Aleppo

Aleppo is the second largest city in Syria. It is similar to Damascus with its large population and large markets but it does seem older because the people are more traditional (in a conservative sense).

Pre-20th-Century History

Aleppo vies with Damascus for the title of the world's oldest continually inhabited city. In fact, a handful of other Middle Eastern towns make this claim too, but texts from the ancient kingdom of Mari on the Euphrates River indicate that Aleppo was already the centre of a powerful state as long ago as the 18th century BC, and the site may have been continuously inhabited for the past 8000 years. Its pre-eminent role in Syria came to an end with the Hittite invasions of the 17th and 16th centuries BC, and the city appears to have fallen into obscurity thereafter. During the reign of the Seleucids, who arrived in the wake of Alexander the Great's campaign, it was given the name Beroia, and with the fall of Palmyra to the Romans, it became the major commercial link between the Mediterranean and Asia.

The town was destroyed by the Persians in AD 611, falling again to the Muslims during their invasion in 637. The Byzantines overwhelmed the town in 961 and again in 968 but they could not take the Citadel. Three disastrous earthquakes shook the town in the 10th century, and another, on August 9, 1138, ravaged the city and the surrounding area. Although estimates from this time are very unreliable, it is believed that 230,000 people died, making it the fourth deadliest earthquake in recorded history.

In 1124, the Crusaders (under Baldwin II, the Frankish king of Jerusalem) laid siege to the town. After raids by the Mongols in 1260 and 1401, in which Aleppo was all but emptied of its population, the city finally came into the Ottoman Turkish orbit (in 1517.) It prospered greatly until an earthquake in 1822 killed over 60% of the inhabitants and wrecked many buildings, including the Citadel.
Modern History

By 1901, Aleppo's population was around 125,000. The city revived when it came under French colonial rule but slumped again following the decision to give Antioch to Turkey (in 1938-1939.)

From 1952, many parts of the old city were sacrificed to progress. This started with broad roads being built through the city centre. In the 1970s, this process had reached its peak. Much of the old substance was demolished, and replaced by modern apartment buildings; what had still survived was left to decay. The turnaround came in 1986. Since the old city was declared a site of world cultural heritage by UNESCO in 1986, several Syrian and international organisations - such as the Agha Khan Trust for Culture, the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development and the German GTZ agency - work for its conservation.
Recent History

Today the major local industries are silk-weaving and cotton-printing. Products from the surrounding area include wool, hides, dried fruits and, particularly, pistachios - for which Aleppo is justly famous. Aleppo was named by the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) as the capital of Islamic culture in 2006.

The city is beautiful and the people were once again very helpful. While we were there we toured the Citadel. The Citadel is amazing! It is literally like a fort. My friends and I randomly walked everywhere and the Syrian Children climbed the buildings like it was a jungle course (hmm we did too:)). The citadel has a large moat and towers over the city. It was a main base during the 12th century Crusades and then was re-strengthened during the Mamluk period.

The next day we took a day trip to visit the Basilica of St. Simeon and the dead city Serjilla. The Basilica overlooks farm land, and is amazing. Most of the structures are intact and the broken columns are overgrown with grass. St. Simeon was one of Syria's most eccentric Christians. In AD 423 Simeon climbed to the top of a 30 M pillar and went to spend 36 years on top of it and other pillars. He wanted to be away from civilization and closer to God, but he attracted more attention because pilgrims came to visit him and ask him questions about life. He also wore a chain around his neck to prevent him from plummeting to his death. After his death (I'm not sure what the cause was) a church was built in his memory.

My friends and I happened to go visit the Basilica the same day as a school field trip. So like my trip to Yemen, I have thousands of pictures of kids!


Later that day we had our driver take us to the dead city of Serjilla. It is an ancient city that almost completely intact, but all the people were gone. Its worth seeing but I think my friends and I had more fun with our driver. He is a really nice guy and he brought his wife along. They later invited us to their house and to meet the rest of their family. It was nice to be in a home for a little while:)

Syria

Israel/Palestine

After touring ancient Roman ruins and citadels we took a bus from Aleppo, Syria to Amman, Jordan. It was an extremely long bus ride that we caught at 11 pm! I have problems sleeping on buses but was so exhausted that I slept on the floor! haha I got a lot of strange looks, but they let me sleep:) We had to get our passports re-stamped before we left Syria and had to unload all our luggage. As the bus was leaving I realized that the guy sitting next to me was gone. The bus left him! And this was his first time to leave the country! poor guy. But after a few shouts and foreignized Arabic we got the problem solved and found the lost guy. He looked like he was about to cry.:)

Once we made it to Jordan, my friends and I caught a taxi to the border of Israel. As you know Syria and Israel don't get along, so we couldn't go straight from Syria to Israel, which would have saved 5 hours of traveling time. Oh well, hopefully someday the governments will reach a truce. They should do it just for the sake of the poor college travelers:) haha.

