Farewell, Jerusalem

I know we posted mostly pictures of old stones, desert scenes, and monasteries. But in our other life we enjoyed modern Jerusalem as well. One of our favorite places was Ben Yehuda street, an open air pedestrain mall in the heart of downtown. So we came to enjoy it one last time.

On the beach in Tel Aviv

We had a great day on the beach in Tel Aviv. The question we kept coming back to all day was not about sunscreen, but rather: Why isn't the Tantur Institute located here?

Old Jaffa

Old Jaffa is an ancient port city near Tel Aviv which has become in recent decades a much loved art and craft colony. As an ancient port, it was a launch point for much of the spice and incense route coming up from the Arabian Peninsula and through the Negev desert on its way to Greece and Rome. It also figured in the New Testament, as Peter visits here according to the Acts of the Apostles. Today there are terrific seafood restaurants and lots of little art and jewelry shops tucked into stone alley ways.

Good Friday, Old City

On Good Friday, pilgrims walk and pray along the Stations of the Cross in the old city, marked as the Via Dolorosa. The stations begin just inside St. Stephen's gate, then wind through the city until reaching the church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the final stations are contained within the church itself. Shown here is the courtyard of the Holy Sepulchre.

Palm Sunday, Mount of Olives

On Palm Sunday we went to a church in Bethpage, on the Mount of Olives between Bethany and Jerusalem, which starts the procession into the old city of Jerusalem. The Latin Patriarch begins the ceremony, leaving the church with the procession in tow and then going up and down the mountain. Along the way, various groups join in the walk. Eventually (after several hours) the parade passes through St. Stephen's gate, into the old city, and ends at St. Anne's church. All told, there must have been at least 10,000 people in the procession.

We walked for awhile with Palestinian Christians, eventually fell in with a large group from Poland, and finally entered the gate past a wildly dancing group of Phillipino Christians. Each group of pilgrims had their own prayers and songs. It was hot, the walk was slow, but the spirits stayed high. The courtyard at St. Anne's was filled with music and pleasantly weary pilgrims.

Egypt-- Into the Sinai Desert

We entered Egypt just past the Israeli resort town of Eilat, which sits at the tip of the Red Sea. Across the sea from Eilat is the Jordanian city of Akiba. Not far to the south of Akiba begins Saudi Arabia. We traveled down the Egyptian side of the Red Sea, then into the Central Sinai, stopping above the Valley of the Gazelles (pictured here). We then went deeper into the Sinai desert until we reached the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine's, at the based of Mount Sinai, where we stayed for two days. We made our trip up the mountain from the monastery (see below). After leaving Egypt, we spent a few days in the Negev desert in southern Israel (see further below), before getting back to Tantur.

Up Mount Sinai!

We woke up at two in the morning at St. Catherine's Monastery for the trip up Mount Sinai. The 7 kilometer trail starts right outside the monastery wall. It was a chilly night, with some mist and wind. After several hundred yards on the trail, we hit a camel park run by the local Bedouin tribe. We mounted up and rode camels for about 90 minutes until reaching a camel park higher on the mountain-- about a 5 kilometer ride. From there we hiked the remaining two kilometers to the top of Mount Sinai, following the ancient route of the 700 steps carved into the trail. We reached the summit just before sunrise, and enjoyed it with several hundred others who had made the pilgrimage. After spending an hour or so on top, we hiked all the way down to the monastery, getting back at around 9 in the morning. We were tired. The Bedouins were tired. The camels were tired. Fortunately, the monks at St. Catherine's had behaved while we were on the mountain, so we could nap instead of breaking up any riotous idol worship upon our return.

Southern Negev: Valley of Timna

The Timna Valley in southern Israel was, for hundreds of years, a copper mining area run by the Egyptians from the 14th to the 12 Centuries BCE, i.e. the reigns of Seti I to Ramses V. Not far from the tip of the Red Sea, the Egyptians would ship the copper through modern day Eilat and back to Egypt.

Today Timna Park has excavation sites of the old mines, in addition to the dramatic landscape of the southern Negev desert and sandstone formations similar to those found in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

We climbed down into old mine shafts, up arches, and visited the ancient temple site of the Goddess Hathor, to whom the miners prayed. When you pick up a handful of dirt, you find bluish-green bits of copper still there. Given the astronomical spike in the price of copper over the last decade, it turns out the Israeli government is contracting with an international firm to reopen part of the mine for present day use. From Timna, our trip continued further east and north into the central Negev desert.