Innocuous photo update

Petra

Intrepid explorers, Indiana Jones style

Nabotean Treasury

Where does the sandstone end and the building begin? And which are you drinking, the water or the wave?

Tombs

Tombs, interior

Aged sandstone, detail

Nabotean Temple ruins

The old Roman road

Dead scarab

Breaking-in Ashleigh's Chacos

Petra sunset

Wadi Musa

Wadi Musa sunrise, with minaret front and center

Wadi Rum

(Neither images nor words do Wadi Rum justice. My camera confirmed this feeling by running out of batteries a few minutes after we got there. We took jeeps into the heart of the desert, brokedown in said jeeps out of cell phone range, were rescued, and then camped and smoked hookah with Bedouins... and I just have these two shots. Next time.)

Ash and Liz

Crazy footbridge we crossed

Masada

Masada's northeast wall. Ancient Hebrew has 3 words for "wall," all of which are etymologically related to the idea of "sight." I mention this in connection with the point I was trying to make earlier about how our defenses strategically frame what we can and cannot see.

Breathtaking view from Herod's palace. To the right, far below the fortress walls are the remains of the Roman camp and the siege-ramp they built to breach the city walls. The rebels at Masada were the last holdouts of the Great Revolt, putdown in 74 C.E. 

Staircase to Herod's palace

Herod's palace, lower tier. Remains of fashionable Roman frescoes and fluted plaster columns on the right. The opening you see leads down to Herod's private bathhouse. 

Dead Sea in the distance, the lowest point on planet Earth

Qumran

One of many mikva'ot, Jewish rituals baths at Qumran. The presence of such baths, along with inkwells, the absence of pig-bones, and a mostly male cemetery, suggests to most archaeologists a strong connection between the religious community living here and the Dead Sea scrolls found in the nearby caves.

Cave where several important Dead Sea scrolls were discovered, as seen from the Qumran compound.