On the Globe » Middle East

Faith in the Holy Land

andrew princz — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:51:24 +0000

In Israel, it’s Christian tourism that fuels record-breaking growth

(Jerusalem) Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a mass of activity as tourist and religious groups from around the world flow through the age-old site’s cavernous interiors. Rays of light spread gently around the intricately designed dome of this house of worship that is venerated by many Christians as Golgotha. This is the land of plenty on the pilgrim’s route; the place where Jesus is said to have been crucified.

Few are the moments here when visitors don’t file into this maze of sacred spaces holding candles and souvenirs while others bless their trinkets. Located at the end of Via Dolorosa, this is where tourists congregate in the narrow, winding cobblestone streets of the Old City.

Walking where Jesus walked
“I have wanted to come to Israel since I was in middle school reading about the history of the country and the sites,” says student Patrick McKay of Regent University School of Law in Virginia, “I was looking forward to walking where Jesus walked, and all of these biblical places.”

“The modern state of Israel fascinates me as its very existence is a modern-day miracle. God directly brought it into existence.”

McKay is not alone in his beliefs. Despite intermittent political turmoil, Israel is attracting record-breaking tourism arrivals due in large part to faith-based groups that globally represent a $15 billion industry.

Ironic as it may be, Christian tourism to Israel is fuelling this country’s economy like at no other time. It is this group – spurned on by popular evangelical pastors in the US – that have become the nation’s most ardent supporters.

Trends show a general leap in tourism arrivals to Israel. This year record-breaking numbers have already been recorded with 280,000 visitors arriving for the month of July, an 11% increase over last year and 7% higher than in 2008.

While 550,000 tourists came from the United States in 2009, Canada has seen healthy increases reaching 60,000 from some 43,000 in 2004. The Israel Tourism Ministry hopes to see that the number to hit 100,000 by 2012.

Interest in the Holy Land. Traveling exhibits relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls have been seen at prestigious international venues including the Vatican, the Library of Congress to the Science Museum of Minnesota. The exhibit hit a record breaking 331,000 visitors for Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum. A forthcoming IMAX 3D film by Arcane / Cosmic Picture Films provisionally titled Jerusalem promises stunning visuals in telling the story of the archeological, historical and religious significance of the crossroads of civilizations. Photo © 2010, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com ISRAEL

Christian tourism the key driver
Faith-based tourism is a key driver in these numbers. Christian arrivals to Israel have increased by over 300% in the past five years, representing a market of almost 80 million in the Unites States alone. In 2009, 63% of all arrivals to Israel were Christian.

Canadian tour operators offering faith-based tours to Israel and the Holy Land include Globus, Tour Design, Collette Vacations, Trafalgar, Gateway International and Goway Travel.

In a region where political instability can hit at any moment, finding a committed base of travelers is a much-desired golden mean.

“A Catholic priest or a Protestant pastor usually leads church groups by building towards such a tour sometimes a year in advance, especially those from North America,” says Jerusalem-based Uzi Gafni, head of the marketing administration department of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.

“A visit to the Holy Land is a once-in-a-lifetime trip and the spiritual leader is there for the group, and has generally been to the Holy Land many times before.”

Gafni says that church leaders are less prone to postponing a trip in the event of destabilizing since they have a keener awareness of the conditions on-the-ground.

“There are less cancellations than years ago because the spiritual leaders assure that you will not go to places like Gaza or the places that comes to mind when there is a conflict,” Gafni says, “Most tours do not go to the places of conflict.”

Pilgrims at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Exterior view of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Traditional site of Golgotha, within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Photo © 2010, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com ISRAEL

Straddling continents

andrew princz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 19:19:45 +0000

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The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, known popularly as the Blue Mosque. [Courtesy Turkish Culture and Tourist Office

From underground Istanbul to the heart of Anatolia; take a journey through Turkey

By Anne Marie Parent

(Istanbul) It is a nation enveloped by two seas, which spans two continents. This is also a place that harks back as much to the land of the mythical tales of the Arabian Nights, as they do to a modern-day European metropolis. We set off to discover some of the regions and landscapes of Turkey. It was a journey from the coast, to the heart of Anatolia, the Asiatic region of the country that comprises 97 percent of its territory.

While Istanbul is not the capital of the country (it is Ankara), it is nevertheless the most visited. The reason is simply geography; it is rich in historical sites and vibrant, colorful streets that make up the only city in the world whose territory lies on two continents.

Istanbul is both a modern metropolis in the European sense, as it is traditional and true to its Asiatic origins. It goes without saying that a visit here is about a cruise spanning the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus Strait, which literally delineates Europe from Asia.

We had reserved a room at the small Hotel Dersaadet, not far from the 17th century Blue Mosque. Its 19th century Ottoman-style wooden façade, comfortable rooms and breakfast terrace overlooking the Marmara Sea was a blissful sight to behold. From the 15th of March to the 25th of November a room here with European breakfast, will set you back some 115 Euro.

In addition to the palace, the mosque and the numerous area museums on the beaten tourist path, there is one site that grabbed our attention. It was an amazing sixth century cathedral-sized cistern, or in Turkish, yerebatan sarnici, which literally lies underneath the city. This grand reservoir was once the source of water of the Byzantine kings, the Topkapi Palace. You can walk through the enormous “engulfed palace” and its waterways thanks to a wooden catwalk imbued with a series of filtered lights.

The experience is made all the more atmospheric as the sounds of classical music which mesh with the echoes, voices and slowly dripping of water.

A mix of some 336 marble Ionic, Corinthian and Doric columns sustains the giant underground dome. During our visit there was even an art exhibition in this unlikely venue. Ironically there was nothing unusual about this as many cultural events take place in this mysterious space whose obscure lighting, water and echoing sounds appeal to the city’s artists.

Our visit to the region of Cappadocia in Anatolia was the destination that we had waited for with much anticipation. This was a landscape of strange cone-shaped rock formations pierced with small Swiss-cheese-like holes. We spent much of two days wandering around this open-air museum, the archeological sites of Goreme National Park and its troglodyte caves, chapels and monasteries where fleeing Christians took refuge in the 4th century. The Hittite people, and many others would subsequently also inhabit these surprising geological formations.

We then headed west to Guzelyurt, in western Cappadocia. The 150km journey was a three-hour ride on public transportation, costing less than 15 Euro. That was better than the 55 Euro taxi fare that we had been offered. It may have taken a tad longer, but this was a good opportunity to mingle. On the bus a man accompanied by his young daughter offered us some nuts that they had just picked from local fields. Seeing me struggling to crack that nut, another passenger simply grabbed it and ably cracked it for me, returning it ready to eat. All this without a word spoken of either English or French… Luckily, he understood my ‘merci’, which means thank you in both Turkish and my mother tongue, French!

We then booked a cell in the one-time monastery that is now the Hotel Kerballa, an inn constructed in 1856 and now recognized as a historic monument. Located in the heart of Guzelyurt it attracts mostly hikers and amateur equestrians. A room here cost a mere 55 Euro for two, a real deal! Breakfast was not included, though, and sets you back an extra 10 Euro.

