Marian in the Levant in April

Marian in The Levant in April

Consisting of Marian-Ortolf Bagley’s Account of Her Travels in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan 30 March-15 April 2007 during which Time she Followed an Itinerary Conducted by Thomas F. Mudloff and Later was Assisted in the Presentation of the Report by Allan R. Brockway

The trip was organized by Spiekermann Travel Services of Eastpointe, Michigan. Academic leadership provided by Thomas Mudloff, PhD, Field Museum, Chicago. Local Syrian guide Giath Abdalla; local Jordanian guide Ibrahim Abdel Haq.

This journal is about a voyage to the Levant in April 2007. But it is the photos that are “telling images,” to borrow a phrase from Ayers Bagley, who encourages me to escape our winters to warmer climes, and patiently guides my iMac efforts. I was literally saved from the chaos of my digitized photographs by fellow traveler Allan Brockway, mentor and friend, who is intro- ducing me to the larger electronic world. I thank them both. We visited fabled Damascus and Aleppo and other important historic sites in Syria, as Ba’albeck in well as Lebanon, and Petra, described here in the order we visited them. These sites were stunning. Our fine leaders and good company of ten fellow travelers enriched the trip. All in all, the journey exceeded my expectations by far.

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The flight to Syria via Dulles Airport and Austrian Air was fairly un- eventful until we reached Vienna, where we were in limbo for two hours, awaiting a replacement plane. Then a dramatic scene played out at the Aus- trian Air check-in desk. It was announced that the first thirty people willing to fly to Damascus on the following day would be given 600 Euros and a free ticket anywhere. More than thirty people rushed to get into line, thus expediting the process of being “bumped.” I had checked in early enough to be able to keep my seat on today’s flight. During our descent into Damascus, from my aisle seat I caught sight of an exquisite walled city that took my breath away. A turquoise dome crowned a cluster of little honeycomb buildings, surrounded by golden desert. For a moment I watched a perfect composition pass under the plane wing, a lost photo opportunity, now engraved in my memory. It reminded me of my little panel painting inspired by a visit to Orvieto. This was the first of many sights that look like my paintings, which may be one reason why the Levant was so pleasing. Our plane finally landed in Damascus at four p.m. where Giath Abdalla, our man in Damascus, had waited all afternoon. He found me standing in line to go through customs, expedited the process, had my pre-arranged visa papers processed, and instructed me to claim my bags. I paid one dollar for a trolley, heaved my yellow duct tape marked bags onto it, and rejoined Giath outside the terminal, passing the gauntlet of waiting people. Soon we were in 2 a small white bus, speeding through the UR oasis around Damascus to the Semararis Hotel in the city center. Giath helped me inspect the offered rooms. I declined a large room on the front and accepted a small, dark but quiet room on the back. I ordered an omelet from room service and then fell fast asleep for two hours. Then I was bolt awake for hours. Was Semararis Hotel, Damascus this my Minneapolis wake-up time? Would I be trapped in this little room in the Semararis since I was under instructions not to wander around Damascus alone? At midnight a note from Margaret Quinn was slipped under my door. She arrived for our tour a day early too. Would I meet her for breakfast and join forces to explore Damascus the next morning? Surely this was act of God!

Saturday, March 31 The next morning Margaret spotted me in the breakfast room, conspicu- ous in my black jeans and gray Lands End jacket, in contrast to the veiled women with their families. I was immediately drawn to this friendly and vivacious person. We would start our day at the National Museum, down the street. The façade of this massive building embraces two round towers from the gateway of the Qasr al- Heir West, an eighth century Umayyad desert palace. We started out in the eastern wing where we encountered two of their greatest treasures. On a lower level we found a synagogue from the mid second century with frescoes on the life of Moses. The entire building was moved from Dura Europos, a site in the desert that we would visit later on. The walls of the tall square interior space were com- National Museum Tower

3 pletely covered with paintings of many figures, unusual since Jewish tradition forbade depiction of people. Then we climbed down to the underground mausoleum of Yahari the Palmyrene, dedicated in 108 A.D, that was moved here from the Valley of the Tombs in Palmyra, another site on our itinerary. Arranged in tiers, handsome tomb reliefs lined the walls. Bejeweled women held their veils with the left hands, while men grasped folds in their togas with the right hands, like so many icons. Presiding over these figures was a sculpture of a reclining man, wearing a toque, who might have inspired Henry Moore. Back on the main floor we wandered through a large gallery filled with many Coptic weavings that we studied closely. Few European museums, even in Lyons, display so many precious ancient textiles. After spending all morning at the museum we returned to the hotel to ask the desk person to recommend a “family” restaurant that served local dishes, where women are welcome. We were directed to the Abou Kamal, a few blocks away, where I asked the maitre‘d for his best dish. He suggested “chick kabob,” for me. Margaret’s choice, which turned out to be a kind of chicken sausage, was less successful. We returned to the museum where the guards remembered us and let us re-enter free. The only place we were allowed to photograph was in a pleasant courtyard, where we took a break. We walked through galleries in a newer wing, at a steady pace for two more hours, passing fine collections of mosaics, glass, metal work, and paintings, all leading to a splendid hall from an 18th century Damascene palace. There a friendly guard showed us how the innovative air-cooling system worked, turning on a stream of water that cascaded down the tiled walls, cooling the space.

Our pleasant museum day distracted us from the grip of jet lag while we focused on the art of the Levant. Margaret, a medievalist, and I were happy to share our interest in art. When we returned to the Abou Kamal Restaurant for supper we were remembered and warmly welcomed back. This time Margaret chose mezzes while I had a bowl of silky lentil soup. Although somewhat dusty, as one would expect in a city in the middle of the desert, the gray and buff colored cement colored buildings in downtown Damascus seem orderly, quite unlike the Cairo squalor that I expected. We felt safe walking around together. Everyone we encountered, from bellman to waiter, people who gave us directions, and even little children on the street, would greet us with at least one word of English: welcome. Were we in a country still un-jaded by visitors?

Palm Sunday, April 1 Giath fetched us at 9 a.m. to attend Palm Sunday mass. Margaret’s older cousin, Will Blanchad, joined us. He had been bumped off his flight in Chicago, found another flight a day later, and arrived sleepless, but determined to hunt for treasures in Damascus. We took a cab to the Church of Maryam, where Giath is a member of the Antioch Orthodox Christian church. Inside we squeezed through the crowd toward the front of the church. The clergy celebrated the Palm Sunday mass for nearly two hours, in front and behind the iconostasis, while solemn boys and girls participated in the processions down the aisles.

Antioch Orthodox Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of Maryam

The action centered on the archbishop who serves as the prelate of all Antioch Orthodox congregations around the world. His magnificent robes relate to the colors prescribed by the church year. The male soloist in a black cas- sock who chanted the litany, was spelled at times by a choir of men and women. Did the ominous slowly changing undertone come from a bass cello? Later on Giath told me that no musical instruments are used in the Orthodox church. This moving music came entirely from human voices. The sustained deep hummed tones sounded something like the throat singers of central Asia. We watched from a spot we had squeezed into, by a busy candelabra station, where parents brought their children to add a candle and a prayer. During the service people moved around, families greeted each other and showed off their beautifully dressed children. As Giath said, everyone was well dressed to show that they were “on top. People lined up in front to receive the holy sacrament. A priest holding a long handled silver ladle with a little pear- shaped bowl dispensed the wine. Chunks of fresh bread were passed around the congregation, even to us, and we all received fresh sprigs from an olive grove. A drum and bugle choir thundered its way around the building and down the aisles inside the church, adding a stirring climax to the mass. Families continued to socialize around the building, enjoying their festival day. Giath invited us to walk through the Christian quarter with him, where we saw old Damascene houses, surely Ottoman, past the parochial school where he studied English as a child, on to the street where he lived.

