dan nature reserve, where we explored one of the sources of the Jordan River. And we laughed without pity when Dan, the family joker, ignored our guide's words of caution and plopped into the rippling water, freezing in the ice cold stream. His yelping brought rangers and visitors alike to see what happened.

We spent a lazy afternoon swimming in the Kinneret in the Sea of Galilee, and even took a turn at parasailing, which my kids never expected me to even try. The photo of my two sons--standing on a hill, arm in arm, with the entire Hula Valley behind them--sits on the credenza in my office today. Each time I look up from my work, I smile at the memory of that wonderful weekend together.

Photo: The Golan Heights, by Janelle Nanos

Senior editor Norie Quintos, who edits the annual Tours of a Lifetime special issue currently out on newsstands, talks to Jim Sano, president of San Francisco-based Geographic Expeditions, one of the oldest and most trusted guided tour operators in the country (NOTE: not associated with National Geographic Expeditions), about where the industry is headed and the role travel plays in making the world a better place.

How are current economic conditions changing guided travel?

I don't have a crystal ball, but I can say we have weathered many storms. This one may be more significant than 9/11, SARS, and the Gulf War because it is so global and pervasive up and down the economic ladder, affecting the highest end travelers as well as value travelers.

Are you making changes in your programs?

Yes. We're moving towards shorter and shorter holidays. This has actually been a trend over last few years, but for many people in the current climate, the degree of comfort to which they feel they can be away from home, as well as finding the time, has been foreshortened.

Where are people traveling?

We've seen our South American offerings, including the Galapagos, go up from last year.

I know you are planning programs several years out. What are the new destinations of the future?

Cuba is one of the countries on our radar screen. We have done educational trips to Cuba in the past, but there is a pent-up demand and we're doing legwork on that now and will be ready when conditions change. We're also looking at the west coast of Africa as an area yet to be explored; it is very rich culturally.

Your company's roots are in long adventure treks in Asia. But I've noticed your catalog has diversified and is offering fewer hard-core treks.

Whereas before 80 percent of what we offered in the '70s and '80s was trekking, now it's just under 20 percent. That's true for many other companies that started at the same time. The degree to which people want to do the harder treks has lessened dramatically. The people who used to trek now want to do something softer. They may want to hike during the day, but then they want a hot shower and glass of wine. We've adapted by offering both. There's an upcoming trip we're doing with Peter Hillary (son of Everest climber Edmund Hillary), going to South Georgia Island to retrace Shackleton's trek across the island. Part of group will be crossing with Peter; it's difficult glacier travel. But a majority of the group will stay on the vessel. Of the 80 to 100 passengers, we may get 20 who want to do the crossing. But the others still want the opportunity to rub shoulders and learn from Peter Hillary and top-notch mountaineers.

National Geographic staffer Korena Di Roma is just back from a two-week trip to Syria, where she explored some undisturbed ruins outside Apamea.

Among the surprises I encountered on a recent trip to Syria, the colonnaded avenue at Apamea (Afamia in Arabic), was perhaps the most impressive. Having come by car from Palmyra--probably the most celebrated archaeological site in a country strewn with the remnants of raiders and empires--I thought I had seen the best of imperial Rome's architectural statements. But after miles of fertile cotton and barley fields, the ruins of the Hellenistic city of Apamea rose into view with their own, unexpected majesty, the last vestiges of a Seleucid crossroads once inhabited by half a million people.

Located in northwestern Syria on the right bank of the Orontes River, it's easily accessible by car from either Hama or Aleppo, Syria's second largest city and itself worth a visit, particularly because it is an easy and inexpensive train ride from Damascus, costing about four dollars for clean, first-class accommodations.

When we drove up to Apamea in late afternoon, a lone attendant at a small ticket booth collected our entrance fee of 150 Syrian pounds (about three dollars) per person. The only other visitors were a group of schoolchildren clustered around the base of a votive column, a family picnicking on a patch of grass, and a few couples who might have been seeking privacy. As it was, they chose well. Apamea had no tour buses, peddlers, or four-legged "taxis." Instead it seemed a quiet refuge, an isolated outcropping where wildflowers marched on the agora as relentlessly as the Crusaders once did.

Photographer: Ayaz A. Asif  from Lebanon, NH

Getting the Shot: The shot was taken on a drive back from a remote farming village in the Sindh Province of Pakistan.

The Details: This is a restaurant called the BBC Hotel in Dabayjee, (the word hotel is often used to refer to restaurants in Pakistan). The BBC Hotel is located off the National Highway which runs north from the port city of Karachi. I stopped at the restaurant for dinner and was pointed to the one table and chair they had there. Patrons normally sit on bed-like platforms on which the food is served. Familiar with the custom to sit on the floor and eat, I had not heard of or seen this variation, and I was intrigued by how the water was served in large ceramic pots. I liked how the color scheme of the beds matched the colors on the walls and ceiling.