Israel is amazing. It was weird to be in a westernized country in the Middle East. There were even women soldiers! And they looked tough! I didn't want to make them angry thats for sure. But there were actually a lot of really young soldiers thanks to the draft. We had to wait 3 hours at the border. They didn't appreciate the fact that we didn't want them to stamp our passports (If people have an Israeli stamp, they are forbidden from many countries including Yemen, Syria, and Saudi Arabia) But they luckily understood and we were Americans so the have to treat us nicely:) But it was really sad how they treated the Arabs. They had no patience with them! Its amazing how fear and internal conflict with a particular group can change the scenario of a simple situation.

In Jerusalem we stayed in a hostel just outside the walls of the old city in the Arab quarter. Inside the old city is a lot of markets, the wailing wall and the Dome of the Rock. Here is a good website that explains the Holy sites in Israel http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jerusalem-dome-of-the-rock.htm


Israel is beautiful! It is clean and you can tell that a lot of money was put into the infrastructure. It was also really cool to be in the holiest place on earth. After shopping for souvenirs and chowing down on bread on hummus we followed the Via Dolorosa trail. It consists of several stations that follow the path Jesus Christ took before he was crucified. Here are the different stations:
1)Courtyard of Omariye College. The site where Jesus was condemned to death.
2)Chapels of the Condemnation and Flagellation. The area where Jesus took up the cross.
3)The corner of El-Wad road. Area where Jesus fell for the first time.
4)Armenian Catholic chapel. Area where Jesus met his mother.
5)Franciscan oratory. Area where Simon the Cyrenian is forced to carry the cross.
6)Convent of the Little Sisters of Jesus. Area where Veronica wiped the sweat from Jesus' face.
7)Roman column in a Franciscan chapel. Area where Jesus fell for the second time.
8)Greek monastery. Where Jesus consoled the women of Jerusalem.
9)Holy Sepuchre Basilica (actually contains several stations)
a) Where Jesus fell for the 3rd time
b) Where Jesus was stripped of his garments
c) Where Jesus was nailed to the cross and later taken down
d) Where Jesus was laid in a tomb
e) a monument commemorating his resurrection.

It was an amazing walk and it was interesting to see all the different kinds/denominations of churches inside Jerusalem. But it was also frustrating how all the monks were fighting over power. Reminds me of that

After the long walk we had dinner and met some Palestinians with Israeli IDs. Since they are Muslims and Palestinian they can't be Israeli, but technically aren't in Palestine anymore. Complicated, I know. Anyway, they showed us around at night. It was a lot of fun. Do the touristy things during the day, then experience the nightlife with the locals. My kind of vacation:)

The next day we took a day trip to Tel Aviv so Jessamyn could visit a family friend. I love Tel Aviv! It has a younger population like a college town, but is in a big city setting. Plus there is a beach! We didn't have our bathing suits but we at least took advantage of the sun. I however fell asleep and burned only half of my face! oops! If I return to Israel, I will definitely spend more time in Tel Aviv.
On the way home to our hostel we met some Palestinian Christians from Gaza. They were permitted into Jerusalem to celebrate Easter. They were really nice and helped us find our way back to the hostel. We actually saw them the next day in Ramallah, Palestine and they tried to convince us to go to Gaza....no thanks:)

Behind the wall in Palestine...

Let me make this clear. I DO NOT LIKE THE WALL BETWEEN ISRAEL AND PALESTINE. Its really frightening because it is huge and is covered in barbed wire and the check points are complicated. My friends and I felt like we were being shoved around like a bunch of cattle, and we were Americans so we received nice treatment! It is also obvious that the wall helped suck a lot of life out of Palestine. Every Arab city I have visited is full of energy and people haggling over goods. Palestine (the areas where I visited which was Bethlehem and Ramallah, the "nicer" areas) was like a ghost town. We didn't see that many people, especially near the wall and it was really quiet. The tourists helped with the noise when we visited the Nativity Church that was built where they believed Jesus was born.