After we reached his house, he served us tea in the reception room that he said was part of every proper Damascus house. I was taken by the mother-of-pearl cassone in the reception room. Framed certificates on the walls, praised his work as guide for UNESCO observers. From there we went to an antique shop where we browsed and looked at carpets. Will, our expert collector, said that the prices were higher than in Paris, where he shopped regularly. In the shopping area even the lane that led to the public restrooms featured an- tiques, and was arranged like a museum gallery. The attendant certainly deserved a tip for keeping the place spotless. In the evening the setting sun side- lighted the nearby buildings, while across the way little sand colored cubes climbed the heights to the mountains surrounding Damascus, perfect lighting for the photog- rapher. At night I had a fascinating sky view of glittering lights scattered across the city. Somehow lunch had been overlooked, so I had a cup of lentil soup in one of the hotel restaurants because I was try- ing to stay awake to break the hold of jet lag, which was worse than on the first day when we walked around in the museum. In a copy of the Syria Times for Sunday April 1,2007 I read that Keith Ellison, the recently elected Minnesota Representa- tive from our district, accompanied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on her trip to the Middle East, as the first Muslim elected to the U.S. House. Also noted that on Saturday President Hefez al-Assad participated in the Celebration of the Prophet’s Birthday (Peace Be Upon Him.) The day in Damascus was much calmer than the one I experienced in Algeria one year ago, to the day.

Monday, April 26, 2007 Everyone in the group finally arrived, despite cancelled flights and other misadventures. We started our first day with a visit to the National Museum. Our tour leaders, scholar Tom Mudloff and Syrian guide Giath Abdalla, would lecture on the spot or in the field, sometimes in tandem, sometimes spelling each other. I tried to take notes, but it was difficult to keep up and even harder to read my hasty scribbles later on. After we entered the museum we paused at busts from Palmyra and work from Duro Europas, where one of Alexander’s generals controlled his share of Alexander’s world. We saw frescoes from a Palmyra temple of nearly life size figures. But the frescoes from the oldest church in Duros Eu- ropas are now at Yale.

During lectures Tom often referred to the Gilgamesh story, which he urged us to read. We saw a replica of a Trojan column built by Apolodora of Damascus. From the Ugarit collection we saw large eyed Bronze age figures from Mari, which we would visit later on. An important standing life-size male figure who wore a kilt with pelts, possibly made from textiles. When we were given some time on our own I went out to the museum yard to wait for the sun to come out to side-light the Sulimanya (1854) mosque alongside the museum. I made a quick drawing while I waited and watched the clouds move across the sky.

From the museum garden I enjoyed another view of the front of the Na- tional Museum. In the museum yard I photographed an unidentified bas- relief, probably of Roman armor, adorned with an acanthus motif, and was delighted to find a living acanthus plant just a few feet away.

Then I walked to the crowded museum bookshop where, prompted by Margaret, I waved two $20.00 bills high in the air above the crowd to get the clerk’s attention, and came away with a fine copy of the new Da- mascus Art Museum book. Our next destination was the Umayyad Mosque. But to get there we had to walk through the bustling Hamadye Market, pausing to sample the wares at a famous ice cream shop.

In the distance we could see the gateway to the Umayyad Mosque, formerly the Juno Temple from the Greek era, with its basilica structure.

A small green shrine inside the Mosque is said to have the head of John the Baptist. A service was going on, with long lines of men kneeling shoulder to shoulder in their communal prayer positions, along the front wall, across from groups of women on the opposite wall. The mosque courtyard was enormous. Here we could see the brilliant Byzantine mosaics that adorned the buildings.

Back on the street we passed in front of the original church façade, now filled in with large blocks of stone. For lunch we went to a nearby restaurant noted for its mezzes or starters that we were to find in hotel restaurants. Since I know how to make some of them, I could see how highly labor intensive these local dishes are/ Some of us visited a little salon a few steps above the big dining hall that was decorated in traditional Arabesque fashion, reminding me of Moroccan palaces. Reentering the labyrinth of lanes, we walked along the street called Strait to the Azem Palace and Garden. Here several pa- vilions house the collections of the Museum of Arts and Popular culture. These are the music room, school room, women’s room, mother-in-laws room, room honoring King Faisal (Alex Guiness,) and best for me, tex- tile room where I photographed a Rube Goldberg contraption that seemed to be an early Jacquard loom. Then we walked to a Syrian house, and on to shops where several in the group shopped for jewelry. Will disappeared to shop on his own. A shopkeeper brought a chair out onto the side- walk for me, so that I could wait out the shopping event that didn’t compel Allan either. We returned to our luxurious Cham Palace hotel for dinner in the rotating dining room on the 15th floor. Talked with Bob Blumling from San Diego, and with Allan Brockway from San Petersburg. Allan brought along his MacBook Pro to show us some images we had all seen today. He puts his digital photos onto his lap-top each night and reuses the chip the next day. While the others enjoyed lamb chops I was served chicken kabobs. I was seated next to Giath who not only told me about the ominous cello like sound I heard during the Palm Sunday service, he hummed a liturgical melody for me from his choir days.

On The Road

An over-view of the trip itinerary shows a pattern of staying one or two nights in eight towns. This sounds simple, but we had repeat visits that may not be easy to follow. We used Damascus as a center twice: for two nights at the beginning of our trip, and for two more nights when we were “on the road.” We also stayed in Amman twice, but for one night each time. We made many days trips into the countryside, to return to each night to the same center, to Aleppo for instance. Where it gets complicated the journal excerpts become photo captions. Then it is up to the photos to tell the story. We were in Palmyra for one night, one night at Deir Ezzor, two nights in Aleppo, one night in Hama. Then back to Damascus for two nights for a day trip to Lebanon to see Bal’bek. After one night in Amman, we went to Petra for two nights, spent one night at the Dead Sea, and then returned to Amman the night before flying back to the U.S. This account usually follows the sequence of the itinerary. Some of the interesting information from lectures by Tom and Giath may be found in footnotes.

Tuesday, April 3 We walked past the conference crowd in the lobby of our Cham Palace Hotel, into another world, and climbed into our bus for an 8:00 AM departure. We drove through Damascus proper to reach the highway that leads northeast toward Palmyra (Pal-mir- a). Our first “pit stop” at the Bag- dad Café in the middle of the desert, named after the charming film set in the Ameri- can desert. Here Bagdad Cafe we were served tea in little tulip glasses, and looked around. Margaret found a coffee pot here, which set me thinking about finding one too. 12

Back on the road, we had our first flat tire. We spent an hour wandering around the fields while our guide, Giath, and the bus driver wrestled the spare tire into place. Despite such unexpected interruptions, Tom was determined to give us background information on the Levant during our long drives between sites. He gave us excellent handouts for his lectures.1 The bus microphone would sputter on and off erratically, to everyone’s frustration, but Tom and Giath would carry on with good hu- mor. Taking his turn, Giath would tell us about our desti- nations or give us basic les- sons on Arabic words and body language.2 I scribbled notes on the speeding bus. But others used better methods. Bob, from San Diego, spoke into a pocket- size tape recorder while he photographed, while Priscilla On the way to Palmyra: Flat Tire taped Tom and Giath during their lectures and in the field. She told me that she would listen to the tapes back home, while she embroidered, which I find charming. Allan, who traveled with his laptop computer, organized his digital photos daily. When we reached the out- skirts of Palmyra3 our first stop was at the “Tomb of the Three Brothers,” a building with three floors, dated AD 160, in a style 3 Brothers Tomb Entrance called Syro-Palmyran. A single votive column suspended high up in the middle of the facade was purely decorative.4 Our next stop was at the Palmyra museum where Tom drew our attention to a case that displayed a delicate white necklace made of gazelle bones. 13

Such objects are rare because the gazelle does not lend itself to husbandry. After the museum visit we crossed Palmyra’s main street to a restaurant that offered us a lunch with local specialties. Until Ba’albek (in Lebanon) was built, Palmyra was the largest temple complex in the entire world, and is still the widest.5 It took us a good two hours to walk across the temple precinct, photographing all the while. My

Temple of Bel first photos were of the holy of holies, the Temple of Bel or Ba’al. This was a bent-access temple with a pitch black interior. Originally the many little square holes that pepper the temple walls were filled with brass inserts that sparkled from a distance. I couldn’t resist photographing the details of exquisitely carved stones decorated with foliage and fruit.

