Given how much ink has been spilled about this site over the thousands of years (and with the rise of the digital age – ones and zeroes over the past tens of years), it is difficult to say much that has not already been said… Although this site has been controlled by Muslims since Jerusalem … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Justin Ames
The Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula is becoming interesting… In the year since Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was toppled, most of the world’s attention has been focused on Cairo and the Nile heartland of Egypt. This is not surprising or inappropriate… The future of the Arab world’s most populous country is being determined in the struggle between the army … Continue reading
Inside The Qaddura Palestinian Refugee Camp
We often hear the term “Palestinian refugee camps” casually thrown around in any discussion of the Israeli/Palestinian situation… To me a “camp” is a temporary place with tents. And these refugee camps once did have tents fifty years ago. But, as I briefly mentioned in my post on Tripoli, the Palestinian refugee camps of today … Continue reading
Photo Of The Day: The Saudi Coastline
I took this picture from the Sinai Peninsula across the Red Sea to the coast of Saudi Arabia just a couple of days ago… At night, it was pitch black over there without any signs of human habitation at all. Farther up the coast, in Jordan, there were a number of visible lights from towns, … Continue reading
Taormina, Sicily
Taormina is a small town on the east coast of the island of Sicily, found north of the city of Catania and close to Mount Etna… Given the region of the world in which it is found, Taormina, of course, has an extensive history which stretches back to pre-Greek times. Taormina has been inhabited or … Continue reading
Siracusa (Syracuse), Sicily
Described by Cicero as “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all”, Siracusa still possesses quite a bit of charm: Located on the southeastern corner of Sicily, the 2,700-year-old city was once one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. Siracusa was founded in 734 or 733 BC by Greek settlers … Continue reading
California Ghost Towns: St. Louis
It took me a while to find St. Louis as there is, unfortunately, little left of this once-thriving town to lead one to it. To get here (on the road leading to Howland Flat which one picks up a little outside of La Porte) travel for about a mile past the St. Louis Bridge up … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 