Category Archives: journeys

Being totally presumptous …

Posted on by

Last night I discovered that I had stood in almost the same places as Frank Hurley to take photographs at Petra, and was fascinated by how little the place had changed between our visits. If making a comparison between my images and Hurley’s was cheeky (and indeed it was!) then this is even more outrageous.

Interesting, though, to see that some things about Paris haven’t changed a great deal in 60 years: people still sit on the embankment of the River Seine, canal boats still moor by the Pont Neuf, and the skyline behind Ile de la Cite has gained only one tall building.

Although it’s possible to stand where the great man stood, and to point a camera at the same things he saw, it is totally impossible to replicate digitally the fabulous film grain and misty light in Cartier-Bresson’s image. And that, I think, is a very good thing.

 

Ile de la Cite, Paris, gelatin silver print by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952

Ile de la Cite, Paris, digital image by me, 2011. (Black and white conversion and “film grain” added in Capture NX2 and Photoshop Elements.)

 

 

Same place, different time

Posted on by

A friend posted a new photo to his Facebook page tonight. It was taken a few years ago at Derwentwater in the UK, down on the edge of the lake where the row boats pull up on the shore. It prompted me to look for my own photo taken there in 1992, and to compare them … same place, different time, and the boats hadn’t changed at all!

Later in the evening I was reading the news about the journey of the Aurora Australis to Antarctica to mark the centenary of Douglas Mawson’s 1912 expedition. The internet being the wonderful place that it is, I was soon following links to photographs taken by Frank Hurley on that expedition, then photographs taken by him in France during the First World War, and then photographs taken in the Middle East during the Second World War.

I knew of Hurley’s work in Antarctica, and also of his war photography, but didn’t know that he also visited and photographed Petra sometime around 1943. So I started playing spot-the-difference again, comparing Hurley’s photographs with my own from October last year. How presumptuous!

I discovered that Petra hasn’t changed all that much in nearly 70 years. Except perhaps in the ease of travel. Hurley’s note on his photograph of Ad-Deir says this: “Situated to the s. e. of the Dead Sea. Practically impossible to reach today.” For air-conditioned buses, I am very, very thankful.

 

Rock Tombs at Petra, silver gelatin photograph by Frank Hurley, c.1943

Rock tombs at Petra, digital image by me, 2011.

Glimpse of Petra Valley, silver gelatin photograph by Frank Hurley, c.1943

Glimpse of Petra Valley, digital image by me, 2011

Huge temple cut in one piece from the mountain, Petra, Jordan, silver gelatin photograph by Frank Hurley, c. 1943

Ad-Deir (The Monastery), digital image by me, 2011

Framed: Paris and Petra

Posted on by


Here are the two images that are “bookends” to my journeys this year.

Paris, in June: the Eiffel Tower as it came into view at the end of Rue de Monttessuy, the first photograph taken during my family holiday to Europe. And Petra, in October: my last glimpse of Al Khazneh, the Treasury, the final photograph from my study tour in the Middle East.

I’m struck by how different these landmarks are, and yet how similar the photographs. The Eiffel Tower, a modern monument built as the entrance for the World Fair of 1889, here framed by contemporary apartment buildings. And Al Khazneh, a king’s tomb carved from a sandstone cliff in the 1st century, framed by the 80m high walls of the Siq. Modern metal and ancient rock, both candidates for the new seven wonders of the world. I’m amazed that I have seen them both.

Jordan: Petra

Posted on by

And so to Petra. Famous as the capital city of the Nabateans (6th century BC) and, more recently, as a film location for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, this was the final destination of our journey in the Middle East.

Petra is a huge site and we spent a whole day here, though even that was probably not enough to see everything properly. Entry is through The Siq, at the end of which is the classic *gasp* view of The Treasury. But Petra has more treasure than The Treasury. Take a look at the link above, and be amazed.