Ramallah was busier, but still depressing. We had dinner at a friend's family house and they were so nice, and the food was amazing! But it was hard to hear that they had problems leaving the country, even for work related matters.

I don't have a lot to say about Palestine because I didn't spend that much time there, but I at least learned a lot about the affects of the occupation and I didn't even get to witness the most oppressed places.

I really hope the conflict between Israel and Palestine gets solved. Its really hard to see people live with fear, hatred, and frustration. I also think that people should be able to leave their country whenever they want (but this problem exists in the majority of 3rd world countries as well). Hmm, this is when I wish that the Miss America's words of world peace would actually come true. Hahaha.

Israel/Palestine

Interesting look on life in Cairo

Thought that this was interesting....and also very true!! I know its not politically correct to copy and paste the article, but blogspot wasn't a share option:(


June 20, 2008
Cairo Journal
With a Word, Egyptians Leave It All to Fate
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

CAIRO — The McDonald’s here has golden arches, the same golden arches as anywhere else in the world. The food is prepared the same assembly-line way, too. But there is an invisible, or more precisely, divine, element in bringing that burger to the plate that the uninitiated may not be prepared for.

“Inshallah,” or “God willing,” the counterman said as he walked off to see about a burger without onions at the McDonald’s on the Alexandria Desert Road, 30 miles from the center of Cairo.

Egyptians have always been religious, from Pharaonic times to the present. Any guidebook to Egypt alerts tourists to Egyptians’ frequent use of inshallah in discussing future events, a signal of their deep faith and belief that all events occur, or don’t occur, at God’s will. “See you tomorrow,” is almost always followed by a smile and, “inshallah.”

But there has been inshallah creep, to the extreme. It is now attached to the answer for any question, past, present and future. What’s your name, for example, might be answered, “Muhammad, inshallah.”

“I say to them, ‘You are already Muhammad or you are going to be Muhammad?’ ” said Attiat el-Abnoudy, a documentary filmmaker in Cairo.

Inshallah has become the linguistic equivalent of the head scarf on women and the prayer bump, the spot where worshipers press their foreheads into the ground during prayers, on men. It has become a public display of piety and fashion, a symbol of faith and the times. Inshallah has become a reflex, a bit of a linguistic tic that has attached itself to nearly every moment, every question, like the word “like” in English. But it is a powerful reference, intended or not.

Political and social commentators here say its frequent use reflects or fuels, or both, the increasing degree to which people have dressed the routine of daily life up with religious accessories. Will the taxi get me to my destination? Will my sandwich come without onions? What’s my name? It’s always, “God willing.”

“Now inshallah is used in a much broader way than 20 years ago,” said the Egyptian playwright Aly Salem. “We always used to say inshallah in relation to plans we were going to do in the future. Now it is part of the appearance of piety.”

The starting point for inshallah is faith, but just like the increasing popularity of the head scarf and the prayer bump, its new off-the-rack status reflects the rising tide of religion around the region. Observance, if not necessarily piety, is on the rise, as Islam becomes for many the cornerstone of identity. That has put the symbols of Islam at the center of culture, and routine.

“Over the past three decades, the role of religion has been expanded in everything in our lives,”’ said Ghada Shahbendar, a political activist who studied linguistics at American University in Cairo.

Deference to the divine has become a communal reflex, a compulsive habit, like the incessant honking of Egyptian cabdrivers — even when there are no other cars on the street.

Samer Fathi, 40, has a small kiosk that sells chips and cigarettes and phone cards downtown. He was asked for a 100-unit phone card and responded almost absent-mindedly “inshallah,” as he flipped through the stack to find one.

At 19 Ismael Street the elevator door opened.

“Going down?”

“Inshallah,” a passenger replied.

As it has become routine, inshallah has also become a kind of convenience, a useful dodge, a bit of theological bobbing-and-weaving to avoid commitment. No need to say no. If it doesn’t happen, well, God didn’t mean it to happen. Nazly Shahbendar, Ghada’s daughter, said for example if she was invited to a party she did not want to attend, she would never say no.

“I’d say inshallah,” said Ms. Shahbendar who is 24 and anything but a picture of the new religiosity. She is not veiled or shy about talking to men; she smokes in front of her mother.

She also points out that inshallah is not the only religious term to infiltrate the lexicon of routine. The younger Ms. Shahbendar, like many people here, have taken to using the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of belief, as a routine greeting. So instead of “How are you? Fine, and you?” she will say to a friend “There is no God but God,” to which the friend will complete the statement. “And Muhammad is his prophet.”