Our journey ended at Ihlara canyon. This area is located 12km from Guzelyurt and seen ideally from the western banks of the Melendiz River. Doing the trek entirely on foot covers some 14km in a little over five hours. We chose to stop halfway at Belisirma where we lived three hours of bliss in a wondrous natural oasis.

On the banks of the river we began to climb rocks formations and to visit the dens adorned with cave paintings. We came across sheep and shepherds, and photographed astounding geological structures that looked either like the hats that a witch would wear, or simply stunningly high rising rock formations. It was a fitting and blissful end leaving us memories of a journey to an astonishing land on the precipice of east and west.

Fighting terrorism with tourism

andrew princz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:42:13 +0000

Bahaa Mayah is a candidate in the forthcoming Iraqi elections. Photo © Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com

Senior Iraqi official looks to safeguard cultural treasures, develop tourism

(Montreal) Being one of the leading voices of Iraqi tourism and a crusader of the return that country’s pillaged and looted antiquities might sound like a thankless task. But to Bahaa Mayah, its a mission. It is a perilous mission that he is dedicated to the point that he has set off to campaign in the upcoming national elections.

We spoke to Mayah on a visit to his family in Canada shortly before setting off to Bagdad in the launch of his campaign for a poll that promises to be both bloody and acrimonious.

Mayah fled Iraq in the 1970s for the Persian Gulf region almost four decades ago when a young bureaucrat at Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign trade. Eventually he settled in the Canadian city of Montreal.

After the fall of Iraqi strongman Sadaam Hussein, Mayah returned to his home-country to become a ministerial adviser to Iraq’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Mayah focused much of his mandate to a campaign to raise international awareness of the systematic looting and pillaging of Iraq’s archeological treasures in the aftermath of the US military invasion of the country.

Following the US invasion of Iraq some 15,000 objects were looted from the Iraqi National Museum including statues, ancient texts and precious ancient jewelry. While approximately half has been recovered, others have appeared on the international market. It is believed that almost 100,000 items have disappeared through widespread looting in recent years.

In order to help stop the looting Mayah, who claims that illicit proceeds of these sales have funded terrorism, has called for a ban on the sale of archeological relics from Iraq – appealing to the UN Security Council. His calls have largely been left largely unheeded.

And while talking about tourism development in a country dealing with challenging security issues, this country remains the ‘cradle of civilization’, the home of some 12,000 archeological sites and numerous ancient civilizations. Iraq, in better times, would be a natural tourism hotspot.

ontheglobe.com: What are the most important sites in Iraq for a potential tourist to visit? How accessible are these sites?

Bahaa Mayah: It may sound strange that we are promoting tourism to Iraq. At the moment and we are talking primarily about religious tourism. These are destined to mainly religious cities like Najaf and Kirbala, Baghdad and Samara. These cities are safe and we can say that the security situation is in very good shape. We are promoting this and getting good results and having a steady flow of tourists from countries like Iran, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Lebanon. We opened an airport of Najaf last year, which allowed direct flights from those countries. I was very happy to see the reflections of this on the economy since these cities are flourishing and a lot of employment opportunities have been created. This proves that tourism is a way of fighting terrorism. Once people have jobs and the economy flourishes then terrorism will be on the decline. The international community should help in bringing peace to Iraq. We would then see a flow of tourists to our cultural and archeological sites.

It will take some time to achieve a certain level of security before we see tourism flourishing in Iraq. At the same time I am not very happy with the preparation of the tourism infrastructure in Iraq. It is not the fact of having archeological sites alone because tourists have and enjoy services that we do not have yet, and they do not yet fully have the attention of the government to develop these elements that are important to have a successful tourism industry.

ontheglobe.com: Can we talk about specific sites?

Bahaa Mayah: Some of the sites that could be developed in the short term include the city of Babylon. It is a relatively safe area where we could develop tourism activities. The sites of Ur and Nazaria are also relatively very safe. Some kind of tourism activities could be developed there. But this requires resources which we do not have.

ontheglobe.com: Are we talking about lacking roads, souvenir shops; or are we simply talking about basic security?

Bahaa Mayah: Roads and the infrastructure of transport is there, but we lack hotels, trained people and man-power, guides or even restaurants or hotels. For instance in Nazaria there is only one hotel which we can really consider. It’s not enough! A small hotel of fifty or sixty rooms is the equivalent of a four-star hotel. We need much more in order to develop tourism in many other cities. In Babylon we do not have any hotels. The only hotel which was a five star hotel right now is occupied by the international forces. They should be vacating this premise sometime soon. But in order to bring it back into its previous situation of a five-star hotel, you need the manpower and resources.

ontheglobe.com: We are aware that Babylon was used as a military base by the invading forces. What kind of damage was incurred?

Bahaa Mayah: Unfortunately Babylon was indeed used as a military base by the American and Polish troops. It was one of the disasters and began after the invasion of 2003. The damage is being dealt with by a special committee of UNESCO. We witnessed the use of heavy equipment the equivalent of a heavy military armada. This has resulted in damages to the site which I believe is one of the biggest disasters as an outcome of the war.

ontheglobe.com: Is the US government funding the restoration of the site?

Bahaa Mayah: They promised to help. They realized after some time after this incident their mistake. They are ready and they are trying to help. It’s a way of saying sorry.

ontheglobe.com: Take us back to 2003 when American troops first entered your country. Some 15,000 objects of cultural significance were looted from the Baghdad Museum. The ministry of oil, however, was protected and many see an irony in this. Many perceive this as the starting point of the problems in the field of archeology in Iraq.

Bahaa Mayah: Wars do not bring prosperity to any nation, but it brings destruction. The crime that happened at the Iraqi museum at the fall of the regime in April of 2003 was one of the biggest disasters to our nation. We have nobody to blame but the United States and the forces who entered Iraq at the time. They should have born in mind that they had previous warnings from archeologists from all around the world that they should take care of the Iraqi Museum. They did not do anything at the time and they let people loot a museum. Approximately 15,000 objects were looted, half of which we were able to recover. The other half is floating around the world and we are facing non-cooperation from many nations in recovering them, and I include western nations. This brings the responsibility on the invading countries to help Iraq in recovering and repatriating the looted objects.

ontheglobe.com: What is your timetable for restoring mass tourism to Iraq and its archeological sites?

Bahaa Mayah: I do not want to rush things in Iraq regarding the tourism industry for our cultural and archeological sites unless we do secure the safety of the tourists coming to Iraq. I will not promote this kind of tourism unless I feel that as a government, security forces and infrastructure that we are ready to receive tourists – only then will I do everything possible to promote this kind of tourism to Iraq.

ontheglobe.com: Are you more optimistic today then you were a year ago?