We followed the north south oriented Cardo or main street, passing the Theater, Agora, Senate, and other sites, finally reaching the Triumphal Arch that presides over the end of the three-quarter of a mile long Grand Colonnade.

Triumphal Arch During our walk to the Agora we saw a column where the name of Ze- nobia, in Greek, was chipped away after her fall from power. In the kiosk at the exit gate of the walled-in temple precinct we were delighted to find copies of the definitive Monuments of Syria. I paid $24.00 in crisp U.S. bills from my hidden “bank.”

We drove up to the Citadel to watch the sunset—

—and to see neatly walled Pal- myra far below. The temperature dropped rapidly. Arctic winds howled around the bus, but Chi- cago Bob and a few others braved the elements to make sunset photos (as did I). Back at the Palmyra Cham Hotel, dinner was a buffet. On the way to the dining room I walked through the atrium, passing a handsome Roman mosaic, or mosaic in the Roman style, with life-sized figures, including a representation of Cassiopeia.6

In the huge dining room several chefs were adding the last edible decorative touches. Soon a large group of French tourists filled the entire dining room, except for our two tables. We helped ourselves to many of the

16 tasty regional dishes at the long buffet table. At the time I was more interested in sampling the cuisine, so this was a lost photo opportunity to docu- ment ethnic dishes. After this memorable dinner, I returned to room 235 on the main floor at the end of a long day, too tired or just not motivated to photograph my room, which was plain compared to the room at the luxurious Damascus Cham Ho- tel.7 A photo of one’s hotel room, or even the scantest journal notes can trig- ger visual impressions later on. But even without a photo, I can recall the elegant buffet, and our pleasant dining experience at our two tables, a little island in the sea of chattering French guests.8

Wednesday April 4 About and hour and a half after our early morning departure from Palmyra, we had another blowout, our second tire episode in just two days! Worse still, the blowout on the road to Palmyra left us without a good spare tire. Giath made phone calls to the next town, called Dayar az Zawi. Soon a motorcyclist arrived to inspect the damage and offer advice. While we waited the bus driver po- litely served us hot tea. After slowly driving into town on the tire rim, we waited at the gas station for a substitute bus to pick us up. Meanwhile town-folk gathered to inspect us.

Our itinerary was changed. The substitute bus took us the Furat Cham Hotel in Deir Ezzor, the main hotel in this petroleum rich region, to quickly dump our bags. Then the scruffy bus took us to the shores of the Euphrates River—to admire the suspension pedestrian bridge over the river and to have lunch on the balcony of a riverside restaurant, Al Shalt. We were 445 kilometers from Damascus. 17

Crossing the Euphrates River

Our smaller bus, with four new tires, collected us at the restaurant to drive us south, along the Euphates valley, to the 5,000 year old ruins of Mari and later to Dura Europos. During the drive Giath entertained us with another Arabic lesson, teach- ing us both words and body language: Pardon - min fat lak Water - minti Beer - katch Don’t bother - malesh Bless you - za hab (?) No - la Thank you - shuk ra Raised eyebrow - no Chin up - yes Pursed lips aimed forward - forget about it

From a distance the site of Mari was unimpressive, just some low sandy dunes and mounds in the desert. Now almost washed away, these ruins of mud brick walls were first excavated in 1933. The site was first occupied in 2900 B.C., earlier than Dora Euro- pos, which we would visit next. We were walking amid walls that sheltered the first city settlements, indeed this could be the birthplace of urban civilization. We walked single-file through passageways that led to some excavated rooms, and we climbed up over the ruins. We were at the site of the Palace of Zimri- Palace of Zimri-Lin at Mari Lim, who reigned 1775-1760 B.C. The palace, which once had 300 rooms, was destroyed in 1758 B.C. by Babylonians under Hammurabi. We climbed up to top of a ruined ziggu- rat, the highest point, to enjoy a fine over- view of the entire site. We could see a tall watchtower in Iraq, a few kilometers distant, that reminded me of British watchtowers in Belfast, with a similar function. This was the time to recall the imposing Unexcavated ziggarat sculptures of the large- eyed life-size male figures we saw in the National Museum. If we could visit sites in chronological order, Mari would be the starting point. 19

We retraced our way back north, along the same road, to the site of Dura Europos, a Hellenistic/Roman fortress city, mid-second century B.C. In the distance, we could see one massive building, called the Palmyra Gate, looming above the empty desert landscape. The mid-third century A.D. Jewish synagogue was moved from Dura Europos to the National Museum in Damascus, where it was rebuilt to Palmyra Gate, Dura Europos showcase the frescoes that tell the story Abraham and Moses. We saw the synagogue in Damascus.

At the Dura Europos site, we ran into a group of students and their teacher, on a day trip, from a music academy in Abou Kamal. Soon they were singing and dancing for us, while the teacher beat the rhythm. We photographed them, and they photographed us right back, everyone laughing at the fun of it. After that exciting encounter, we hiked way back over the unexcavated city, to the banks of the Euphrates River, where we saw countryside as green

20 as Ireland. Someone decided that this was the perfect place to take a group photo, probably Margaret, since she is missing from the photo.

The group photo shows eleven amiable, active and well-traveled people. Except for Tom and Judy, all were traveling solo. We were a companionable group. Reading from the left, Bob from Chicago, Marian, Will behind Tom, kneeling Judy, Allan, Grey, Sigrun and Priscilla. Bob, from San Diego, stands next to Giath, who looked after us so well. Interestingly, we lined up in much the same way at table. We drove back to Deir Ezzor in the dark, barely able to make out the little mud-brick villages scattered along the highway. The only ones in the hotel, we were served a set meal of chicken with mystery cheese sauce, rather than the usual buffet. This wine-drinking group enjoy the good Lebanese wine at meals, although Tom favored beer. I always ordered a big bottle of mineral water to take back to my room

Thursday, April 5 The morning got off to a fine start when I photographed the façade of our Furat Cham Hotel in Deir Ezzor, a building that pays homage to the 21

gateway of Qasr al- Heir, now preserved in the façade of the Na- tional Museum in Da- mascus. Our destination today was Aleppo. Tom and Giath suggested that we visit a Bedouin encampment, along the way and forego one other ruin, but only if we all agreed. We quickly agreed. Not long after leaving Deir Ezzor, Tom and Giath spotted a nomad camp in the distance, so we drove off-road over the desert to their black woven goat-hair tents. Tom and Giath paved the way. We were greeted by the mother-in- law, who runs the show, her adult son, daughters-in law, and children, as well as their other animals. They watched us. We watched them. Although we arrived unan- nounced about 9:00 AM, their large tent and the kitchen area were tidy. The cooking pots gleamed. I photographed Giath, kneeling by a cradle, enchanted by a newborn girl, who already wore gold earrings. Tom’s gift to them was our entire supply of bottled water, which pleased the family. After our visit to the Bedouin encampment we sped along in a northwesterly direc- tion, toward Aleppo. We had to cover 265 miles today, but now we had a good road. Tom gave us a lecture en route

22 every day. Today, in his best folk-tale persona, he spent a good hour telling us the story of Gilgamesh, “The World’s First Epic Tale.” He recommended that we read Stephany Daly’s Mesopotamian Myths, on Gilgamesh. During this long bus ride I drafted a message to Ayers that summa- rized my feelings about the trip so far, which Allan helped me email later on:

Allan, our computer guru, may help me magic this message to you. Evaluation of experiences so far: exceeds Algeria! Evaluation of Tom, our archaeologist: dynamic storyteller, funny, ener- getic, like Bill Clinton, gets energy from us. Evaluation of country guide Giath: mellow, kind, and witty. Both are supportive. Evaluation of group – all solo people, well traveled, well behaved. All of this is more than I hoped for. Each day is more fabulous that the day before. Wonderful food. Hope this report will convey something of these glorious days.