Some of us climbed the 800+ sandstone steps to the top of the mountain to view Ad-Deir (The Monastery). Others, including me, took the Indiana Jones option and rode a donkey – 15 dinars (about 20 Australian dollars) for two donkeys and a guide, which we would pay when we reached the top and not before. I was so excited that I didn’t stop to consider how the donkey was going to manage this, and was taken aback when we reached the bottom of the stairs.

“The donkey climbs the stairs?”, I asked the boy leading the way. “Oh, yes,” he replied. “Donkey know the way. Just relax.” I wasn’t worried so much about donkey knowing the way, but whether donkey had steady feet! One slip, and donkey and I would be at the bottom of the valley again.

But it was OK. Apart from stopping twice to readjust the saddle and tighten the frayed girth strap. It was probably better not to think about OH&S anyway. We made it, and it was worth every slip and scrabble up the stairs. I walked down, though. No way was I trusting the descent to anything but my own two feet!

Our guide had told us, as we arrived at the site in the morning, that the average number of photos taken per person during a day at Petra is four hundred. Seven hundred in the case of Japanese tourists. I have only forty! Hopefully the dozen below give you a feel for Petra and how wonderful it was to visit. Enjoy!

Jordan: Jerash, Amman, Mt Nebo and Wadi Mujib

Posted on by

The last part of our journey in the Middle East was through The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. We had only three days in this beautiful country, but we managed to visit a few significant archaeological sites in the north of the country, as well as Petra in the south (more on that in the next post).

On our first day we visited Jerash, the Gerasa of antiquity. It was one of the great cities of the Decapolis in Roman times, with a magnificent oval plaza and cardo, and many temples to Greco-Roman gods. Amazing ruins, carefully reconstructed, plus a pipe band in full Jordanian military dress playing Scotland the Brave as we entered the theatre. Did they know we were Presbyterians? I wonder …

Our second day began in country’s capital, Amman, and ended after dark at Petra. In Amman we visited the Citadel site and museum, and learned something of the site’s history since Neolithic times. The city has had several name changes since then: it was known as Rabbath-Ammon (the high place of the Ammonites) up till Roman times when it was part of the Decapolis and renamed Philadelphia. The museum was full of artifacts found in Jerash and Petra, beautiful things indeed. The large temple on the site is assumed to have been dedicated to Hercules because of the statue “fragment” found nearby: the large curled hand in the photo in the gallery.

On the way to Petra we visited Mt Nebo, and stopped for a while at Madaba to see the mosaics in the Church of St George. The view from Mt Nebo stretches all the way to the Jordan Valley and the mountains beyond – the whole of the Promised Land shown to Moses before he died (Deuteronomy 34). Breathtaking!

This winding route took us through the Wadi Mujib, down into the deep valley that leads to the Dead Sea, across the River Mujib Dam, and up the other side. Stunning views in the late afternoon light, and a great chance to stop and stretch our legs. Our guide reminded us that this valley was once known as the Valley of Arnon, and encouraged us to find out how often it’s mentioned in the Bible. Twenty-three times, I discovered.

And then, after several long hours in the bus, we arrived in Petra …

Israel: Tel Dan, Caesarea Philippi, Megiddo, Caesarea Maritima, Sepphoris

Posted on by

From little rocks to big rocks. These images were collected over the few days that we stayed in Tiberius, by Lake Galilee, and used it as a base for day trips.

Tel Dan is significant as the site of the Canaanite city of Laish, which flourished in in the 18th century BC, and also of the Israelite city of Dan. The fortifications, including the city gate in the gallery below, are attributed to King Ahab sometime around 850 BC. The remains of the king’s seat include round bases for the poles that carried the canopy over the king while he sat in judgment. Amazing that they are still there after so many centuries. Also of interest to us was the site of the Jeroboam’s temple (1 Kings chapter 12) – here we stood in the “sacred place” of one of the northern temples built at the time of the division of the Kingdom of Israel in 930 BC!