Bahaa Mayah: I wish you asked me after the next election. The next election will be the most important of the past and future of Iraq. This will decide the destiny of this nation: who is going to govern Iraq and which direction the country will be taken. I am running myself in this election and I should be starting my campaign as soon as I get back to Iraq. Of course I wish that I will win I will make sure that I will take this issue of archeology and tourism in Iraq as much as I can from my next post. Having said that the past was very difficult.

Ilana Goor

andrew princz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:25:46 +0000

Israeli designer and collector Ilana Goor. Photo © Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com

Her corner of paradise

(Jaffa) Walk through massive stone entrance hall of the Ilana Goor Museum in the historic port-town of Jaffa in Israel, and you will likely feel as if you had just entered an eclectic artistic jungle. Interspersed throughout the fascinating collection are the contemporary and the classical, the refined to the naïve, the secular to the religious.

To give all of this its very unique context – throughout this very setting are classically designed iron furniture, humorous bronze sculptures, far-out jewelry designs, and decidedly abstract wooden artworks that are all the creations of your spiritual host – the multi-talented Israeli artist, designer and collector, Ilana Goor.

The seaside museum – literally a home turned into a museum a decade ago – is lined with a wide array of objects that Ms. Goor has collected over the years from the many corners of the world. There is a room filled with an array of African sculptures, a guest room with an iron lamp she designed from which Jesus seems to dangle, another with a Menorah and a Crucifix, or an Indian bronze Marriage Ceremony Tree. Another room is dedicated to her family, while her trademark birds or other small animal figurines that can be found here and there throughout the museum, and may even surprise you in very unusual places.

Interspersed also are artworks of a wide array of artists including a small Henry Moore sculpture, several works of the contemporary Polish artist Olga Wolniak, or an etching by Iraqi-born artist Mordechai Moreh.

Ilana Goor took the time to talk with Andrew Princz on her courtyard – rich with sculptures, beautiful flowers and urns, overlooking the greenish-blue Mediterranean at sun-down.

ontheglobe.com What you have created in this museum amounts to an eclectic yet homogeneous world, with a very distinct character. This strange eclecticism seems, nevertheless, ordered and very intentional.

Ilana Goor I created a world of my own to share with people in Israel, to teach Israelis about design and about art and how to use art. Not only to talk about art but how to hang a painting, for instance. Not to be afraid to mix the old and the new. Here, I have a lot of eclectic works on display as I believe that one should not be afraid of trying. Life in Israel is always very tense with all of the wars, and people do not always have the time to develop. I was very fortunate because my mother was a doctor who studied medicine, she came to Israel in the 1920s, and she had taste. She was a lady who only used Christiane Dior and such. I am married to an American, and I developed and learned, because we always traveled. All my talent is from within. I just needed direction, because I did a lot of things: sculpture, jewelry, design… But when I needed something and I couldn’t find it, I made it for myself.

ontheglobe.com What do you consider yourself first: and artist, collector, designer?

Ilana Goor I am an artist and have my own taste, though, and I buy things because I like them and not because of the name. I don’t buy to invest, I buy things that I like since I realized that the best judge of art is not a critic, but it is time. If you like it after five years, it means that it is good. If after one year you see that something is wrong, that means that it is not good and you should change it.

It has taken me ten years since the museum opened. Now I can practically see that in my eyes, ninety-nine percent of what we have in the museum is good, and that is because I am not tired of it. In a matter of ten years I kept changing. I used to buy something which if I didn’t like it later, I would give it away… I didn’t keep it. I would then look, while traveling, to find the right thing. I have to say that I feel that I have succeeded in that I can look at many apartments in Israel when I am a guest, and I always feel my touch there. That they were in the museum and they got an idea, and they put it in their homes. It makes me happy that I received my wish to teach, in my own way, how to be comfortable in one’s home, and the furnishings within it. The home is the most important thing for a person. That is where they go out to work, that it where they come back.

ontheglobe.com I was amused by the chairs in your dinning room – which you designed – that are adorned with sculptures of heads talking to each other behind your back!

Ilana Goor I am glad that you see the humor in it, because most people don’t. I look at life as humorous because otherwise you can really almost go crazy. Some people also ask me how I can live with the sculptures of the strange heads peering out of pots. The message is that I have lived all of my life in the United States – but I am still an Israeli. I did not try to change my slang or try to become an American. I am an Israeli who got married to an American, but I am an Israeli. For example, the Russian, the Israelis, the Polish, the Turkish all seem to stay in their own ghettos until they make a lot of money. When they make a lot of money they start moving and they get accepted elsewhere. For me, the pot is always Israel, the ghetto. As much you try to come out of it, you are still there, your roots are there holding you inside.

ontheglobe.com Many of the works that are part of your collection always seem to be artists from one country, and yet live in another. Is that just a coincidence, or do you have an affinity to artists that are somewhat uprooted from their original surroundings?

Ilana Goor They are displaced. People always look to better their lives. When you are happy where you are you don’t move, in most cases. When you know your surroundings you tend to feel comfortable. When you are happy with your job and home, or family – you will end up staying where you are. The ones that are not so lucky think that somewhere else their problems will be solved. But I do believe that their problems stay within them, because when you travel, you travel with your suitcase wherever you go.

ontheglobe.com Your work seems to have many very different sides to it. Classical iron chairs, small chickens or big birds, creepy animals and then simply found objects. How do you marry these very divergent directions?

Ilana Goor The story about the furniture started like the jewelry and my belts… I needed some furniture for this house, when it was a private home. I had some leftover materials for the building, called rebar. It’s a type of a material that you stick into cement, which gets a hold on it. I made quite a few tables with the right proportions, because in Israel in 1983 I could not find a very thick glass. Eventually, I found glass that they used in the armored cars in the war in 1948. The glass was one meter by one meter, which ended up being the same size as the tables. On top of it I made small sculpted birds. Jaffa has a lot of birds, but they disappear because of the heat, but these would sit on top of the glass. All of a sudden everybody that came over asked me to make them a similar table. I didn’t know what is so special about it. They liked the idea of the bird, and supposed that I liked birds. How can you love birds? I don’t like birds because they don’t like you back. I only like things like dogs that love you back. A bird disappears the moment you run after it. But it was a nice display. When I had so many complements, I decided to bring some of the tables to New York to Art Expo to show it. So I brought a few very simple and cleanly designed tables and lamps. I also had this rebar, which was a rusty building material. In New York, in one weekend I got orders to close to two hundred thousand dollars. Then Andy Warhol came to me and he told me that I had really hit the jackpot. I asked him why, and he said that I used a material that nobody had used earlier. I took a material that they used as a building and made something very basic, very classic and beautiful. He was right, because in a matter of one year they were on display at twenty-two show-rooms in the US.

ontheglobe.com You seem to be constantly reinventing yourself.

Ilana Goor I needed the furniture, and this is how I came to design it. I was thinking of nothing other than pleasing myself, and I think that this was my luck. You can never please all the people. It takes years to build a name. When you have a name like Miro or Picasso or Warhol – it is very easy to sell. But when you don’t have a name, it is very difficult. So I always wanted to do things for myself. If somebody else likes it, they are welcome, then that is ok – otherwise, that is also ok.

