Last Days in Istanbul
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We have been having a great time in Istanbul. We have gone back to the Blue Mosque, visited the mosaics that have been excavated under the mosque, and finally seen the underground water cisterns for the ancient city of Constantinople. Who knew they would be full of fish these days? It still amazes us that the ancients could channel water from over 30 different rivers, build aqueducts and bridges to allow it to flow properly… for thousands of years, yet modern plumbing seems to elude the entire Middle East.
From Syria to Turkey…
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Hello friends!
Sorry it’s taken so long to get another update on the blog, but there are some pretty serious internet censorship issues in Syria that made it impossible to put anything online.
Since our last post we have been to Aleppo in Syria where we stayed in a fantastic old riad in the middle of the souks in the old walled city – it was a fantastic place hung with beautiful brass lamps, antique carpets and grape vines. We visited the old city, and the very impressive Citadel – an incredible fort that we could not help but compare to Crac de Chevaliers in Syria. Crac was an imposing Crusader fortress built on top of a mountain, overlooking vallies in all directions. It had a double moat, and facilities to house 4000 horses and knights and all their food, equipment and supplies for 45 days in times of siege. Best of all, it had a real round table for the knights on the uppermost floor of the inner fortification (Kelly – you would have loved it.) The Citadel in Aleppo actually housed a town population, had a massive dry moat, a king, a church and a mosque, and had all of the city gates brilliantly situated around corners to disallow the use of battering rams to break dowm the doors in times of siege. The views of old Aleppo from the top of the Citadel were stunning – it was looking out over an old Biblical town (which is ironic, as it was a Roman town reknowned for its partying and debauchery).
Palmyra
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We’re sweating it out in the sand in the Syrian desert oasis town of Palmyra. It’s amazing how the stereotype of the desert oasis is a reality here – you literally drive for hundreds of kilometers through nothing but sand, dunes, rock (and the occasional camel race track) to come upon an island of green in the middle of the sand. It’s easy to see why this area has been populated for thousands of years – it’s the only water around for miles.
In Damascus, Syria
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We’re in Damascus, Syria. We left Jordan yesterday, and made a quick stop in the old Roman city of Jerash before crossing the border. It was an amazing old columned – street city (the longest Roman road in existance) , complete with Roman amphitheather, several churches with amazing mosaics (still in tact), and an enormous Temple to Artemis. The place has been a working archeological site for 50 years, and it probably will be one for another 80 years. There were fallen facades , pilars and buildings laying asembled on the ground, ready to be rebuilt. It was know as the city of 1,000 pillars. The temple would have been the largest in the world, had it not been destroyed by earthquakes.
Madaba
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We spent yesterday afternoon floating in the Dead Sea. It was amazing – you are so buoyant that it’s difficult to remain upright. You keep rolling over on to your back or your belly, and you can literally lay there with your arms and legs sticking straight up in the air and not sink. You feel like a Fisher Price Weeble. The water is a deep green colour, and the majority of the coastline is crusted in salt crystals. The great thing about floating in the Dead Sea, is that even though you can’t even see your feet because the water is so green, there’s none of that feeling of intrepidation you get in a lake at home – you know that “something is going to come up from the deeps and drag me down” feeling, because there’s no plant or animal life in the super-salinated water.
