Israel and Jordan Trip: A Picture Thread

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Unfortunately I lost my digital camera in Germany, so I had to use shitty disposable cameras and then scan them with my moms shitty scanner, so the pictures are of questionable (ie shitty) quality. UM is apparently retarded now, I can only post 3 pictures per post, so I guess I have to spread these out.

I got the second half of the trip developed first, so I'll start off with Petra in Jordan. Petra is a 2000+ year old Nabataean city that was carved into the rock of a mountain.

The Treasury. Look at the tourists to get an idea of how big this bitch is. Once again, it's all once piece that was carved out of the mountain.

Some cozy homes.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Ruins of a Temple that was built by the Romans some time later when they "annexed" the region.

I forget what this building is, but you can be sure that its fucking old.

There was a Nabataean temple at the top of one of the mountains that had later been turned into a Monastery by the Byzantines. Nice two hour hike to get up to it:

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

The Monastery.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

View from the top.

After Petra we returned to Israel to czech out Masada, a 2000 year old fortress built on a freakin huge plateau in the middle of the freakin desert. Unfortunately, I don't remember what most of these things are.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

zomg the Dead Sea and the desert

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

View from the plateau.

Room with a view!

And more to come tomorrow, I have two more disposables to get developed.

 

[Jace_Mereel]

Omg, it looks so beautiful there. Ever since seeing Indiana Jones: Last Crusade, I've always wanted to visit Petra. It's also said to play a role post-Rapture. An interesting tale, whether you believe it or not.

Great photos man. Glad to have you back.

 

[Will Bozarth]

how can anything play any role post-rapture? it's a mound of rock and everyone will either be in heaven without their clothing or dead.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Petra is absolutely incredible. It also helps that the Bedouins and the rest of the Jordanian Arabs are the nicest/coolest people I've ever met.

 

[Shpongled]

Max I gotta say there's a really great retro feel with these pics due to the camera/scanner aspect. I actually really like it and think these pics are awesome and Jordan looks like a totally cool place.

This picture reminds me of epic fantasy lands where empires would build their castles in the mountainous rocks so that enemies wouldn't try to cross them to get in. It's hard to believe that nowadays, building something like a castle in a place like this would be practically unheard of. It's crazy how differently intelligent people were thousands of years ago.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Max I gotta say there's a really great retro feel with these pics due to the camera/scanner aspect. I actually really like it and think these pics are awesome and Jordan looks like a totally cool place.

This picture reminds me of epic fantasy lands where empires would build their castles in the mountainous rocks so that enemies wouldn't try to cross them to get in. It's hard to believe that nowadays, building something like a castle in a place like this would be practically unheard of. It's crazy how differently intelligent people were thousands of years ago.

Agreed, one of the reasons I find this stuff fascinating. Just to give you an idea of how nuts Masada is, here's a picture (not taken by me obviously) of the plateau it was built on top of.

The only thing more nuts than building a palace and fortress on that thing is actually attacking it, like the Romans did.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

wow, thats some really cool stuff!
you must have chosen wisely

 

[Anvil]

Jealousy only partially describes what I'm feeling right now.

 

[Dead_Lioness]

Max Im so proud of you

Matzada is awesome. I hiked in that desert and went up to the top of it by foot many times
(Max, did you climb it, or took that tramp up?)


And Petra is lovely... How cool Max, you make me miss home :/

 

[JenniferGentle]

I love, love, love those photos. They are particularly awesome, as Kevin said BECAUSE of the camera. But it looks so beautiful. I am glad you saw such things

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

(Max, did you climb it, or took that tramp up?)

Nah, my dad is kind of feeble (he had to use a cane through the whole trip), and I had kind of hurt my leg hiking up to the Monastery in Petra, so we took the cable car. I wish we had hiked it though.

And Petra is lovely... How cool Max, you make me miss home :/

I want to go back, too .

 

[Liverslapper]

< in awe at these pictures.



I'm fascinated by this kind of stuff.

 

[Jeff-Loomis-fan]

awesome pics max!

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

More pictures! These are from the first part of the trip, in Jerusalem.

First we went to the Western ("Wailing") Wall

Where there was some intense Judaism going on

And then we checked out the awesome archaeological stuff around the Temple Mount.

My dad gazing contemplatively down the ancient street in front of the ruins of the Second Temple.

View from Mount Zion

We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but most of my pictures from there didn't come out because it was really dark in there (whats with Orthodox and Catholic christians and dark depressing churches?). This picture of a cool mosaic came out though

At the Israel Museum there was an awesome huge scale model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period (about 2000 years ago)

And finally here's a couple pictures of the Old City itself