Haggling on the net?

andrew princz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 01:11:02 +0000

The rules of the game are different in the Arab world

Rethinking e-tourism in the Arab world reveals cultural divide

(Sharm el Sheikh) It was strangely ironic when late last year a major disruption of internet services in the Middle East – effecting 80 percent of the Egypt’s network alone – took place on the heels of a significant pan-Arab regional e-tourism conference. It may have been a subliminal wake-up call that in these troubled economic times that the Middle-East should boost its online infrastructure if it wants to stay competitive.

Applying international e-tourism models to diverse regions is fraught with roadblocks. After all this is a culture that favours haggling over straightforward pricing: and the question begs about whether the local service providers here will ever apply the same model as has been done in other regions?

At stake is the Middle East and its second fastest growing tourism market which represents 33.4 million visitors; and tourism receipts of 24.7 billion dollars between 2001 and 2006 alone.

But local factors have resulted in the stunted growth of e-tourism. Taking place in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el Sheikh, the International Arab Conference for e-Tourism and e-Marketing brought to light the challenges, and even some practical solutions towards generating online tourism in a region that can be culturally adverse to non-negotiated transactions; whose laws and regulatory framework are said to be woefully inadequate; and whose banking system charges can make simple transactions out of reach for both the client and service provider.

These factors in effect stop e-tourism in its very tracks.

« With the complicated procedures in place developers run away from e-commerce and just don’t do it here, » says attendee Mikhail Malak, a freelance web-designer at MitchDesigns.com who works primarily for the Egyptian travel and tourism industry.

« The setup fees in Egypt are expensive, and while in other countries they have free services to build e-commerce or use third party companies like Paypal, we don’t have these types of technologies. »

As a result, for the moment Malak simply foregoes the whole process and instead provides design and creative services. He is waiting for the day that the infrastructure and mindset of bank managers allows for a more accessible backbone for electronic transactions.

If there is any reason why Egypt has been able to afford remaining a decade or so behind in the e-commerce game, it is the unique resources. The country’s archaeological sites are unparalleled, including the famed Pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, Karnak or Abu Simbel to name just the better known attractions.

As a result of the obvious interest here, anomalies within the tourism industry including like pricing by nationality, outdated market practices and lax service standards are sometimes overlooked.

In Egypt, developers like Malak simply continue to wait for banks to simplify procedures and the much awaited slash in transaction fees that can reach higher than four percent; almost quadruple those seen in economies where electronic transactions are a given.

« They put a lot of obstacles, » says Malak, « I think that it is the time for the banks to open their box, give us solutions and easier procedures. »

These are just some of the issues that were at the forefront at the Sharm el Sheikh conference which took place on December 15-19. The event was put together by the The Electronic Union of Travel Industry (EUOTI), in association with the Arab Tourism Organization (ATO), the International Federation of Information Technology and Travel and Tourism (IFITT) under the supervision of the Arab League and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.

Represented were a wide range of groups including experts in the fields of law, technology, marketing, and economy from various Arab and European countries. Fifteen international experts were invited including academics, e-marketing specialists in the fields of travel, media, communications, economy, banking, IT, managerial development, and law.

For some international experts looking in the chief impediment in the development of e-tourism in Egypt is cultural differences in how business is done here. After all this is a country known for its preference for face-to-face haggling or deal-making. The real value and price expectation for a basic good in any Egyptian market is merely a fraction of the asking retail amount.

« I think that it is a cultural issue primarily more than an educational or even a technological issue, » says UK-based Bournemouth University professor Dimitrios Buhalis, who has advised the Egyptian Tourism Ministry on its e-tourism and marketing strategy, « The market operates in very dynamic terms and there are no written rules or procedures. »

« Here classical trade is back to basics in the old sense. Everything is negotiable here. At the same time most e-commerce activity is based on procedures and processes in a world of fixed costs and principals that do not necessarily apply here. »

The expectation here is that deals are made through negotiation, sometimes even down to the price of a hotel room. The local cultural context dictates that obtaining a basic quote on a hotel room can be met with evasiveness, and the product itself remains a flexible element of the tourism offer.

« Everything here is adaptable, » says Buhalis, « You ask if you can do a dinner with the Bedouins tonight, they will say we cannot do tonight, but we can do something else and in this way the product is actually very flexible. »

« Technology can actually help this but it would need different modelling and adaptability that is much faster, reflecting the way that people operate. »

Buhalis says that there are variants within Arab states, some of which are far more technologically advanced than Egypt. The solution, he says, is a mix of technology adapting to the specific cultural context and the local context adapting to outside e-commerce models and international expectations.

Wissam Badine, and Account Manager at Eastline Marketing, came to the Middle-East from Canada – where he and some friends had settled – precisely in order to seize the opportunity of a growing market in the e-tourism sector and adapt what he had learned to the Arab audiences.

Many of his clients are in the new ultra-modern cyber-cities of the Middle-East in Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. Many cities here, he says, were built from scratch and have modern infrastructure and the most up-to-date technology. But a lot of their work is also creatively adapting the technology to the local realities.

« It is a cultural thing because Arabs in general like to negotiate deals in person and to get the best price before buying a certain commodity, » Badine says, « It is a challenge, and we have to find attractive and creative ways in order to simulate this sort of trade online. It is something between the user experience and a store, you almost have to introduce negotiation. »

Ripples in the sand

andrew princz — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:39:53 +0000

The arid landscape of a contemporary camp at Wadi Rum. Photo © Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com

A journey through Jordan on the paths of Lawrence of Arabia

(Wadi Rum) Setting off through the sandy deserts of Jordan; the mysteriously sand-etched monuments at Petra, biblical sites, baren dunes and starry night skies at Wadi Rum all bring me a step closer to understanding just what it was about this landscape that fascinated the man who became known as Lawrence of Arabia.

A hero to many, a traitor to some; a scholar, a warrior, a recluse, a friend of the Arab tribes or a simple marauding spy. All have been used to describe a larger-than-life character whose legacy has become mythical and sometimes controversial here.

Born Thomas Edward Lawrence, or T.E. Lawrence, he became legendary almost a century ago as he fought alongside bedouin tribes against the Ottoman Turks during the Arab revolts of WWI. He fought these battles possibly believing that the the epic clashes would finally lead to one unified Arab state.

It can even be argued that through his ferocious tactics, he was one of the first modern-day guerrillas to use ploys akin to terrorism as a tool of war. He gathered disparate Arab tribes, and with them blew up train after train that provided provisions for the Turkish army. He rendered his enemy paralyzed with fear.

« A thousand Arabs means a thousand knives, delivered anywhere day or night. » says a coy Peter O’Toole depicting T.E. Lawrence in the 1962 classic Oscar-winning film, Lawrence of Arabia, « It means a thousand camels. That means a thousand packs of high explosives and a thousand crack rifles.”