The restaurant was very dimly lit, so I put on my fastest lens and tried to be as discreet as I could be about the photo. I didn't want the subjects to be self-conscious about having a camera pointed at them. I took several shots, the one I ended up picking had the subject in the foreground with an appealing expression in his eyes.

The Camera: Canon 5D Mark II with 85mm f/1.8 Lens; settings: f/1.8 @ 1/50 ISO 3200.

We like: How this captures a quiet moment and an interesting custom in Pakistan. Think you have a Global Eye? Add your photos to our Flickr pool.

Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they're blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys' Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

On the remote chance that someone from the Ministry of Egyptian Tourism might be reading this post, I urge you to gather up all the street vendors and merchants from around your country, put them in a room, and send them a simple message: If you ease up on constantly harassing tourists to buy something from you, we might actually purchase something!  

It's staggering the amount of time and energy we spent fending off souvenir salesman during our two weeks in the Middle East. We actually started to devise strategies on how to minimize the pestering, and even though the boys are just 12 and nine, they were not immune to being hounded. Don't make eye contact, don't say a word or answer their questions ("Where are you from?", "For you my friend, no charge to look", "How much you want to spend?"), don't stop to look at anything, and whatever you do, don't ask how much something costs. If you do, you better have a sound exit strategy.    

I remembered this side of Middle East travel clearly from my first visit there some nine years ago, but it still didn't make the situation any less irritating. One positive aspect of all this, however, is that it kept our shopping in check, something that had challenged us since we stepped foot outside the U.S. seven months ago. We needed to try to keep our spending down, and buying stuff for a house we don't even have yet, no matter how tempting, was becoming too frequent an occurrence.

There are a some things that you "must" do in any city. Kiss the Blarney Stone. Walk the Golden Gate Bridge. Get the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. But few of those musts are as contemplative as visiting Jerusalem and placing a prayer in a crack of the Western Wall.

We arrived in the city late on a Friday afternoon, and had just enough time to stroll through the cacophony of the marketplace before heading over to the wall. Known as the most holy site in the Jewish faith, its significance lies in the fact that it is the last remnant of the original retaining wall which surrounded the Second Temple, which was built over 2,000 years ago. After the temple was destroyed in AD 70, the Jews were exiled from the city, and it became a place of pilgrimage where they would return to lament their loss (it was long known as the Wailing Wall for that reason). Now it is essentially an open-air synagogue, with divided sections for men and women to pray independently.

Ah Dubai, it seems every time we hear news about the fine city, it's always some over-the-top project that aims to surpass some other over-the-top project announced last month. So I was glad to hear news that the latest idea to surface is a sustainable tourism initiative - the industry is taking steps to protect their environment, reduce CO2 emissions, and lower utility costs. Travel Mole reports:

A detailed roadmap, with clear phases, timelines, target dates, and benchmarks aimed at progressing the initiative for sustainable tourism, will be communicated to all of Dubai's hotels and hotel-apartments shortly.

Some of the hotels which have signed-up so far include, Emirates Towers, Madinat Jumeirah, Movenpick Hotel and The One & Only Royal Mirage.

Dubai hotels generally still lag behind their counterparts in Europe, where the average hotel produces 3,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum. In Dubai that figure is 6,500 tonnes and the size of the carbon footprint produced by all hotels in Dubai, is well over 500 million kilos a year.

It's an important step, and we're excited to see them adopting smart principles.

Photo: The "fronds" of the $14-billion Palm Jumeirah in Dubai by Alexander Heilner via National Geographic Magazine's Visions of Earth

I have to admit, I did not really anticipate the sheer amount of outdoor activities that are available in Israel. I guess part of me suspected that between the religious artifacts and ruins, and the city of Tel Aviv, there wouldn't be much time left to get outside and get dirty. But I found three ways to get covered in the stuff. Here are some highlights:



Desert Touring

After our Dead Sea soak, I was just about ready to turn round and head back to Jerusalem. But I'm so glad that we didn't, as we ended up heading over to the protected land just south of the Ein Bokek hotel quarter, where we were met with two Jeeps that looked like they'd been props in an Indiana Jones film. Our drivers took them out onto the salt mountains of Sedom, which are thought to be the site where the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah took place. Perhaps it was because it was the "magic hour" - that time when the sun makes everything seem as though it's lit from within - or because it was, after visiting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, so distinctly remote. But the ride was incredible. The region is protected parkland, and hiking and cycle trails crisscrossed our route, but all comers should plan on making their way up to the peak to take in the stunning views of the Dead Sea and Jordan. The group we went with, Shkedi, also offers moonlight tours (which they say are enhanced by not using headlights, which makes me a little nervous) and camping within the park grounds. It's the warmest place in all of Israel, and I would have easily spent the night.