On the way to Aleppo we stopped to visit Sergiopolis, or Resafa, a Byz- antine town named after St. Sergius, a Roman army commander and martyr. The town was continuously occupied from the first to the seventh centuries of the Christian Era. We wandered around Justinian’s Basilica and the Martyr’s Church, early 23

4th or 5th century, and other ruins, all in Syrian Byzantine style. Allan photographed three dark cisterns, so deep and massive that they could be Euro- pean Romanesque church naves. His digital camera “gathered light” to re- veal figures of some local kids below that we couldn’t see. Giath prepared a picnic lunch for us in a pavilion at the site. He set the table with golden paper plates, spicy Syrian pizza for the group, and a dish heaped with tuna for me, since he remembered that I can not eat gluten. Sigrun and I enjoyed munching on the crunchy little cucumbers as though they were apples. At 2:15 we stopped to see Lake Assad, the dam and lake built by the

Russians in the 1970’s. The impressive 3.5-kilometer-long dam created a lake that is 50 meters deep. Later on we had a pit stop at a nameless town, with modern housing that contrasted with the mud-brick villages we passed earlier.

We finally had a good highway. As our vehicle passed other cars, buses, and trucks, we spotted a nomad family on the move in their truck: sheep on the very top, women, children and dog, and sacks of possessions on the back, and the family burro tied on at fender level. This “guerilla” photo was shot while we sped by. We saw other interesting trucks along the highway to Aleppo. Along the modern highway sometimes we could see flocks of sheep grazing in the meridian, a picturesque contrast between modern and ancient Syria.

Giath chose this time to create a radio program. Holding an imagined microphone, he answered several questions from the audience, starting with me, on his radio “talk show.” He also told us about Aleppo.9 Giath told us that the Aleppo Souk is listed in 100 Places You Must See Before You Die, and that favorites there are pistachios, olive oil soap, and scarves. He then gave us another body language lesson: hold your hand horizontally to cover your mouth, then move it up and away as though to wave “hello” in English. Means: you should be glad you are so blessed. Now closer to Aleppo, more industrial buildings started to appear along the road. We passed a power station, tall smoke stacks, and Minnesota-style grain elevators. The air was increasingly gray with pollution. The cypress trees that line the highway lean away from the strong prevailing winds. I recognized redbud trees near the road that were magenta drifts of color. We drove into the center of Aleppo where we would to spend two nights at the luxurious modern Chaba Cham Palace. Aleppo, along with Damascus, claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. During our time there we visited the great sites of Aleppo—the Citadel, the 25 caravansaries that house the great Souk, the Great Mosque, and the Archae- ology Museum—plus a day trip to St. Simeon.

The old quarter is dominated by the citadel mound, which is 50 meters tall and entirely paved with white stone. This most ancient site has been in use since before the Hittite conquest in the 16th century B.C. Saladin re- pelled the crusaders here at the end of the 12th century. It was restored in 1291, only to be razed by Timur in 1400. We walked up the pedestrian bridge, past the fortified metal covered door, into a labyrinth of passage ways, buildings, mosques, and a theater that was wedged in during modern times. Some of the buildings were beautiful examples of the dark and light stonework that we would see again in Hama. Among the many visitors enjoying an outing at the citadel we saw modern young Syrian women, as well women in traditional garb. While we were calmly strolling along we were stunned to see a girl, who was climbing around on the stones of a ruined wall, suddenly slip and tum- ble down the rocks, where she hung on held only by her hands and feet, sus-

26 pended, her body an impossible arc that faced down. Giath ran and leaped — indeed, flew up—to catch her before she fell all the way, a truly Herculean feat. Later we saw this girl, quite subdued, walking in front of us with her parents. Then we wound our way down through passageways that led out again. We were given free time to visit the nearby Great Souk, which is in rambling ancient stone caravansaries. Some went off to shop, in groups. Allan I were not shopping, so decided to focus our time on photographing some of the displays. However, I lost my resolve when I came to the metal section near the exit, where a coffee pot adorned with little brass roosters caught my attention. Bargaining ensued.

The Great Souk at Aleppo

______On the first night in Aleppo, we made an extracurricular after-dinner visit to the bar at the Baron Hotel, a T. E. Lawrence “hang out” that Tom calls a “dive.” The next evening some enthusiasts among us made a return visit that included seeing Lawrence’s bedroom at the historic hotel. The next night we had dinner in a historic restaurant in the Souk where whirling dervishes entertained us in very cramped quarters filled with diners, creating a theatrical rather than a spiritual experience, unlike Bursa, in Tur- key, where the dervishes twirled all around in a large rather hallowed space while we watched their art in silence.

Good Friday, April 6 The schedule for Good Friday, like all days on this tour, was very full: St. Simeon monastery, lunch back in Aleppo, the Archaeological Museum, and, finally, the Great Mosque. In the evening Giath agreed to take those who expressed interest to a Good Friday Service. There was little traffic on the Muslim day of rest, so it was an easy hour’s drive from Aleppo to St. Simeon. We passed nomad tents pitched here and there in the fields, even in this harsh rock strewn land. Someone told us that a million nomads live in the Syr- ian desert, scattered around the country. Near St. Simeon the dry wall stone fences, green fields, and Church from the door of the baptistery

28 steady wind reminded me of western Ireland. We passed groves of olive trees silhouetted against surprisingly reddish soil, the product of decom- posed red rocks, softened by the fog. We learned that the locals call the St. Simeon complex a fort but, as we wandered around, photographing the Byzantine buildings, including the 4th-century Cathedral, it seemed more like the ruined monastery and church that it really was. Kids played around what was left of St. Simeon’s famous column—St. Simeon Stylites (390-459,) the famous hermit who lived atop a high column to escape crowds of pilgrims. The churches and monastery that were built around his column were finished around 490 A.D.

Inside the Baptistery Tom cleared sand away from one Byzantine mosaic for us, that we would have missed otherwise.

I photographed capitols adorned with unusual wind-swept leaves. orms. We drove back through heavy ground fog, reaching Aleppo in time for lunc h. We made our way on foot through narrow streets through the old quarter, to the historic Beit Wakil hotel and restaurant where we enjoyed mezze for lunch, including memorable stuffed grape-leaves enriched with pomegranate syrup. Another lost photo opportunity. After lunch we went to the Aleppo Archaeological Museum, which was being repaired. Outside the museum we were met by sculptured forms from the temple excavated at “Tell Halat” by Germans in the 1920’s. Animals support three caryatid in a style from the first millennium B.C. Many objects from Mari are displayed here, along with 20,000 cuneiform tablets. Judy and I bought replicas of the Eblait Tablet. This letter from King Irkab- Damu of Ebla to Zizi King of Mamazi proclaims their brotherhood and re- quests soldiers and ten pieces of wooden furniture. This was to be a gift for Ayers.

Since photography was forbidden we bought packets of post cards offered by a guard. Among the beautiful engraved ivory carvings displayed here we found an exquisite carved ivory bed ornament that reminded Bibli- cal scholars Tom and Allan of a passage in Amos, where using such a bed is condemned. The two often compared the numbers of Biblical verses they as- sociated with certain sites or objects, reminding me of the story of the joke- sters who need call out only the number of a particular joke to burst into laughter.