Nearby is Banias, also known as Panias, as well as by its 1st century name of Caesarea Philippi. This is the site of the spring that is part of the head waters of the Jordan River, hence the name honouring the god Pan. Caesar Augustus added the region to the territory of King Herod at the end of the 1st century BC, and Herod built a temple there in honour of Augustus. Herod’s son Philip received this part of the kingdom when his father died – he made it his capital and renamed it Caesarea Philippi. In the New Testament, Caesarea Philippi is important: it is the place where the apostle Peter understood and declared Jesus to be the Messiah (Mark 8:27-29).

Megiddo is another site with Old Testament significance. Its history dates back to the Neolithic Period (9th-5th centuries BC) and its name appears in the Biblical records of the Israelites’ conquering of Canaan, as well as of Solomon’s building projects. It is the site of the battle between Israel and Egypt in 609 BC, where King Josiah faced Pharoah Neco in battle and died, and also of the last battle in Britain’s conquest of Palestine at the end of World War I, in 1918. Megiddo is the source of the Apocalyptic place name Armageddon: the final battle (Revelation 16:16).

At Caesarea Maritima we saw the archaeological remains of King Herod’s magnificent city by the sea, including the theatre, the royal palace, the hippodrome, and the great aqueduct carrying water to the city. And we were able to paddle (no time to swim!!) in the Mediterranean. Sepphoris, in Galilee, was the city built by Herod Antipas as his first capital when the region passed to him upon the death of his father (he later built another capital on the lake, naming it Tiberius). The Herods were big on building projects, and they were big projects, using labour from the surrounding districts to complete them. It’s intriguing to think that Jesus, as a young man learning his trade, may have walked the short distance from Nazareth to Sepphoris to work on the construction of that city.

Next post … across the river to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan!

Israel: Not more mosaics!

Posted on by

Two things we saw a lot of on our journey: big rocks that used to hold up buildings, and little rocks arranged into pretty pictures. Both are equally impressive!

In this post I’ve brought together the most interesting of the little rocks: the mosaics that once decorated the floors of great Roman or Byzantine buildings, and a couple of modern mosaic walls from modern times. The Byzantine mosaics here include:

… The Constantine Mosaic under the existing floor of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (early 4th century)

… The mosaics on the floor of the Byzantine church on the mount of Masada (5th-7th centuries)

… The mosaic floor of the synagogue at Beit Alfa (6th Century). This is particularly interesting for the way the people are “drawn” in a naive style, and for the zodiac in the centre panel. Human images and a zodiac in a synagogue? How did they get there?

… The mosaic map floor of the Church of St George in Madaba (around AD 560). Around 2 million tesserae were used to make this map showing the location of 150 towns and cities that a traveller would pass through on the way from Syria to Egypt. The map shows remarkable geographical accuracy, if not in scale certainly in relative position of the towns, and includes possibly the oldest map of Jerusalem. Amazing!

The Roman mosaics at Sepphoris date to the 3rd century, and include the “Mona Lisa of Galilee”, part of a mosaic that was made of an estimated 1.5 million stones in 28 colours.

I am rather pleased with these mosaic images, as they were often difficult to photograph. Many were indoors, or protected under cover from the weather, and so capturing the images required shooting at high ISO (not good for noise), wide aperture (not great for depth of field) or slow shutter speeds (not great for camera shake). The Beit Alfa mosaic was shot using the 50mm f/1.8 lens (at 800 ISO, and 1/60th second to allow an aperture of f/5) so that I could capture as much detail as possible shooting across the floor. The Constantine mosaic in Bethlehem was also indoors, in a very dimly lit church, and was shot at the same ISO and shutter speed but with an aperture of f/2.8, the maximum on the 20mm lens. I am very impressed with the ability of the Nikon D7000 to minimise noise at high ISO, and also with the live view function (which made it so much easier to get better framing by stretching my arm out over the mosaics). I don’t know why I spent so long vacillating over whether or not to buy it!

Anyway, have a look at these wonderful mosaics. They are historically important, and beautiful as well.