People now answer the phone that way, too, skipping hello altogether. It would be something like Christians greeting each other with “Christ is risen!” followed by “Christ will come again.” Not just on Sundays, but every day.

“We are a very religious people, Egyptians,” said Mostafa Said, 25, as he told his friend he hoped, inshallah, to have his car turn indicator fixed by next week. “We believe God is responsible for what happens, even to the car.”

But it is not just about faith in the celestial that has people invoking God. It is also, at least for some, a lack of faith in the earthbound rulers who run the place. People here are tired — of the rising prices and the eroding wages, of the traffic, of the corruption, of the sense that it is every man for himself.

“In this place, when something works, or you want something to work, you thank God, because it’s certainly not the government who is going to help you,” said Sherif Issa, 48, a taxi driver in Cairo with a nicotine-stained mustache and a fair size belly. “It’s because everything is going in the wrong direction — who can we look up to except God?”

That Mr. Issa is a Christian is evidence that the use of inshallah is not just a phenomenon of Egypt’s Muslims.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christian or a Muslim,” he said. “I’m going to take you to your house, arriving there in a decent amount of time is already a miracle. Of course I say inshallah!”

Nadim Audi contributed reporting.

Rising prices of food causes a crisis in Egypt

I'm sure that you have already heard this in the news, but if not, : The prices of food has steeply increased throughout the whole world, causing panic. There are already millions of people living below the poverty level and now there will be more. People are protesting and asking their governments for help, but they aren't doing anything. Egypt is one of the countries suffering from the inflated prices. Through word of mouth and facebook, a demonstration was organized. Of course the government heard about it and prepared for the demonstrating by deploying riot and secret police throughout the whole capitol. Many of my Egyptian friends asked me not to go to school (but I had a presentation, and couldn't miss anymore classes) and some classes were canceled at AUC. On my way to school there were riot police stationed all over the main square (Midan tahrir) and my teachers encouraged me to go home quickly after classes. However, nothing happened. I never felt threatened (but it was weird to see soooo many police)and didn't witness any demonstration. I was relieved because I didn't want to be caught in the middle of anything...but also frustrated that the Egyptian people weren't able to fight for their rights to life and ability to eat. But as it turns out, there were demonstrations in a different area and also near Sinai. The following two articles better explain the situation. Also, some Americans were arrested for taking pictures of the riot police. oops, but they were quickly released after a day or two.


Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
By PAUL SCHEMM

The Associated Press

MAHALLA EL-KOBRA, Egypt — Egyptian police attacked protesters who tore down a billboard of President Hosni Mubarak in a northern city Monday in the second day of violence fueled by anger over low wages and rising prices.

In another sign of dissatisfaction with the U.S.-backed government, the country's most powerful opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said it was reversing a decision to participate in local elections today because of mass arrests of its members in recent months.

Prices of cooking oil, rice and other staples have nearly doubled since the beginning of the year and there are widespread shortages of government-subsidized bread throughout the country of 76 million people. Nearly 40 percent of Egyptians live under the internationally defined poverty line of $2 a day. Complaints that the government is not doing enough to help the poor have turned simmering dissatisfaction with repression and lack of economic opportunity into rare open unrest.

Thousands of demonstrators torched buildings, looted shops and hurled bricks at police in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla el-Kobra on Sunday. Nearly 100 others were arrested elsewhere in protests over economic problems. Thousands skipped work and school and hundreds protested.

Protesters stormed City Hall in Mahalla, burned tires in the streets, smashed chairs through shop windows and ran off with computers. At least two schools were set ablaze and facades of banks were vandalized. The police responded with tear gas and detained more than 500 protesters, according to a report by Al Masry-alyoum, an independent Cairo newspaper.

Protesters, including families of 300 residents and textile workers detained since Sunday, tried to meet with visiting Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud. When they failed, they stoned his motorcade, an Interior Ministry spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said. Mahalla is the center of Egypt's textile industry.

Several hundred young men massed in Mahalla's main square on Monday, throwing rocks at a billboard of Mubarak and slashing it with knives before toppling it.

Riot police charged the group, firing heavy volleys of tear gas, pulling some of the men to the pavement and beating them with batons or fists. Protesters threw stones or canisters of tear gas at the police.