« We can cross Arabia while Johnny Turk is still turning round, and smash his railways, » he explains to Britain’s commander Edmund Allenby, played by Jack Hawkins. « And while he’s mending them, I’ll smash them somewhere else. In thirteen weeks, I can have Arabia in chaos.”

And against all odds he and the Arab tribes raced their way through blistering hot deserts to lay deafening blows on the much more powerful Turkish army.

But Lawrence of Arabia and the Bedouin tribes were not the first larger-than-life warriors who left their mark on the arid, unforgiving, stunning landscape that is today the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. T.E. Lawrence himself was familiar with the rolodex of history which shows many grand civilizations that have passed this way.

In 333 BC Alexander the Great stormed through this desert before establishing the largest empire that the world had seen. But as empires were formed along these roads etched in the sand, so too they fell; be it Crusader or Islamic armies, Mamluks or Ottoman Turks. Each left their mark in archaeological sites, heavy rock forts, porous castles or mysterious monuments carved in the soft desert stones.

My journey through Jordan begins with less excitement and more comfort at the Mövenpick Resort and Spa overlooking the calm waters of the Dead Sea. This is the lowest point on earth, at 408 meters below sea level. The rays of the sun reflect like a mirror from these waters that are so infused with salt that I can magically float above the waters while reading a newspaper most comfortably.

This luxurious hotel in the Jordan Valley is made up of a series of traditional sandstone complexes landscaped into a village-like setting which leaves nothing to chance. Palm trees, lush tropical plants, blood-red hibiscus flowering all about, with pools and waterfalls topped off by the award-winning Zara Spa – recommended by none other than Condé Nast Traveller.

But in the desert things are not always as they seem. Every morning at dawn two massive water tankers deliver fresh water to feed the misplaced vegetation. Like a false-oasis it is a daily reminder that despite the palm trees and lush vegetation, this setting is something of an illusion. It is very much the dry and arid place that ‘Lawrence’ endured so deftly.

This desert landscape is not devoid of ancient historical roots. On the northern end of the Dead Sea I visit sites that date back to Biblical times. The trickling waters of the Jordan River and the Baptism Site are deceivingly ordinary in appearance; but this is reputed to be the place where the prophet Ilias ascended to the heavens.

Nearby is Mount Nebo and its winding cross overlooking the Dead Sea, the Jordan River Valley, Jericho and Jerusalem. This is where the prophet Moses is said to have first seen the Promised Land.

But moving south in this dry and sandy kingdom there is one site that puts Jordan on the map of the culturally curious. This is Petra. Voted in 2007 as one of the ‘New Seven Wonders of the World’, Petra is in Wadi Araba. The site is a living museum of ten thousand years of human history.

The hidden monuments of Petra are reached by an at times narrow road through a dramatic Siq which is carved by nature in the rose-coloured sandstone. During the day speedy horses drawing little carriages dart up and down the trail carrying tourists who hang on to their hats as they come perilously close to hitting pedestrians on their journey to the series of monuments that are disbursed along a vast territory.

The walk or trot ends at the Treasury, the most iconic image of Jordan today and believed to be the tomb of the Nabatean King Aretas III.

On certain evenings you can even see ‘Petra by Night’, where this same walk is done silently at night on a romantic candlelit path which ends at the Treasury, which is also lit by the golden hues of dozens of burning candles and torches.

While the Treasury looks much like the architecture of the ancient Greeks or Romans, the columned facade carved in soft stone dates way back to 100 BC to 200 AD. Through a chance encounter, I learn that is was not until recent history that the many black-char caves were inhabited by bedouin families.

« We are the rest of the Nabatean people, those people who came to Petra. We came from Yemen, from Saudi Arabia in caravans in the desert, » Ghassab Al-Bidul, a bedouin who was brought up in the caves tells me. In 1985 UNESCO officials relocated the bedouin to a small neighbouring village where he was brought up.

While he has become a multilingual guide and adapted his life to the economy of tourism, he still retains some of the core traditional values of his childhood. When asked if he would write about his upbringing in the caves of Petra, his reply was simple.

« I have it in the mind so I do not want to write it. If you have it in the mind it is better because then you are not going to get old. But when you write it down then you must read it again. I remember everything in my life. Why write it in a book when I have it all? T.E. Lawrence knew this mentality well, but also knew that western society needs the written word to commit great moment to memory and posterity. He did this in his recollections in the book « Seven Pillars of Wisdom », which he wrote from his memories of the Arab revolts, and his part in them.

But it was in the heart of Jordan in the Wadi Rum where Lawrence of Arabia found both solace and tribulations. Before hopping onto the jeep to head out to the desert gorges, I buy myself a traditional red and white square scarf, a colourful garb that shelters you from the blowing winds, the sand and cold desert nights.

At the edge of the desert a convoy of jeeps driven by Bedouins pick us up – six to a vehicle – before we speed through the dunes towards the encampment. We whisk through the dunes leaving behind only a fine plume of sand. The only roads here are the faded tracks from previous expeditions which guide the drivers on the bumpy two-hour drive.

We camp at a vast desert expanse of strangely shaped rocks and peaks that poke through a landscape surrounded by nothing but a sea of sand. Here you can hear the echo of your voice as it bounces from stone to stone, and drones of stars dance in the cold evening sky. I am sure that it was the ambiguous feeling of both loneliness, exhilaration and personal freedom that led T.E. Lawrence to feel at home here.

The landscape is doted with tall rocky gorges that rise high above the brick-red horizon. Only the odd dry but very much alive bundle of shrubs breaks the tedium of the ripples in the sand. The brittle vegetation leaves a tail behind it, a wavy irregularity formed by desert winds or sandstorms.

« The Bedouin of the desert, born and grown up in it, had embraced with all his soul this nakedness to harsh for volunteers, for the reason, felt but inarticulate, that there he found himself indubitably free. » writes Lawrence in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, « He lost material ties, comforts, all superfluities and other complications to achieve a personal liberty which haunted starvation and death.”

The Dead Sea. Located in the Jordan Valley and part of the Great Rift Valley (running from East Africa to Turkey), the Dead Sea is located at 408 meters below sea level. It is the lowest point on earth. With a salt content of 20 percent, or eight times levels of the world's oceans, you magically float on these waters. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

The Dead Sea. Watching the sunrise at the Dead Sea. The only life form left in the Dead Sea are eleven species of bacteria. Rich in minerals, these waters are said to have healing powers. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

The Dead Sea. Visitors of the Dead Sea apply local mud to their bodies which is said to revitalize the skin. You leave it on for almost twenty minutes before washing it off in the salty waters. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