When we visited the Great Omay- yad Mosque, once the Greek agora. women in the group had to pull long robes over their pants or jeans before entering. (Women wearing skirts did not require the robes.) Thus modestly garbed, we walked across the large forecourt that was filled with families strolling around, enjoying their day of rest. That evening Giath took Sigrun, Margaret and me to St. Illias Church for the Good Friday Service. We had to pass through milling and socializing crowds outside in the forecourt. Giath, Margaret, and Sigrun stood throughout the service for one and half hours, but I soon retreated to a stairwell where I could sit. I watched the bell ringer and the crowd in the vestibule following the service on closed cir- cuit TV. 31

When I peered out a little window on the stair well landing I saw that the huge crowd gathered outdoors participated too. Boy Scouts lined a pathway for the clergy who took the celebration to the crowd outdoors. The bishop was highly visible in his white robes. Afterwards we went to the dining room on the top floor of the Aleppo Cham Hotel, where the others had nearly finished dinner. Allan showed us photos on his laptop screen from our visit to the Bedouins that very day. He collaged separate portraits of two Bedouin women into one composition. This was the first time I paid close attention to the luminous color on an Macintosh screen. We listened carefully to Giath, who spoke freely to us about life in Syria. When I asked him about the music we had heard in church earlier, Giath hummed something for me from his own choir days, making the cello like undertone that vibrated during the Antioch Orthodox service. Bob from San Diego joined us late and told us that he was taking this trip for a second time. Just before we left the dining room the musician who was entertaining sang “My Way,” paying homage to Frank Sinatra, creating a particularly poignant moment here, in the Levant.

1 During one lecture Tom discussed “Epi-Paleolithic to the Neolithic: Mesopotamia and the Levant from 10,000 to 6.000 B.C. He explained that during the proto-dynastic peri- ods, hub center villages imposed a geographic center, and separateness. A powerful city- state developed and unified 400 to 500 years later than Egypt. Sargan the Arkad unified. While there was no continuity, there was a primitive democracy and a general assembly of citizens. Tom referred to the Gilgamesh epic myth of 3000 lines on 12 tablets, which he urged us to read. This was particularly relevant since the early sites we visited were such centers.

2 Giath gave us an Arabic lesson: Inshallah – if God wishes Bookra – tomorrow Malesh – it doesn’t matter (es macht nichts)

3 Tom told us that sulfur springs in Palmyra were the source of the great oasis. The structures that we see in Palmyra are from the 1st through 3rd century, when this was a Roman

province. After the collapse of Petra in 106 A. D. Palmyra became the most important and influential trading center because it straddled the major trade routes. This is where the dramatic life of Zenobia took place. He went on to say that sculpture in Palmyra followed a canon of certain artistic con- ventions, in its mix of Eastern and Western cultures. Women were depicted in oriental fashions while men wore Roman garb, just as we saw in the tomb reliefs from Palmyra in the basement of the National Museum in Damascus. Tom told us that Temple in Palmyra glittered magically when seen from a distance by visitors. Brass inserts that studded the surface were pulled off in the 20th century. In the 1st century A.D. the temple of Ba’al, who was the god of the sky and the universe, was the biggest in the world. The gods rose and fell just as the political families come and went.

4 Tom said Anatolian goddesses “stand by themselves” and have no consort. Yahweh, who stood without consort, came from this area. The first male god was called Marduke.

5 Tom explained that the temples in Palmyra, and all Mesopotamian temples have what is called “bent” access. One cannot approach or enter directly. One must turn right or left to enter. Egyptian temples have direct access. Builders in Ebla founded the concept of columns. The Egyptians had engaged columns, as at the entrance to Djoser’s step pyramid.

6 Cassiopeia was the wife of Cepheus king of Ethiopia and the mother of Andromeda. She is most famous because she is in Andromeda’s myth.

7 While in the “Cham” chain hotel in Palmyra, Giath told us that “Cham” is another name for the land of Syria. He cited two theories to explain the name of Syria, first, that the Suri tribe may be one source, or that Eli de Sham refers to steppe desert Bedouins. Inter- estingly, Tom told us that archaeologists generally still use the name “Palestine” for now divided Israel-Palestine.

8 Tom explained that the Sykes-Picot treaty divided the old Ottoman Empire into French and British “mandates.” After the Great War the French took over Syria, Lebanon, Alge- ria, and Morocco, while the British took Jordan and Palestine. The British occupied Bosra again during the current Iraq war. This was more of an occupation than a mandate.

9 In Aleppo Hittites were followed by Persians. The Greek language was spoken here. “Helup” means “to milk,” Abraham was here, suggesting a land of milk. The Mongols scorched the city. Fine caravansaries were built here for merchants from many regions. Today the Souk is in the old stone caravansaries. The buildings are built of stone, by law, instead of cement as in Damascus. The Aleppo citadel is in the eastern part of the city. Giath told us that the big Armenian population fled here after their expulsion from Tur- key in the 1920’s. Since then 1.3 million very recent refugees have come from Iraq. We learned that there are 700 deserted ghost cities, from around the 10th century A.D. We will visit one of them, called Sergilla. Experiencing the Levant

During the second week of the trip short visits to several ancient Roman towns were scheduled daily, speeding up our pace even more. The ancient Roman sites followed Roman city planning principles and thus had much in common, so that it was easy to confuse them. We would enter the gates, walk along the Cardo and past colonnades, admire triumphal arches, temples, and theaters—all in various states of repair. Sometimes it was the photo close-ups of minor but interesting details that would help me tell them apart later on.

Saturday, April 7 This day we were scheduled to visit Ebla, Serjilla, Apamea and Hama. We left early for Ebla, a bronze age site 50 kilometers southwest of Aleppo. Tom told us that Ebla gives us a good look at Syria in the 3rd millennium BC. Ebla, an important urban settlement contemporary with Sumer and Akkad in southern Iraq, main- tained links with distant communities such as those in Anatolia. Within a huge archive of clay tablets, discovered in 1975, reference was found to places known to Old Testament authors, e.g., Urusalima (Jerusalem). Unfortunately, the bulk of the archive remains unpublished. We walked around the excavated walls that are topped with flat tiles to prevent further destruction. Tom continued his lecture on Ebla while perched on the ruins of one of the four great city gates. I wandered around with my camera, watching a young shepherd move his flock of sheep across the site 34 and up to the surrounding green hills, a scene that remains unchanged after five thousand years. From Ebla we drove to Serjilla, which is one of 500 “Dead Cities” found in Syria and Turkey. Built between the 4th and 7th centuries, these Byzantine Christian towns were deserted in the 9th century for reasons not entirely understood. Tom told us that the olive oil produced in Serjilla could not be transported when the trade routes became unprotected, affecting the economy drastically. In the 7th century, when war with Islam raged, inhabi- tants probably fled to Aleppo.

The “andron” or men’s meeting-house; one of the best-preserved Byzantine buildings at Sergilla

On this chilly early spring morning many fruit trees were just coming into blossom. Local kids approached us, offering uprooted wild iris plants for sale. Bob from San Diego and I couldn’t resist the young entrepreneurs or their flowers. Irises are as interesting now as when I worked on the “Iris 35

Germanicus” lithograph for the Goldstein Museum in St. Paul. A friendly Syrian family on a holiday outing in Serjilla seemed to enjoy posing for me.

We drove on to Apamea, which is in a wide agricultural valley in the Orontes plain that is subject to devastating earthquakes. In the third century BC Apamea, an ancient city, was fortified and ex- panded by one of Alexan- der’s heirs, Seleucus, who named the city after his Persian wife, Apama. Apamea was destroyed by the Roman general, Pom- pey, in 64 BC and later rebuilt by the Emperor Tra- jan using stone from the Hellenistic city. A great earthquake in AD 1157 knocked down the second century walls. The Greeks, Romans, Persians, Byzantines all left their mark on Apamea, which was restored over and over. Justinian (527-565) rebuilt the walls and founded several churches. Arabs and Crusaders also held Apamea at times. The bus let us off at the far end of the Cardo of this recently restored site. A visit to Apamea calls for walking the entire length of longest colon- naded street in the world, longer even than Palmyra. As the group strolled along what remained of the foundation of the original pavement, I walked over the large paving stones very carefully, noticing