At least 25 people were arrested, and 15 protesters and five policemen were hurt, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The government appears worried by the unrest and lifted import duties on some food items last week in an effort to lower prices. It strongly warned citizens against participating in the strikes and demonstrations, which are illegal in Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood said Mubarak's administration also had arrested more than 1,000 of its members and potential candidates, detaining 400 after the group announced last month that it would take part in today's municipal elections.

The Brotherhood is a banned organization and its candidates run officially as independents, although their allegiances are generally known.

On Monday, the group urged supporters to boycott municipal polls, saying on its Web site that the elections "have already been fixed before being held."

Brotherhood lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud said the government had disqualified most of the several hundred Brotherhood members who had registered as candidates, and that in the end only 21 members from the group were allowed to run. He said they would withdraw their candidacies.

A security official said around 30 figures believed to be connected to the Brotherhood had been allowed to run. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

"We feel we are not competing with a normal party but with a group of corrupt people who are willing to even resort to illegal and unethical means," the Brotherhood said. "The party of corruption and despotism is afraid of any contest."

The United States and international human-rights groups have criticized the Egyptian government's crackdown on the Brotherhood, but Washington has exerted little pressure for reform on Mubarak, one of its staunchest allies in the Middle East.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday he hadn't seen reports on Egyptian protesters clashing with security forces but said Washington has "talked to the Egyptian government about the importance of political and economic reform."

"We always encourage countries in the region and around the world to do everything that they possibly can. And is there more to do? Absolutely. There's more to do in Egypt," McCormack said. "But fundamentally, they're going to have to arrive at their own decisions about the pace and the direction of this reform."

The Brotherhood scored surprise victories in 2005 parliament elections that gave it a fifth of the legislature's 454 seats. The local elections had been scheduled to take place in 2006, but were put off for two years, apparently out of fear of more Brotherhood gains.

Word of the strikes and demonstrations spread through social-networking Internet sites and blogs.

"Some students and bloggers waged a campaign on the Facebook Web [site] and gathered more than 70,000 supporters in several groups," said Alaa Alghatrifi, producer of Egypt's "10 PM" talk-show program, which has a following akin to Larry King's. "Some of them decided to go down in the streets to demonstrate, and others made up-to-the-moment coverage using the cellphone cameras and laptops."

The nationwide strike was the first major attempt by opposition groups to turn the past year's labor unrest in Egypt into a wider political protest against the government of President Hosni Mubarak. The strike and riots in the north began two days before key elections for local councils, causing worries in the government, which last week lifted import duties on some food items in an effort to soften economic discontent.

Said activist May Kosba: "We are living in a country that makes strikes, demonstrating and expressing your anger or disagreements in a peaceful way illegal, so people decided to express themselves illegally."

Material from Bloomberg News Service is included in this report.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

This is a good article that portrayed the mood of the demonstration...
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jack_shenker/2008/04/protests_in_the_smog.html

Pros and Cons of Modernization

I read an article on Qatar this morning about its rapid modernization. Its a very good read because it talks about how Qatar is able to make a name for itself in the world but at the same time it has also lost a lot of flavor in the older parts of the capital.


http://www.mideasti.org/encounter/modernization-daily-life-qatar

YEMEN!!!!