The Dead Sea. The Dad Sea Movenpick and its picturesque village setting is a unique complex, and feels like a true oasis. The site includes swiming pools, a sauna, massage, restaurants and other facilities. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

al Azrak Castle. The castle in Azrak was build around 300 A.D. and an inscription tells us it was dedicated to Emperors Diocleation and Maximan. Emperor Jovian later enlarged it in 363 A.D. The Arabs rebuilt it between 1213 and 1238 A.D. during the time of the crusades. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

al Azrak Castle. It is said that an ancient monastery once stood on the site, inhabited by a Christian named Ajlun. When the monestary fell into ruin, the castle took its place and the name of the monk continued. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Qasr Amra. A desert castle that is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Built in the 8th century AD, Qasr Amra contains a reception hall, and baths and decorated with figurative murals. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Mount Nebo. This area was inhabited since remote antiquity. It's fame was derived by the biblical event that occurred here, as described in the Book of Deuteronomy 34: the death of the Prophet Moses. He climbed this mountain at the end of his life and is said to have seen the promised land here. Mount Nebo rises from the Transjordanian plateau 7 kilometers west of the city of Madaba. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Baptism site. This site has been recognized as the site where Jesus was baptized by all the major traditional Christian Churches and has been visited by many Christian leaders including the late great Pope John Paul II. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Baptism site. Many churches of different Christian denominations are being built in this area. After the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, the area around the baptism site is no longer a military border zone. World leaders, Christian and non-Christian have visited the site including Vladimir Putin, President Mary McAleese of Ireland or President François Bozizé of the Central African Republic. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Jordanian People. Some 98 percent of Jordanians are Arab, and 92 percent are Sunni Muslim. Other communities like the Bedouin, Circassians, and Christians have also played an influential role in the creation of the modern kingdom. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Aljoun. This castle is located 70 kilometers northwest of the capital, Amman. Aljoun is at the crossroads of where several historic people meet including the early Christians, the Mamluks, from Saladin's nephew Izz ad-Din Usama to King Abdullah I. The region has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Petra. Amidst the rose-coloured sandstone peaks are winding roads that lead you to Petra, a historic settlement that lies at the crossroads of trade. Just a little over a year ago, the site at Petra was chosen as one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World”. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Petra. As one descends, the site of the Treasury at Petra reveals itself. Petra is considered a living museum of 10,000 years of human history. From the Neolithic village at al-Beidha, to Sela, the capital of the Edomites, to the top of Umm al-Biyara, to the Nabatean creations of Petra. The Romans, Byzantines and Bedouins all added their architectural footsteps to the site. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Petra. Some forty rock-cut tombs and houses are known as the Street of Facades. Some are tops of doorways. Many of the tombs were destroyed when the Romans enlarged the Nabatean-built theatre to about 7,000 seats sometime after 106 AD. Pictured here is the Treasury of Petra, the best-known tomb. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Wadi Rum. After Petra, it was off to Wadi Rum, and an evening camping out at this vast desert. Our group travelled in a convoy through the beautiful and vast territory. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

King Abdullah Mosque, Amman. This mosque located in El-Abdali district was completed in 1990 as a memorial to the late King Hussein's Grandfather. The instantly recognizable Blue Dome Mosque is worth a quick look inside. Women are asked to wear a gown and cover their hair inside the mosque. Photo © 2008, Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com JORDAN

Jordan hedges bets on the Americas

andrew princz — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:31:21 +0000

Jordan's archaeological site of Petra is the jewel in this country's crown. Photo © Andrew Princz, ontheglobe.com

Jordan Travel Mart promotes kingdom as stand-alone destination

(Amman) Jordan is looking to alleviate fears of travelers from the America’s by touting the Hashemite kingdom as a secure oasis within this troubled Middle Eastern region. The kingdom has launched a drive to isolate the kingdom from associations to the challenging political climate of neighboring countries by selling Jordan as a stand-alone travel destination.

« The problem is that we always have to explain to the people abroad that this is a country that is very safe – unlike many other countries in the region, » Maha Khatib, Jordan’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities told ontheglobe.com. « Whatever happens in this region does not mean there is any kind of danger or lack of security in Jordan. So changing this perception is occupying much of our efforts. »

Early next week, Jordan will host the second annual Jordan Travel Mart, a travel-trade event bringing together tour operators, travel agents and travel writers from the United States, Canada, and Latin America for two days of pre-scheduled appointments with Jordanian tourism-industry suppliers. The event highlights features including adventure, religious and cultural travel as well as cruises or spa retreats.

Following a comprehensive peace treaty between Jordan and Israel in 1994, travel agents and tour operators largely sold this country as an extension of tours from Egypt and Israel. However, as a result of violent flare-ups in neighboring Israel and the occupied territories in 2000, Jordan suffered a drought in tourist numbers of its own – further exacerbated by a three percent decrease due to the impact of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

These bitter experiences led Jordan to develop a strategy of shaking off its tourism dependency on the markets of others, and selling the country on its own.

Jordan attracts some 3.4 million yearly overnight visitors, and a 2004 strategy sees the ministry doubling arrivals by 2010. After regional tourism from Arab countries, the Americas represent the next most significant market segment for incoming tourism for Jordan.

The US, however, represents not only a significant economic target group but also a politically important market for the western leaning kingdom.

« Why do we have to link our country to Lebanon or to Israel where people have the perception of those countries as having political instability? » Minister Khatib reasons.

For a country with few natural resources to talk about, tourism is of vital importance to the economy of Jordan. It is the both the kingdom’s largest export sector and the second largest private sector employer. Tourism is the second highest producer of foreign exchange, and contributes more than 800 million USD to Jordan’s economy and accounts for 10 percent of the country’s GDP, according to the global market research firm Euromonitor International.

The jewel in Jordan’s crown is, however, the archeological site of Petra – which in 2007 was included as one of the « New Seven Wonders of the World » following a global poll of human-made marvels.

Jordan also boasts such notable travel destinations as the Dead Sea where you can float on waters at the lowest point on earth; the expansive Wadi Rum desert made famous by T. E. Lawrence who described its gorges as ‘vast, echoing and god-like’; or the Red Sea port of Aqaba. The country also is the host to some fifty biblical sites that in 2006 attracted 200,000 visitors.

These sites will be the focus of a showcase of the second annual Jordan Travel Mart (JTM) that will take place at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Center at the Dead Sea. The JTM, held between February 22 and 24, will attract over one hundred tour operators, travel agents and travel writers from the United States, Canada and Latin America.

« Jordan as a standalone destination can be sold to Canadians because they are learners who want to educate themselves, and have a cultural experience, » said Priyantha Amarasinghe, Product Development Manager for Toronto-based tour operator Tourcan Vacations, attending last years’ event.

Amarasinghe knows exactly who his target audience is for the destination: moneyed baby boomers aged between 45-55 who have precious time on their hands, and enjoy a strong Canadian dollar that goes the extra distance. Canadian tourism figures to Jordan increased by some 40 percent in the year before the event. However, visitors to Jordan as a standalone destination are still the exception, he adds.

« It is hard due to factors like publicity, advertising, media, » says Amarasinghe, « The information that consumers will have is crucial. If they are told that this is a great destination to have a holiday by visiting a spa at the Dead Sea, treatment packages, sightseeing adventure or nature – all is possible – provided we talk to the consumers through the various channels.”