how irregular they were. Along the north-south oriented Cardo we could see four kinds of columns that alternate in the colon- 36 nade: square, fluted, twisted, and plain. Every pier marked a side road or Decumanus. The colonnade, piers, and temples of this Roman city make a beautifully unified ensemble. The cloudy sky threatened rain during our walk. Just moments after we reached the pavilion at the very end of the cardo, the heavens opened up. Safely indoors, we enjoyed the perfectly timed picnic lunch Giath had prepared for us. Then the bus drove us from the archaeological site to the town museum, which is in a renovated 16th century Ottoman style caravansary. As usual, no photography was allowed inside. Although the most important artifacts are in the Archaeological Museum in Damascus, some beautiful mosaics can still be seen here in varying states of conservation. Some mosaics still have burlap glued to the surface, a technique that is used when they are removed from an archaeological site. Back on the road, I photographed school kids sloshing around, enjoying the puddles left by the downpour. Just as in Turkey, they wear neat blue uniforms. During our next pit top at a shop-restaurant complex, I photographed a patriotic display of photos of Bashar-al-Assad, President of Syria since 2000, and photos of his deceased father, Hafiz-el- Assad. We ended our day at the Afamia Cham Hotel in Hama. This new building follows the local building tradition of con- trasting bands of light and dark stone. We were told that this is a very conservative town, and discour- aged from straying into town. Margaret and Will, a dedicated collector, couldn’t resist, though, and came back with some treasures. From the hotel we could see an iconic “noria” in the distance, nicely reflected in the Orontes River. Early the next morning we followed a narrow street with beautiful stonework on either side, to see some of the last “norias” in the Middle East. The “noria” is a kind of 37 double waterwheel that lifts water up to a higher level for irrigation. The in- tricately constructed wooden structure of the waterwheels reminded me of umbrella spokes. I knew from reading Tom Friedman’s From Bei- rut to Jerusalem that Presi- dent Hafiz-el-Assad’s forces brutally crushed an uprising here in 1982, with over 20,000 deaths in a massacre that suppressed the arch-conservative Muslim Brotherhood . We heard a ru- mor that our hotel was built on top of the mass grave.

Easter Sunday, April 8 We left Hama early for Krak des Chevaliers, which overlooks the only gap in the mountains that line the coast of Syria and Lebanon, the only inva- sion route. Saladin declined to attack it in 1187. From the fortress the occu- pants could control all traffic and trade routes in the region. Then it was on to the pilgrimage town of Ma’aloula, and, finally in Damascus. We enjoyed our first stunning view of Krak des Chevaliers from a per- 38 fectly situated restaurant where we had lunch. After looking over the crafts display in the restaurant lobby I bargained for “Damask” woven scarves, which I gave to my German relatives during a stop- over in Europe on the way home. An old village at the base of the great hill caught my interest. When we drove up to the heights of Krak des Chevaliers I saw it as an illuminated page out of a medieval Book of Hours. There were many visitors this day. Inside the crusader castle we made our way up through dark winding corridors to a small central courtyard. Here we found a grand hall with pointed Gothic arches that could have been in France. It was built by the stonemasons brought along to construct the fortress, who added to the earlier work of Arab masons. Up at the very top, we sur- veyed the fertile lowlands dominated by this handsome 11th century stone castle.

Krak des Chevaliers, Syria Southwell, England At Krak des Chevaliers I saw some stone carvings of leaves in the Great Hall that made me wonder if there was a connection to the decorative carvings in the Chapter House in Southwell, in Lincolnshire, which the 1906 Baedeker says was erected between 1285 and 1300. Interestingly, the Wikipedia article on Krak des Chevaliers states "that Edward I of England, while on the Ninth Crusade in 1272, saw the fortress and used it as an exam- ple for his own castles in England and Wales. It would be interesting to learn 39 more about the mutual influences that must have gone on between European builders and those in the Levant when the fortress changed hands.1 Our next destination was Ma’aloula, a Christian pilgrimage town known for its chapels and monasteries that held special interest for me. I thought that it might be the ancestral home of my deceased father-in-law, Charles Malooly, whose parents came from Syria. Ma’aoula is said to be the last town where Aramaic is still widely spoken. We visited the monastery of St. Sergius that includes a tiny seventh century chapel, and the Convent of St. Thecla with its modern copper doors. The houses in this prosperous town climb up the surrounding hills very nicely.

Then we drove on to the Cham Palace Hotel for two nights in Damascus.

Monday April 9 By half past nine in the morning we were in line behind many cars and trucks, all waiting to cross the border into Lebanon for a day trip to Ba’albek, Anjar, and Zahle. Our bus driver boldly drove down the wrong side of the road to get us through. Once in Leba- non we found a good road, and saw some destroyed vehicles left from recent Israeli shelling. Our first stop was at Anjar, an 8th century royal resort and hunting palace. Tom told us that this is the only remaining site of the Umayyad rul- ers. The building style alternated horizontal bands of flat bricks with rows of stone. Although it was chilly and overcast, bright yellow wild mustard plants enlivened the site. I enjoyed having time to look around during our tea break just outside the site. Without having to move from the little picnic tables outdoors, I noticed the remarkably red soil and the bark of a red tree. And I continued to prac- 40 tice reading Arabic numerals on license plates, in this case on our bus. A cal- ligraphic motif on our bus surely says “Allah protect us. ”

At Ba’albek we stopped to see the world’s largest cut stone, not quite finished and still attached to the ground. Allan persuaded Chicago Bob to pose beside the 1100-ton stone.

We learned that Ba’al is the name of the god, while Bek is the name of the valley, thus Ba’albek. By sheer luck my photo of the Temple of Bacchus accidentally caught tiny figures at the base, which convey the scale perfectly. 41

We climbed all around this huge site to see the temples of Jupiter, Bacchus, and Venus and the Great Court.2

At Ba’albek we arranged ourselves in the same sub-groups we did at meals. Even San Diego Bob, who left us soon after, is here. We walked around in these sub-groups, too.

The landscape abruptly changed from the sandy Syrian desert to the green fields of Lebanon, where the surrounding mountains still had some snow. After Ba’albek I was allowed to sit in the “cat-bird” seat, up by the driver, so that I could take some fast “guerilla” shots through the bus win- dows of trees in bloom and of fields “as green as Ireland.” But in Zahle I spotted a particularly fine but distant orchard in bloom on the hillside behind our restaurant.3 Like Maa’oula, this prosperous city climbs up the surrounding hills very nicely. The restaurant was already filled with travelers enjoying traditional Syrian dishes. Allan ordered some of the good Lebanese red wine here. I passed up the lamb and rice main dish in favor of the mezzes. After lunch San Diego Bob bade farewell to us, to travel on his own with a car and driver to Tyre, Biblos and other Lebanese sites, but we headed back to Damascus. By six p.m. we had passed through the Lebanese and Syrian “Zolls.” Af- ter dinner at the Cham Palace in Damascus Allan invited me to see a “slide 43 show” of photos chosen from the hundreds of digital photos he’d taken earlier that day. A sequence of beautiful photos in glowing color filled the screen of his Macintosh laptop computer. I had photographed in the same places, but many images were already gone from my memory. And we could relive the day in front of this screen! This vivid digital color experience really captured my attention. I was drawn to color as light—dare I say “con- verted in Damascus?” The domain of subtractive color, of small color prints on paper, pales in comparison. Digital color is wonderful for photographing in the field. But would it work to photograph my watercolors or colored drawings on white paper that are almost impossible to photograph, let alone convey the color accurately?

Tuesday, April 10 We left the luxurious Cham Palace in Damascus to visit the somber black basalt Syrian town of Basra, before going on to Jordan to visit Jerash and to spend the night in Amman. The basalt stonework we saw in Bosra was reminis- cent of Hama. We learned that Bosra was an early bronze age settlement mentioned in 18th Egyp- tian dynasty records. The Emperor Trajan made it the capital of Roman Arabia in 106 A.D. From AD 70-106 it was the capital of the Nabo- tean kingdom. In 1147 and 1151 Crusaders attacked Arab forces here. Since 1840 it has had a large Druze population and still has a sizeable Greek Orthodox community. Tom enjoyed demonstrating the acoustics of the Roman theater, which is said to be the best preserved in the world. Our superb guide, Giath, left us at the border, to return to his home in Damascus. He had served us so well. Then our Jordanian guide, Ibrahim Abdel Haq, took over. 44

Just before noon we waited in a long line of cars and buses at the border between Syria and Jordan. We had to drag our luggage off the bus to be x- rayed and women had to go into a little building where several teenage girl “inspectors” poked through our purses. After a long wait we were waved through. We drove on to the archaeological site of Jerash where we walked around until nearly five o’clock. Tom told us that Jerash is one of the best- preserved ancient cities, sometimes called the Pompeii of the East.

