Sea of Galilee

Some call it Lake Kinneret and some call it Sea of Galilee. It's definitely a place full of history, but it's still a beautiful resort area.



City of Tiberius, a resort town on the lake. It's named after the Roman emperor during whose times it was constructed. And it's still going strong.


This is the Church of the Beatitudes - commemorating the spot where the Sermon on the Mount was given.




This is the ruins of the city of Capernaum. It's where Simon Peter lived before he became St Peter. The foundations are bases of fishermen's houses from 2000 years ago. The big structure on the right is a church that they've put up above the foundation of what they believe is actual house of Simon Peter.


Capernaum was a Roman village, and this plaza shows it:




The fishermen's houses were really small. I think they are smaller than my office!




Cool tree on the banks of Lake Kinneret.


Tourist ships made to look like ancient fishing boats plow the lake.


And this is the real thing. This fishing boat was found on the banks of the lake when it was especially low. It was dated to 1st Century AD - right around the New Testament times.


It actually is a real fishing boat. It is made from 12 different kinds of wood!


The literacy rate among kingfishers is not too high.


Caught it at the right moment!


Residents of the Hula Lake:




I always wondered where it was....


Final sunset pic:

Petra vs Arizona: Antelope Slot Canyon

You don't have to go to Petra to see beautiful desert imagery. American Southwest is no worse, and in many aspects, much better. The Siq in Petra reminded me of the Antelope Slot Canyon near Page, Arizona. We visited it back in 2007, and here are a few pictures from it:

Jordan from the bus

Our quick dash to Petra didn't leave enough time to explore anything in Jordan, but the sights we were able to catch through the window of the bus were exotic enough.







... or not so exotic:



The area we were passing through is called Wadi Rum, one of the most picturesque places in Jordan and is actually a national park there. It is also famous for being the valley through which T.E. Lawrence passed through on his conquests in early 1900's, and where "Lawrence of Arabia" was filmed.





The road we were taking is one of the main highways in Jordan. It starts in Aqaba, Jordan's only port, on the Red Sea. It ends... in Baghdad.



The drinks in Jordan were eerily familiar.



This is a Bedouin camp:



The city of Wadi Musa, the gateway to Petra:



Wadi Musa is where the Jordanian government relocated the Bedouins from Petra. The name comes from a spring that supplies water to both Petra and the new city. The legend is that this is the spring that Moses opened when he struck the rock. (But in reality it's too far away from the route Moses traveled.)

Birding in Eilat

Eilat is the southern-most point in Israel, in a place where its land narrows down, squeezed between Jordanian and Egyptian mountains, and just manages to touch the Red Sea. Standing on Eilat's North Beach, on one side you can see planes coming down to land in Eilat's airport...


... and on the other side is Aqaba, the sole Jordanian port town.


Looking straight ahead, there is a tanker with a name that brings me a little closer to home.


North Beach is so close to the Jordanian border you can throw rocks across it. The building in the middle is the Jordanian border watch tower:


Here's a closer look (I am standing 20 yards from the border):


Birds don't care about borders. Due to Eilat's location (in the valley between two mountain ranges, in a place that's the only land bridge between Africa and Euroasia), it is the major route for all sorts of migrating birds. Overall, several million birds pass through it within a three-week period each spring, including almost a million of raptors alone. I was there too late for this movement, but still managed to get quite a few good close looks at exotics.

This little green bee-eater was perfectly happy positioned on a date farm fence.




Walking around on the local roads, I saw something crossing the border, in formation, in the sky against the mountains:


Taking a closer look, as they were coming for a landing...


And it was a flock of flamingos! I couldn't believe it. I was seeing a wild flamingo parade around in front of my eyes!


Border birding is not without its hazards...


This is the somewhat tautologically named Spur-Winged Lapwing. It was omnipresent and noisy, but irresistible with its striking colors. It gets its name from a claw that it has hidden in its wings.




This is a different bird whom I flushed from its nest. It got really angry at me and dived-bombed me several times until it deemed that I moved sufficiently far away.


Missed connection? The lapwing passes the Black-Winged Stilt mid-air.


Here is a closer look at the Stilt:


This is a marker for the local bike lane. Eilatians are not without humor :)


An angry-looking Arabian Babbler hunts for insects on the desert ground.


I can't resist this picture. It would have been more poetic if it were a border fence, but it's again just a farm perimeter. But I think it's cool anyway!