But far-reaching international advertising campaigns are expensive. Jordan opts for reaching particular market segments. Faith-based tourism, for example, is an increasingly lucrative market that has already experienced a steady growth from US visitors thanks to marketing efforts by the Jordan Tourism Board in North America.

And Jordan boasts archaeological sites which are of interest to three of the world’s most significant religions. Situated between ancient Palestine and Mesopotamia, the kingdom today is the venue for some fifty sites of biblical importance and cited by the Vatican as legitimate pilgrimage destinations.

Sitting on the laurels of these sites is not the answer in a region which hosts the most important biblical sites in the world. The key, authorities say, is using these sites as a hook to lure faith-based travellers to the country’s other attributes.

« Traditionally when people think of religious travel it is defined as being travel to a religious destination or site, » says Kevin J. Wright, President of the Colorado-based World Religious Travel Association.

« The big story, though, in faith-based tourism today is that now its moving into a second and even a third branch. The second is travel with a missionary or a kind of humanitarian aspect which is your volunteer vacation. The third area which is really the big story is travel with a fellowship intent, in other words leisure travel within the context of an affinity group.”

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Imagining history

andrew princz — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:26:58 +0000

Journey through the historical chasms of the Holy Land

(Tel Aviv) Walking through the massive stone entrance of what two centuries ago was a gateway for pilgrims to a hostel in the historic port-town of Jaffa – not far from Tel Aviv – is a magical, eclectic artistic jungle. Interspersed throughout the home styled into a museum is a collection of objects that span from the contemporary to the classical, refined to the naïve, the secular to the religious – all coexisting in the same space.

This setting is the first on our journey through the land that is Israel. What we found on this first stop was strangely symbolic of the mosaic of the country itself.

« I created a world of my own to share with people in Israel, to teach Israelis about design, creativity and how to use art while not being afraid to mix the old and the new… », said artist, collector and designer Ilana Goor, founder of the Ilana Goor Museum, « I believe that one should not be afraid of trying.”

The museum is lined with objects collected from many corners of the world. A hall is filled with African sculptures, a guest room with an iron lamp that Ms. Goor designed off of which a representation of Jesus dangles, while another of her sculptures juxtaposes a Menorah with a Crucifix.

In the center are a series of golden ploughs, likenesses of the instruments used by the founders of the state of Israel who toiled the land in their Kibbutzim, Israeli communal settlements.

A magical journey
Only in Israel can a lake become a sea as the Sea of Galilee. Only here can you float magically in the strange and acidy waters of the Dead Sea; and it is only here that the earth below your feet reveals tales that can easily become a gathering call for nations or religions, and even calls to arms. It is the conflicting tales of the history bellow your feet that represent the magic that impregnates the Holy Land.

Our journey through time begins in the contemporary Tel Aviv – literally the ‘hill of spring’, and the playground of this small country with its white-block houses and expansive beaches.

Sprinkled around this sea-side city are scores of early 20th century buildings inspired by the International Style, the formative days of modernism. Between 1930 and 1948 these buildings – many of which can be found around the central Dizengoff Square or on Rothschild Boulevard – earned the city’s reputation as the ‘White city’, and have since become internationally recognized for their architectural significance. The constructions themselves have plain white facades, simple lines, generous terraces, and elegant proportions.

After a walk on the seafront promenade, as the sun goes down, we move on to the northern outskirts of the city to the trendy formerly industrial old Tel Aviv port. At night the area is taken over by the hip, the young, the chic, the sexy, and the beautiful. Flocks of Israelis arrive in droves and you can feel their anticipation for the music to take over.

Before the music began
We dine at the Boya Fish and Meat Restaurant, a chic seafood eatery overlooking the port, drinking fine Israeli wine and enjoying the modern interior that resembles nothing other than a slickly designed film-set, with an exotic tall and slender tropical plant welcoming us at the entrance. The colors of the ceiling’s Plexiglas lighting fixtures rotate every few minutes, changing from pastel blues, yellows to a bright purple. We wait as the music begins to blare, and as it does, it feels like the port is about to erupt in euphoria. Crowds meander throughout the area – ready for an all-night party.

That night exhausted and excited, I gaze outside of my room at the David InterContinental Hotel – which towers over the city – with its impressive panoramic view of Tel Aviv at night. In the distance I recognize the boarded up walls of a night-club that had been in the news years earlier. It is the very place where twenty-one mostly teenaged Israelis were killed by a suicide bomber in 2001. This somber shadow that cast itself over the sea-side playground is part of the setting, something with which people live and grapple. It is quiet now, and it is time to live.

The next day we head north, passing the beach oasis of Netanya, to arrive at the archeological pearl of Caesarea, halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Our guide tells us the story of this one-time imperial city that was masterminded by the ambitious and crafty pro-Roman leader Herod the Great – the King of the Jews from 37 to 4 BC.

An avid builder who brought the most modern building materials from Rome, Herod dedicated the site to his patron Augustus Caesar. But Herod had a mixed reputation among the Jews – although he was a savvy diplomat: he wanted it both ways. He enjoyed Roman luxury, technology and good living – yet he knew to craftily appease the Jews. He constructed a new temple in Jerusalem.

Here we walk through the vestiges of what remains of the ancient city’s historic theater, the roads and aqueducts, irrigation and drainage systems, all with a breathtaking view of the Mediterranean. It is like travelling back in time. Every monument or archeological site seems like an homage to a particular moment from another era: be it a part of the Jewish, Christian or Muslims history. After all, the roads of many civilizations at one point have led to and away from here.

From the ancient to the world of today, we drive north via the Mediterranean coast to the verdant Carmel region, the heart of Israel’s contemporary wine country to visit the father-son team heading the Tishbi Winery in Binyamina, established some twenty years ago.

Facing the challenges
We are greeted with wine and sumptuous cheese plates by a humble, hard-working Jonathan and his son Golan Tishbi. The pair run this boutique winery that produce over a million bottles of wines including Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Emerald Riesling from grapes gathered from throughout the country – and even the desert, where vines are irrigated using a specially designed ‘drip’ system.

« It is difficult because we are a country full of war and disagreement, and it is not a quiet place, » said Jonathan, « And when the tourists do not come, they do not buy wine from the place, it is a real vicious circle.”

Passing through traditional Druze villages and their colorful markets, we then move onto central to Haifa, the most important port city of Israel. The city is dominated by the picturesque panorama and luxuriant and meticulously kept Persian gardens that lead to the dome of the Bahai Temple.

Our journey then takes us through the historic port of Akko – its colorful markets and the el-Jazzar Mosque, followed by a jeep tour of the Golan Heights – accompanied by the spirited seventy eight-year-old Tova Mayer, who greets us in traditional Hungarian dress and a cap adorned with the Hungarian emblem.

Tova shows us around the area and recounts the harrowing tale of how she made Israel her home as a young idealist at Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar in the Upper Galilee after Hungary’s failed 1956 revolution. We swiftly drive through the many fruit orchards, along the Jordan River which flows more like a small stream. We amusedly disturb kissing lovers and simple naturists who are enjoying their time in the forested area.