While the colonnade was less imposing than the one at Apamea, it was easier to walk along because the paving stones were flatter and more rectan- gular. We passed the Hadrian Gate built in AD 121 and the stunning oval plaza and temples. When the many colonnades we have seen begin to blur into each other, I remember Jerash for its neat pavement and for the little military band whose shrill tunes echoed around the temple courtyard while we watched. We ended the day in the modern city of Amman, Jordan, where we checked into the Radisson Hotel. We would return here in three days, after visiting Petra and the Dead Sea. During the night a rainstorm with dramatic 45 thunder and lightning was followed by a steep drop in temperature, probably into the 40’s. Wednesday April 11 It was cold and overcast during our early morning visit to the ancient citadel in Amman. We walked around the colonnade and photographed the Roman structures, the oval colonnade, and the only Greek monument there— the remains of a small 6th- or 7th-century Byz- antine church (left). Beneath the citadel, in the middle of Amman, the 2nd-century theatre that could seat up to 6000 people (compara- tively small for Roman theatres) was visible. Later, on our drive out of town, we would glimpse the theatre again, just off the freeway. We took a short walk from the church, still within the citadel complex, to the Jordan Archaeological Museum, the only major museum we visited that allowed photography of its exhibits. A highlight of the Amman Museum was the Copper Scroll, a Dead Sea Scroll that, uniquely, had been inscribed on copper plates thin enough to be rolled up. Unable to be unrolled, it had been sliced into pieces at the University of Manchester, thus enabling its contents to be deci- phered. Safely ensconced in the Amman museum, it records the hiding 46 places of treasure from the Jerusalem temple, which the Roman general Ti- tus destroyed in the year 70. (The treasure has yet to be found, though many have searched for it.) Tom was especially interested in a much older artifact, of which there are several examples in the museum—a two-headed figure that looks like it should be a model for extraterrestri- als in a science fiction film. Considered to be the earliest human statues ever made, they were discovered in 1983 at ‘Ain Ghazal, a Neolithic site at the edge of modern Amman, and dated to circa 7500 BC. Tom said he is convinced that this figure represents the ancient myth that divides male and female (though there is nothing to indicate gender on either head or the figure entire) from a single being (see Genesis 2:21-23).

Our destination for this evening was Petra. But our next stop would be the eleventh century Crusader castle, Kerak. Once we reached the summit we parked the bus and headed for lunch in the crowded dining hall nearby, where we had our first mass tourism experience in Jordan. Were a hundred other tourists really elbowing us at the buffet? It certainly felt like it. Lunch over, we crossed over the moat bridge to the rugged fortress where we picked our way around workers noisily dumping stone and rubble into the moat, a sight right out of the Middle Ages.

Arches throughout Kerak provided views of the countryside far below as well as into interior rooms. I was particularly taken by the overall color unity of the structure, created through the consistent use of golden limestone, which I once called “Jerusalem” stone, but now realize it was extensively used through the ancient Middle East. As soon as we left Kerak the sun came out. The heavy cloud cover moved north, back to Syria, where it had dulled our photos for days. We were driving on the Kings Highway, which was built and rebuilt from AD 111-114. Called by the Romans Via Traiana Nova and rebuilt by Trajan, it played a role in biblical history. Tom told us it was the only road mentioned in the Old Testament (Numbers 20:17-21). We were on the plains of Moab. The five books of Moses record events that took place in what is now Jordan. In Petra we settled into the charming Tay- bet Zam resort, which is a renovated old Arab village located a few miles from the great site. Each of us had a little stone dwelling furnished with the work of Jordanian craftspeople!

Thursday April 12 The bus took us four miles to the site of the Nabotean/Roman city of Petra where we spent the whole day. It was cold when we started out so I needed my warm jacket. We walked down the slightly downhill roadway between steep canyon walls that led to the famous narrow gorge called the Siq. Having traversed the approximately one-mile-long Siq, we suddenly emerged into a large open space dominated by the façade of the building called the Treasury that was carved out of a great stone canyon wall by the Nabateans.

The Nabatean culture was well established in Petra before the 2nd century BC. They dominated the economy of the region for five hundred years, survived an earthquake in AD 363, and continued to thrive until the seventh century.4 Ibrahim, our Jordanian guide, and his practical knowledge served us well. He steered us to restrooms and then on to an early lunch, keeping us ahead of the tidal wave of people always just behind us. The restaurant was empty when we arrived and overflowing when we departed. We were ahead of Mass Tourism. 49

After Tom and Ibrahim gave us some information, we were given free time for the rest of the day. We could climb up to see what is called “The Monastery,” or just wander around the central area below. Tom warned us that the trail up the mountain had 999 steps cut out of living rock, the climb up was difficult, and the descent was downright dangerous. Allan, Priscilla, Judy, Tom, and Bob from Chicago, started to climb. I decided to go along a little way, to see how much I could do. The first half of the ascent went well enough. Soon the others were far ahead, while Al- lan kept a close eye on my progress. While hunting for footholds we had to hurry out of the way whenever horses or mules came clattering down the trail, with terrified clients hanging on. Animal drop- pings were all over and had to be avoided. Along the trail, vendors found rocks to spread out their wares. One couple offered us tea, so we accepted. When we left they asked for money since we didn’t buy any- thing.

We climbed for nearly an hour, all the while pausing to photograph the Nabatean Royal Tombs façades across the valley. At the top we found our group resting at the tea 50 house. Tom declared that I was a “tough lady,” his way of congratulating me. Meantime Priscilla climbed a trail above the Monastery for an over- view of the entire region. Earlier, during our walk, after it was hot, Bob kindly carried my bulky Lands End jacket. At the tea house Bob told me that just when he was won- dering how to break the news to me that he had accidentally lost the jacket on the trail, he spotted on a burro being ridden up the trail. So he snatched it back! After we photographed the monu- mental rose-red Monastery we slowly made our way down. The trail was worn down from all of the centuries of traffic. Undulating steps made slippery with sand would alternate with stony plateaus, all down the 999 steps we had climbed earlier, a descent of perhaps seven or eight stories. We slowly headed down, getting out of the way of the horses and burros and the other hikers. Tom’s warning was absolutely right: going down was dangerous. Without Allan’s help, the long descent would have been quite impossible. He stayed at my side and got me down the trail safely. Once down we still had a long walk ahead of us, past the museum and past the only free-standing building we were to see at Petra—Qasr el-Bint, a temple dedicated to Naba- 51 tean gods Dushara and al-Uzza—to the restaurant where the others were enjoying refreshments again. While Margaret and Will explored the base area, Will had managed to buy a superb museum quality metal plate in the middle of Petra! After we crossed the main space we still had a long up-hill hike back to the bus. We had walked most of the day, yet we had concentrated only on the most important monuments, especially the Treasury and the Monastery. There was so much more; Petra deserves several days. The bus took us back to our little rustic stone village at Taybet Zaman. That evening we hunted for books on Petra at a bookshop at our resort to help identify photographs taken that day. Then we enjoyed another buffet of ethnic dishes in the restaurant. Allan’s slide show of our visit to Petra was shown in Tom and Judy’s luxurious casita, also enjoyed by Margaret, Will, and myself. It was moving to re-live and re-play a day that was the highlight of the entire trip.

