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.
© 2007 Marian-Ortolf Bagley
Entering the Levant
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 introducing 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.
*
*
*
*
* *
The flight to Syria via Dulles Airport and Austrian Air was fairly uneventful until we reached Vienna, where we were in limbo for two hours,
awaiting a replacement plane. Then a dramatic scene played out at the Austrian 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, conspicuous 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 alHeir 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.
4
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
5
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 cassock 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 pearshaped 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.
6
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 antiques, and was arranged like a museum gallery. The attendant certainly deserved a tip
for keeping the place spotless.
In the evening the setting sun sidelighted the nearby buildings, while across
the way little sand colored cubes climbed
the heights to the mountains surrounding
Damascus, perfect lighting for the photographer. 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 trying 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 Representative 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.
7
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 Europas 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.
8
From the museum garden I enjoyed another view of the front of the National Museum. In the museum yard I photographed an unidentified basrelief, 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 Damascus 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.
9
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.
10
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 pavilions 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, textile 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 sidewalk 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.
11
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-mira). Our first “pit
stop” at the Bagdad Café in the
middle of the desert, named after
the charming film
set in the American 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 humor. Taking his turn, Giath
would tell us about our destinations or give us basic lessons 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 pocketsize 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 outskirts of Palmyra3 our first stop
was at the “Tomb of the Three
Brothers,” a building with three
floors, dated AD 160, in a style
called Syro-Palmyran. A single
3 Brothers Tomb Entrance
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.
14
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 Zenobia, 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—
15
—and to see
neatly walled Palmyra far below.
The temperature
dropped rapidly.
Arctic
winds
howled
around
the bus, but Chicago 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 document 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 Hotel.7 A photo of one’s hotel room, or even the scantest journal notes can trigger 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 politely 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, teaching 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
18
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 Europos, 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 ZimriPalace 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 ziggurat, the highest point,
to enjoy a fine overview 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
Unexcavated ziggarat
to recall the imposing
sculptures of the largeeyed 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
Palmyra Gate, Dura Europos
in Damascus, where it was rebuilt to
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 alHeir, now preserved in
the façade of the National Museum in Damascus.
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-inlaw, 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 unannounced 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 direction, 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 summarized 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, energetic, 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 Byzantine 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 European Romanesque church naves. His digital camera “gathered light” to reveal 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.
24
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 Archaeology 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 repelled 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 tumble 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
27
_____________________________________________________________
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 Turkey, 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 Syrian 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 decomposed 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.
29
I photographed capitols adorned with unusual wind-swept leaves.
orms.
We drove back through heavy ground fog, reaching Aleppo in time for
lunch. 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 IrkabDamu of Ebla to Zizi King of Mamazi proclaims their brotherhood and requests soldiers and ten pieces of wooden furniture. This was to be a gift for
Ayers.
30
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 Biblical 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 associated with certain sites or objects, reminding me of the story of the jokesters who need call out only the number of a particular joke to burst into
laughter.
When we visited
the Great Omayyad 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 circuit 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 periods, hub center villages imposed a geographic center, and separateness. A powerful citystate 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
3
Giath gave us an Arabic lesson:
Inshallah – if God wishes
Bookra – tomorrow
Malesh – it doesn’t matter (es macht nichts)
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
32
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 conventions, 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. Interestingly, 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, Algeria, 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 Turkey 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, maintained 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, inhabitants 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 expanded by one of Alexander’s heirs, Seleucus, who
named the city after his
Persian wife, Apama.
Apamea was destroyed by
the Roman general, Pompey, in 64 BC and later rebuilt by the Emperor Trajan 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 colonnaded 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 contrasting bands of light and dark stone. We were told
that this is a very conservative town, and discouraged 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 intricately constructed wooden
structure of the waterwheels
reminded me of umbrella
spokes.
I knew from reading
Tom Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem that President 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 rumor 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 invasion route. Saladin declined to attack it in 1187. From the fortress the occupants 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 stopover 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 surveyed 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 example 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 Lebanon 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 rulers. 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 calligraphic 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
42
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 windows 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.” After 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 “converted 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 reminiscent of Hama. We
learned that Bosra
was an early bronze
age settlement mentioned in 18th Egyptian 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 Nabotean 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 xrayed 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 bestpreserved 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 rectangular. 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 Byzantine church (left).
Beneath the citadel, in the middle of
Amman, the 2nd-century theatre that
could seat up to 6000 people (comparatively 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 deciphered. Safely ensconced in the Amman museum, it records the hiding
46
places of treasure from the Jerusalem temple, which the Roman general Titus 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 extraterrestrials 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.
47
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 Taybet 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!
48
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 Allan 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 droppings 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 anything.
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 overview 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 wondering 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 monumental
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 transportation 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 Lawrence of Arabia was
filmed. Allan photographed the great cliffs
said to be the inspiration
for the title of T.E. Lawrence’s autobiography,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
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 mysterious 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 generate 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 considerably 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 “Promised 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 commemorated 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: Numbers 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 survive the poison.
In John, Jesus declares that, just
as Moses lifted up the serpent, “the
Son of Man” must be lifted up (crucified) 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 twinkling.
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.
55
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 regret 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 document, 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 eleventhcentury 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 barbican, 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 burnished. 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 specialized 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.
57
3
Flowering Orchard at Zahle, Lebanon
4
Smithsonian, June 2007, contains a fascinating article about Petra.