Jenn Blatty is our newest Traveler photo intern, and she is also a former U.S. Army Engineer Officer who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since those are two places that we hear about in the news constantly, but where few of us travel, we asked her to share some of her experiences while she was deployed there.

Iraq is a controversial topic; increasingly so now with a new President making new decisions about our military. But it's also a place that has left a large percentage of travelers asking a different set of questions, other than whether  our military stay or go. Instead, they are asking: What is it like there? What are the people like? Or will it be open to travel in my lifetime? I am certainly not a professional in the matter, but there is one experience I would like to share as it made me realize how close in nature we really are to the Iraqis, and that many of them ask the same questions about us.  

A deployment into Iraq begins in Kuwait, where soldiers spend about two weeks preparing for movement north. Our movement north was to Tallil Air Base, an old Iraqi airfield that was about 20 kilometers from the city of An Nasiriyah, and walking distance from the historical remains of the ancient city of Ur.

Because we were a Combat Heavy Engineer unit (in civilian words, a construction unit), we were in a constant need of materials. I was the contractor for my unit, and once a week I would travel into downtown Nasiriyah with a team to purchase a "shopping list" of immediate needs from the local Iraqi vendors.

No Noodle is Necessary When You "Swim" in the Dead Sea

Ten Things to Know Before You Go Bobbing in the Dead Sea

I try to avoid tourist traps when I'm traveling, but there is no way that I was skipping an opportunity to float in the Dead Sea, and truth be told, it is an experience for sure. But there are definitely a few things you should know before taking the plunge:

1) There is no such thing as swimming in the Dead Sea. When you sit your butt down in the water, it essentially feels as though you're floating in a pool with a plastic noodle. Only there's no noodle. Your feet and shoulders rise and bob, and it takes a few seconds of getting used to.

2) The salt that lines the sea bottom is rough on your feet, and will cut you up severely if you don't wear water shoes of some kind. (Naturally, I chose to wear the dorkiest ones I could find, and opted to put a picture of myself wearing them on the Internet). Protect your feet and plan accordingly.

3) Fast Facts: The Dead Sea is actually not a sea at all, but a lake that's made up of about 30 percent salt. It is the lowest place on earth at 417 feet below sea level. Its properties have been known to cure skin conditions and help with respiration, and its mud is used in spa treatments in the many hotels along the shoreline...

4) Being wrapped in mud is a very weird sensation. Being wrapped in mud and then wrapped in a blanket and then left in a dark room for 20 minutes feels a bit like being made into a human mud-bun.

5) Do not shave at least two days before you plan to take a dunk in the Dead Sea, and be prepared if you have any open cuts or sores while you're swimming, as you will quickly learn the real meaning of putting salt in one's wound.

I've just returned from my visit to Israel, and since I finally have some time to actually blog, I'm going to be catching you up on many of my favorite experiences from the trip:

I already mentioned how fabulous the markets were in Tel Aviv, but there's something particularly interesting about arriving at the Mahane Yehuda street market on a Friday afternoon right before the start of Shabbat. To put it simply, it was frantic, as people throughout the city were doing their last-minute shopping before sundown (5:07 p.m. that day). In the midst of the madness, I was thrilled to find a moment of quiet, in the form of the Tower & Story Museum, a small gallery space that's tucked between market stalls. Photographer Yoram Amir has photographed scenes from around Jerusalem, and hung them in distressed window frames that are scattered throughout the apartment/gallery. But what's even better is that the second story balcony provides a great photo op of the market below. Check it out, along with other photos, after the jump.

IT Editor Janelle Nanos is in Israel this week, and she's (attempting to) blog when she has a few spare minutes. You can follow all of her posts here.

Our host explains the tenets of the Druze faith in Peki'in, Israel

When I signed up on this blogging trip through Israel, I was under the assumption that I'd actually have some time to blog. But I'm here for a week and the country is the size of New Jersey, so they've scheduled us to the point where little time is left for sleeping, never mind blogging. But it is kind of a kick to be introduced around Israel as a blogger. Apparently, from the people I've spoken to, blogs are not as popular here as they are in the States, so our group's visit was the subject of an article in the local paper. Tomorrow, they're planning to follow us on the local news channel.  Apparently, we're kind of a big deal.

When we arrived in Haifa, the Minister of Tourism mentioned that religious diversity was one of the most endearing features of her city. But in truth, I've found the layers of religiosity throughout the country to be fascinating so far. Our first taste was a visit to the Bahá'i Gardens, an exquisite 19-tiered network of landscaped terraces that cascade down the center of Haifa. In the middle is the Golden Dome where worshippers practice the Bahá'i faith, which holds that the many prophets that have appeared to different religions throughout time - be it Muhammed, Jesus, Buddha, or Moses--  all share God's message and have served as educators to spread his word. The Gardens themselves are postcard perfect, and it's fitting as the faith holds that your worship in part should take place outside, communing with nature. In contrast, going inside the Golden Dome is incredibly stark. It's a white space that's surprisingly small inside.