Friday April 13 We left Taybet Zaman to drive to Wadi Rum en route to the Dead Sea, where we would stay overnight. The locals have a monopoly on transporta- tion here. We had a choice of a closed car or an open truck with benches. I chose the truck. We sped along the open desert off-road, around the huge rock formations, where Law- rence of Arabia was filmed. Allan photographed the great cliffs said to be the inspiration for the title of T.E. Law- rence’s autobiography, Seven Pillars of Wis- dom. Some people climbed along a ledge to see prehistoric petroglyphs in a cave or crevasse that was inaccessible to me. I looked for rocks and interesting plants. We drove downhill to the Dead Sea, to 391 meters below sea-level, to stay overnight at the luxurious Marriott Jordan Valley Dead Sea Resort, where I photographed my peaceful room, 302, that overlooked the shore. 52

Allan and I were still debating whether my colored pencil drawings on white paper could be photographed successfully by a digital camera when print film was so unsuccessful. He went off with one of my drawings. He photographed it with his digital Nikon, imported it into Photoshop on his Mac, and “enhanced” the drawing to step up the contrast and do other mys- terious things. When he showed me the result on the screen I could see that digital was the way to go. Meanwhile I gave him a lesson in how to gener- ate afterimages. The buffet that night was the most impressive of the entire trip— something I failed to realize in time to photograph the artful regional dishes.

Saturday April 14 We had some free time this morning. I photographed down by the Dead Sea, to prove we were there. Judy and Tom, Tom still in his Indiana Jones persona, enjoyed the sunshine during their only morning off-duty. Allan posed for me, for the record. At 11 a.m. we gathered in the lobby to wait for the bus, which was considera- bly delayed. Later we learned that our driver managed to stop the bus after the brakes failed while going down hill! Roads to the Dead Sea are downhill. We were very glad that the bus was repaired before we climbed on for our drive back to Amman. Our first stop on the way north was at Mount Nebo, where Moses is thought to have been buried. A church has been on this site since the 4th century, where monks and pilgrims could look, as Moses did, into the “Prom- ised Land.” Today a plaque instructs visitors on where to peer into the horizon for key locations in Israel. Mount Nebo remains a pilgrimage 53 site, one of the most significant in Jordan for Christians. Pope John Paul II visited in 2000 on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a visit that is commemo- rated by an appropriate monument (below left).

Excavated and restored by Franciscan Fathers, the Theotokas Chapel displays several stages of construction and reconstruction, including some unusual mosaic floors. But probably the most unusual monument on Mt. Nebo is modern. A creation of Italian artist, Geovanni Fantoni, the Brazen Serpent Monument ties together two pieces of Christian Scripture: Num- bers 21:1-9 and John 3:14. In the Numbers passage, Moses makes a bronze serpent on Yahweh’s instruction and sets it up on a pole. Anyone who get bitten by a snake has only to look at it in order to sur- vive the poison. In John, Jesus declares that, just as Moses lifted up the serpent, “the Son of Man” must be lifted up (cru- cified) and anyone who believes in him gets eternal life.

Brazen Serpent Monument 54

We went on to the town of Madaba to visit St. Georges Orthodox Church and its famous Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land. Dating to the middle of the 6th century, the map depicts what was then considered the “Holy Land” all the way to the Nile Delta. At its center is a detailed map of Jerusalem in which many still existing features, such as the Damascus Gate to the Old City, may be discerned.

In Madaba we had lunch in a little inn where ethnic Jordanian garments decorated the walls. I spotted a long embroidered dress, made an offer for the dress that was accepted, the transaction over in twin- kling. That evening, after returning to Amman, we drove out into the countryside to an ethnic restaurant in a restored Arab village turned into an attraction for visitors by the group that did the Taybet Zaman resort in Petra. Many people enjoyed shopping for crafts sponsored by Queen Noor in the little shop. Those who appreciated wine ordered fine red Lebanese wine for the last time during this farewell dinner, although in Jordan the wine cost twice what it did in Syria. We enjoyed another lavish buffet.

Sunday April 15 Early in the morning we climbed back on our bus for the drive to the airport, to different airlines, for our return flights. Tom and I were the first to get off at Austrian Air. Bus farewells have to be quick. After good-byes to the whole group I embraced Margaret and hugged Allan farewell. In the Austrian Air waiting lounge Tom gave me a warm farewell embrace. Now I wonder how else to thank the good people—and the Syrian, Lebanese, and Jordanian gods—who graced this wonderful experience of the Levant?

Post-script When I started keeping notes I had no idea of where they would lead. When I joined the group I left the snow and ice of my wintry home far behind. I treasured every spring day in the Levant, and thoroughly enjoyed the plant-life, as well as the buildings and ruins, plus learning about the culture. While I repeatedly dwell on our good lunches and fabulous buffets, I re- gret that I failed to photograph the ethnic dishes of the Middle East, my most favorite cuisine. These two themes seem to run through the journal each day. Now I can see the overall pattern of starting out at the citadel at most sites, walking the colonnade, and photographing structures before I could identify them, and still wonder if I will finish identifying. I wrote down what I could, and photographed much. I have tried to explain to myself what I saw, tried to nudge the varied experiences into some kind of order, using chronology as a framework. By writing I extended the magic of the Levant by many weeks. During these weeks I enjoyed a collaboration with Allan Brockway, whose technical assistance was essential. He steered me through some of the shoals of iPhoto, dot-Mac, and MS Word, a devilishly difficult Word docu- ment, and most importantly, steadily encouraged me to stay with the project. Some of the best photos are his. He has used his editorial expertise to smooth out some of the rougher spots in the text. Our friendship and collaboration has been a great pleasure and a delightful outcome of the trip to the Levant.

1 Sir Bannister Fletcher mentions the remodeling that went on in the second half of the 12th century:

The Krak of the Knights, described by T.E. Lawrence as 'the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world,' is the easternmost of a chain of five castles sited so as to secure the Homs Gap...The castle stands upon a southern spur of the Gebel Alawi, on the site of an earlier Islamic 'Castle of the Kurds.' In 1142 it was given by Raymond, 56

Count of Tripoli, into the care of the Knights Hospitallers, and it was they who, during the ensuing fifty years, remodeled and developed it as the most distinguished work of military architecture of its time. The Krak has two concentric lines of defense, the inner ramparts lying close to the outer and continuously dominating them. The single ward of the original eleventh- century castle covered about the same area as the later inner enclosure, and some of the remains of the early work on the crest of the spur are incorporated in the existing building. The outer curtain is furnished on the north and west sides with eight round towers, of which one is later than the Crusader occupation, and of which two form the north barbi- can, also extended at a later date. - Sir Banister Fletcher. A History of Architecture. p356.

2 Tom told us that the Temple of Bacchus could be the Temple of Mercury, since the gods change over time., Ba'albek was a religious center that took three centuries to build, until 4th century A.D. The Byzantines stayed here until the Islamic regime came. Temple of Jupiter. Entrance - prophylae, sacrificial altar, The cella is the highest in the world and the biggest, Temple of Bacchus. The Germans worked on Roman Ba'albek. In 1898 Kaiser William sent a German mission. There are 188 granite columns. Red granite was from Aswan while gray granite was from Turkey. En route Tom lectured on Pottery and cult, 6000 B.C., Pottery is classified by the sites where first found. He called the pottery the Neolithic revolution., The ware was bur- nished. The ware was tempered with grit(better) or straw to hold the clay together. Suna - standard ware, pin scratched scrafitto limited the designs. Hasuna - geometric painted pots., Tel Hellat 5000 B.C. The peak of designed ware here, colored slip, little use of white, design covers entire piece. Potters wheel, the fast wheel uses two people, the second person turns the rotating table by hand. Copper and Early Bronze age illustrations show two people doing this, which marks a division of labor. Now there are some spe- cialized crafts., In the Levant, there is no relevant chronology. Pit house structures are mentioned. West of the Horda River there was one culture., Climatic conditions were changing. 5th millennium B.C. pit settlements had jar burials as well as under the floor. Stratographic sequence., Skills were passed on by diffusion. Neolithic II - grinding tools mentioned. Tom commented on some objects in the Amann museum. Stone masks with 18 perforations were too heavy to be worn. Some skulls were on pedestals. A religious ritual? In Babylonian myths man is created to serve god., Cult-ritual-magi.

3Flowering Orchard at Zahle, Lebanon

4 Smithsonian, June 2007, contains a fascinating article about Petra.