Constantly on the move, we begin our southward in-land journey towards Tiberias, the resort town on the Sea of Galilee. Here visit holy sites – notably the Mount of the Beatitudes, the hill at the northwestern point of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus is said to have delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

A voyage through ancient cities
Our voyage through ancient cities then takes us to Bet She’an, the remains of an ancient city with a glorious past whose zenith was during the Roman period. During the eighth century CE the city was destroyed by a powerful earthquake, although to this day one can follow the roads, baths and the theater only to imagine the life that existed here centuries ago.

The Dead Sea, the next stop on our journey, is some fifty miles long and no more than ten miles wide. It is located in the deepest tectonic cavity in the world, approximately 1,296 feet below sea level. The Dead Sea is in fact only a lake of pale blue water and without any form of life whatsoever. In the waters are high concentrations of bromide, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium that allow you to, miraculously, to literally float atop of the waters.

The next day we move on to the nearby mountains behind ruins of Qumran, the caves where in 1947, two Bedouin shepherds found seven pairs of jars containing the Biblical manuscripts, the most ancient found to date: the Dead Sea Scrolls.

After Herod the nearby fortress of Masada was besieged by Roman soldiers and at the beginning of the Jewish-Roman war, by zealots. In 73 BC, Flavius Silva’s army besieged this majestic fortress. Four years later, Roman soldiers opened a breach in a wall of the fortress and those Jewish defenders who remained, approximately 1,000 in number, preferred to commit suicide rather than surrender to the invading army.

Our journey ends in one of the most holy of cities on earth, Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock casts the glory of its golden dome over all of Jerusalem. No place can claim more holiness. The Temple Mount is also a holy site for numerous religions. We then follow the Via Dolorosa, the stations that Jesus followed before dying on the cross, ending our visit at the wailing wall, at the foot of the Dome of the Rock and the El-Aksa Mosque. The Wailing Wall, which purportedly supported the foundation of Solomon’s Temple, is the most worshipped by the Jewish people.

Montreal-based journalist and cultural navigator Andrew Princz is the editor of the travel site ontheglobe.com. He is involved in country awareness and tourism promotion projects globally. He has traveled to almost sixty countries around the globe seeking to communicate the stories of the diverse peoples and cultures that he comes across; from Nigeria to Ecuador; Kazakhstan to India.

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Early-morning view of Tel Aviv: Founded in 1909, Tel Aviv, with 500,000 inhabitants is the most populous city of Israel. This view was taken at sunrise from the David InterContinental Hotel. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The port at Jaffa Tel Aviv started as a garden suburb of ancient Jaffa at the turn of the last century. We walked through the winding streets of Jaffa, and visited the Elana Goor Museum. Pictured here is the port at the ancient city of Jaffa, which is situated outside of Tel Aviv. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The Ilana Goor Museum is situated in the historic port-town of Jaffa, where you will likely feel as if you had just entered an eclectic artistic jungle. Interspersed throughout the fascinating collection are the contemporary and the classical, the refined to the naive, the secular to the religious. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The multi-talented Israeli artist, designer and collector, Ilana Goor. Her seaside museum - literally a home turned into a museum a decade ago - is lined with a wide array of objects that Ms. Goor has collected over the years from the many corners of the world. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Rothschild Boulevard: Humerous sculptures on Rothschild Boulevard. The series of Bauhaus buildings in Tel Aviv are being preserved, and have been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Archeological remains in Caesarea: The ancient city of Caesarea is now known through the archeological remains of these colossal building projects of Herod the Great, the fabled late first century BCE ruler of Judea. Herod earned fame throughout the world in having built the temple in Jerusalem, created elaborate desert fortresses and founded new cities. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Archeological remains in Caesarea Caesara, named after Herod's benefactor Augustus Caesar, was an ambitious construction project that lasted twelve years, becoming the main port of Herod's kingdom. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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View overlooking the port at Haifa: Central to Haifa's picturesque panorama is the luxuriant and meticulously kept Persian garden, which leads to the dome of the Bahai Temple. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The Port at Acre: After Israel's Declaration of Independence, the city quickly retrieved its function as a port, developing an intensive industrial activity. Acre is also fascinating because it was an ancient medieval center, and retains numerous monuments. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The el-Jazzar Mosque in Acre The Ottoman architectural style is a characteristic of Acre, thanks to the construction work carried out by Pasha Ahmend el-Jazzar in the 18th century. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The Mount of the Beatitudes Mount of the Beatitudes near Korazim, the traditional site of Sermon on the Mount. It is the hill at the northwestern point of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Capernaum. Located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum was the center of Jesus' Ministry at Galilee. Here, Jesus is said to have healed the sick, and preached in the synagogue. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Bet She’an. The remains of an ancient city with a glorious past. During the Greco-Roman period, known as Scythopolis, its zenith was achieved during the Roman period, when it was one of ten major cities in the Levant (the Decapolis). During the eighth century CE the city was destroyed by a powerful earthquake. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Bet She’an. The impressive thermal system of Bet She'an is typical of Roman influence: the calidarium, a room for taking hot baths, still preserves the pavement support, a typical system for heating a room. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is some fifty miles long, and no more than ten miles wide. It is located in the deepest tectonic cavity in the world, approximately 1,296 below sea level. The Dead Sea is receding rapidly, and numerous dangerous cavities appear suddenly around the edges of the waters. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is in fact only a lake, a lake of pale blue water from the Jordan without any form of life whatsoever. Only in Israel, a land embued with plenty of magic, myth and biblical history can you dare to call a lake a sea! Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Floating at the Dead Sea. Miraculously, you can litterally float on the waters of the Dead Sea, in waters that are rich in therapeutic properties. Here is Andrew Princz of ontheglobe.com reading his newspaper at sunrise! Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Mountains behind the Qumran ruins. These are the caves where, in 1947, two Bedouin shepherds found seven pairs of jars containing the Biblical manuscripts, the most ancient found to date. The Dead Sea Scrolls, today, are displayed at the Jerusalem Museum. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Masada After Herod, the fortress of Masada was besieged by Roman soldiers, and later, at the beginning of the Jewish-Roman war, by the zealots. In 73 BC, Flavius Silva's army besieged it. Four years later, Roman soldiers opened a breach in a wall of the fortress, and the besieged, approximately 1,000 in number, preferred to commit suicide rather than surrender. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The Dome of the Rock. At the foot of the Dome of the Rock, casts the glory of its golden dome over all of Jerusalem. No place can claim more holiness. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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Via Dolorosa. The 12th Station, where Jesus dies on the cross. This is said to be the spot where the crosses of Jesus and two criminals were placed, on mount Calvary, where today a Greek Orthodox altar is found. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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The wailing wall. At the foot of the Dome of the Rock and the El-Akjsa Mosque stands the imposing Kotel Maaravi, the Wailing Wall, which purportedly supported the foundation of Solomon's Temple. No other place is worshipped more by the Jewish people. Photo © 2005, Vanda Katona, ontheglobe.com [ISRAEL

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