You can hopscotch through religious history easily in Haifa, as just a few minutes away from the gardens is the Stella Maris Church, built onto the side of Mt. Carmel, the origin of the Carmelite order of nuns. The altar of the church is built on top of a cave that is said to be the hiding place of the prophet Elijiah, when he was seeking to avoid persecution from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. It seemed a bit Harry Potter-like to have a cave set in the midst of an otherwise austere church, but I quickly learned that it wouldn't be the most interesting thing I'd see all day.

Hold on to your hats, IT readers. I may have discovered the most unsustainable travel innovation yet. While browsing the news for our weekly Radar roundup, I came across a story announcing plans by the new Palazzo Versace in Dubai to...wait for it -- air-condition its beach. That's right, air-condition an outdoor beach for those poor (billionaire) souls who have been forced to sunbathe on warm sand all these years (cue collective "awwww").

It's not air-conditioning in the traditional sense: The hotel, slated for completion in 2010, will employ a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that sucks the heat from the surface. In addition, the hotel's swimming pool will be cooled, and plans are being considered for giant blowers that will "waft a gentle breeze over the beach," the Times Online reports.

Yes, it's true that Dubai has money to burn, as a resort city in one of the world's wealthiest countries, the United Arab Emirates. And until recently, the UAB was holed in a rare bubble that was mostly unaffected by the plummeting global economy. But it also currently holds the record for the largest per capita carbon footprint in the world. Naturally, environmentalists have been horrified by the plan.

Photographer Alexandra Avakian rides a UN vehicle through Lebanon in 2005. By Hassan Siklawi.

If you're looking for a fantastic female role model, you may want to add Alexandra Avakian to your list. At the age of 9, she decided that she wanted to grow up to be a National Geographic photographer. She's now been shooting for the magazine for over 13 years, and has covered some of the more violent and important stories of our time, dodging bullets in Somalia, enduring beatings by Hamas, and getting unprecedented access to Yasser Arafat while accompanying him on his travels. Her new book, Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World, recounts the stories behind her pictures, often in heartwrenching detail. She edited the book while undergoing chemo treatments for breast cancer, and the project, she said, only galvanized her will to survive. Janelle Nanos spoke with Avakian about shooting photos in between gunshots and how she finds her subjects. You can read more about her book and other work on her blog at National Geographic online.

Congratulations on the new book. Looking back, how did you get interested in photography?

My father was a director and editor, my stepfather a theatre and film director, and my mother is an actress, so I grew up backstage and on movie sets. My father would sit me behind the camera and show me how the director of photography had set up the shot, how it was composed. He'd teach me how photo essays in Life magazine were made, so I was always attuned to pictures and storytelling.

You can often see that training in your work, as your images often have layers within them. How do you translate that training to the haphazard situations you often find yourself in?

There's a big difference between setting up a shot in a studio and being in reality during unfolding news. But I studied art history too. I think that once you know what excites you in terms of composition and aesthetics, you're going to bring that everywhere with you, no matter where you are.

What aspects of your own life inform your work?

I came from a very strong family of artists, and everyone is a strong personality and works very hard. Also, I have an awareness and organic interest in knowing what's happening in the world and what's happening with people outside of our comfortable realm. There was also the desire to engage and connect with my family history. My family fled the Armenian genocide. Part of them were wiped out by Stalin in the Great Terror. There were many, many other massacres that my family had to deal with living in that region. So when I found out about that, I understood they had been through a lot of pain.

While development projects are being delayed and tourism numbers are expected to plummet, the United Arab Emirates sees the crashing economy as a blessing in disguise, the New York Times' Michael Slackman reports. Finally, native Emiratis say, they have a chance to reclaim their identity, which has become endangered by the influx of foreigners who have come to capitalize on the nation's booming economy. Many natives are hoping to see some of these foreigners leave, allowing them to regain a cultural foothold in their own homeland. As the country with the world's largest per-capita ecological footprint, perhaps this economic cool-down can quell a culture in crisis.

It is estimated that Emirati natives, who have nomadic Bedouin lineage, make up only 10 percent of the UAE population today. Several spoke fervently with Slackman about their fleeting traditions. "We are Bedouins, developed Bedouins, but we still have our traditions. It's all changing and disappearing," one says in the article.

Read the entire article here. IT wants to know: Where do you see the Emirates' future going? Will natives be able to reclaim part of their identity as the economy tumbles?