Jessica and I had a 4day weekend because of Mother's Day and to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Mohamed (). In Egypt, not everyone celebrates his birthday. When they do, they buy lots of candy and sugar dolls. It is also another reason for families to gather together. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawlid)
To celebrate the break from school, Jessica and I traveled to Yemen to visit one of my friends from UW. When we first made plans to travel, many of my friends were surprised and tried to persuade me not to go saying that there was nothing to do in Yemen (Heaven forbid we travel to a country with no shopping malls:)) and that the country is uncivilized. Going to Yemen was definitely a culture shock!!! I know I would never be able to live there but I'm really glad I visited it. I like to think of Yemen as a country full of wrinkly old men, breathtaking geography, Qat chewers, and millions and millions of little children who wanted their pictures taken. (you will understand once you see my pictures:)) Even the old men wanted pictures!! The people were really nice, always shouting "hello" and "Welcome to Yemen." The thing that disgusted me the most were the men when they were chewing qat (which was all the time!!) ( ) ( http://www.american.edu/ted/qat.htm ) There isn't a whole lot to do in Yemen and the majority of the people are unemployed, so the men chew qat in the afternoon. I don't really understand it, but from what I witnessed is that the men stuff huge wads of qat leaves in their mouths creating a large bump and then they chew on the leaves for the rest of the day. The men look really weird and it is so difficult to understand them! But I hear that the leaves help reduce hunger...which is why everyone there was deathly skinny!! Qat chewing is a bad habit because not eating is very unhealthy, but at the same time approximately 75% of the population is malnourished and living below the poverty line. So maybe its helpful psychologically. However a friend pointed out that the men spend 60% of the income on qat. hmmm. Where does that leave their children who should grow up with proper healthcare and education? And the women? They are also extremely skinny. But even with this problem, I wouldn't consider Yemen to be uncivilized. It is true that the only regular toilet I found was in my friend's apartment, and most of the buildings we stayed in (in the old city at least) were built shortly before the 12th century!! Also, everyone wears the traditional clothing (the men wear thobes (the white man dress) with a decorative dagger on their belts and the women are covered from head to toe in black). But there was running water, electricity, cars in the streets (I only saw donkeys on farms) and transportation systems. The transportation was my favorite. You could get on random buses that would drive you around town...hahah we even got into and accident!! I feel so stupid because I watched the car hit the bus under my window, and I could have been hurt. oops! oh well!! It wasn't a bad accident and both the bus and car were previously banged up, making it hard to notice the impact of the crash:) We also rode random trucks up the mountain to visit an old Imam's palace (dated around the 1950's, so fairly modern:)). But I don't think the lack of modern dress wear and transportation laws/systems is a reason for Yemen to be uncivilized. They are just living very differently:) I'm just amazed that tradition is still a main value of life, and that the ancient infrastructures are still beautifully decorated, not to mention standing! The government is also working a little harder. It recently created a firearm ban for non-military and non-governmental people in hopes to make the country safer (although I never felt in danger) and to encourage tourism....which would in turn improve the economy in hopes to reduce the percentage of malnourished people. Yemen would never be as strong in tourism as Egypt because it doesn't have as a remarkable history, but its never ending mountains and breathtaking views have a potential for catching a lot of attention.
While I was in Yemen I also visited the Shahara mountains. There is an ancient bridge built about a large ravine that connects two villages. Lets just say getting to that bridge was an adventure!! My friends and I shared a Land Rover and a driver to take us to the mountains. There were several military checkpoints along the way, where we were required to give them copies of our travel permits. But our driver didn't make enough copies. So once we ran out...the driver started telling the guards that we were Syrian, which was definitely convincing with Jessica's red hair. haha oh well, it worked! We also stopped at a village called Amran. The people there were really kind and I've never seen so many children in my life!! And they all wanted their pictures taken!! haha this was the vacation I really wanted...to witness people living totally different than me, and to have kids be really excited to see us and follow us everywhere we went. I just wish I had school supplies to give them:( Anyways, back to the mountains. We drover for what seemed several hours and then reached the base of the mountains. The Land Rovers couldn't drive anymore so we transferred to 4x4's and stood in the bed of the pick ups for 2 hours!! What an experience!! haha there were a few times we swore that our truck wouldn't make it up the mountain because the roads were so steep and weren't always in the best condition. But we made it, and the view was even more breathtaking than the bridge! I was in awe:) Then a bunch of kids showed us around their village ( ) (Out of this rises the Shahara, a huge mountain massif, the highest point being nearly 3,000m (9,840ft) above sea level. This can be climbed by foot or by 4-wheel drive car. Shahara Bridge, built in the 17th century, connects two mountains and can still be crossed by foot.)
( http://www.viewzone.com/y-page31.html )

The village even had schools, a prison, and a court system. I was quite impressed:) The next day we walked down the mountains. I have so much respect for the villagers because walking down the mountain was sooo difficult!! It was really steep and there wasn't always a real path. And of course I had to show off my graceful side by falling and twisting my ankle! Oh well, I made it the rest of the way and the guys who traveled with us helped me walk slowly:) Then after another long car ride, we returned to Sana'a and passed out in my friend's apartment. The next day we explored the city, visited the Imam's palace (which was located on top of a rock, built a little over 50 years ago) and of course we bought souvenirs at the ancient souq (market):)

Yemen was definitely worth visiting and I recommend it to everyone...unless you only travel to go shopping and be pampered in spas...

Here are some random facts about Yemen:
oh I forgot to mention....the traditional food (salta) was really good. It was this spicy, bubbly goo with meat and you dip bread into it. Looks weird, but I would eat it again:)




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen



Next trip...Spring Break!!

I'm going to Syria, Jordan, and Palestine-Israel

Yemen