Israel: Galilee

Posted on by

We spent a few days around Lake Galilee, visiting archeological sites with both Jewish and Christian significance (Beit She’An, Beit Alfa, Korazim, Bethsaida, Capernaum) and churches (Tabgha, Kursi, Mt of the Beatitudes). We also visited the museum built around the 1st century Sea of Galilee Boat found on the shores of the lake, had a very pleasant (but too short!) cruise on the lake, and ate St Peter’s fish for lunch.

This is the region were Jesus spent most of his earthly life. Some of the sites are traditional, and may not really be the place. The Church at Kursi, for example is said to be built near Gadara, where Jesus cast the demon Legion into a herd of pigs and the pigs plunged over a cliff to their death. There are textual variants for the account of this miracle, some saying the place was Gerasa (which we visited later, Jerash in Jordan). Still, it was interesting to visit the sites, to see what generations of Christians have made of them, and for the great views of the Lake.

We can be much more confident about the archeological sites of towns referred to in the New Testament texts. Capernaum was impressive for both the Jewish Synagogue and the site believed to be the house of the apostle Peter. The tradition about the site of Peter’s house dates to the early 4th century, and several churches have been built since then, one on top of the other.

Beit She’An is also known by its Roman name, Scythopolis, and has a history dating to the 15th century BC. The ruins that can be seen today date from its Roman period, when it was the capital city of the Decapolis, the federation of ten Greco-Roman cities in and around the region of Palestine. The ruins are impressive and the mosaics quite beautiful. More on mosaics in my next post!

What’s stuck with me since leaving Galilee is the wealth of imagery in Jesus’ sermons and parables that was quite clearly drawn from life in the region of Galilee. As Peter Walker says in the book our college group read as preparation for the tour: “Simple, ordinary things could become the vehicle for conveying spiritual realities.” Looking at the wildflowers I couldn’t help think of this, for example:

“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” Luke 12:27-31


Israel: Bethlehem, Yardenit, Nazareth, Cana (and military checkpoints)

Posted on by

Some “sacred sites” celebrating a connection to the life of Jesus are based on tradition only, but they are interesting to visit if only to see how Christians (and entrepreneurs) across the centuries have responded to the idea of “knowing” where these events happened.

Some of the traditions in fact go back to within a couple of centuries of Jesus’ earthly life, increasing the likelihood that the place is actually the place. Origen wrote, in about AD 230 (Contra Celsum 1:51) that visitors to Bethlehem were being shown a “cave” where Jesus was born, and in the early 4th century there are records of Constantine building a basilica over the site. So maybe that little spot that we looked at for about 30 seconds, after queueing in stifling heat for maybe an hour, was actually the site of Jesus’ birth. Who knows?

Similarly, the location of the town of Nazareth is something we can be confident about, but that of the site celebrated by the Church of the Annunciation is uncertain (and, in the scheme of things, dare I say, unimportant). The church is beautiful, though. It’s a very modern building, constructed in the mid-20th century on the site of several earlier churches. Stunning stained glass windows!

Cana? Well, there were a few towns named Cana, so it’s not at all certain that the one we visited holds the site of Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine at a friend’s wedding. However the church we went to was doing a brisk trade in renewed marriage vows, and the street vendors were selling quite a lot of miracle wine. Most of us opted for the freshly squeezed pomegranate juice as it seemed more genuine.

Yardenit is not the site of Jesus’ baptism, but a place where pilgrims have come to be baptised in the Jordan River. It is just south of Lake Galilee and still within Israeli territory, making it a safer place for tourists to visit than other parts of the river which form part of the border between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

And on the issue of safety … several times our travels took us into the Palestinian Territories, and once into the Golan Heights. Though we lost count of the number of young people carrying powerful weapons in close proximity to our tour group I don’t think we ever felt we were in any real danger. But folk in that part of the world take security pretty seriously, hence the Israeli West Bank barrier, or “seam zone”, seen in one of the photos below. Some intense vehicle inspections were going on during one of our passages, and a couple of gun-toting military types walked through our bus looking at us very carefully. It made me thankful for the part of the world that I call home.