Travel | Africa & the Middle East | Smithsonian.com

The Joys and Dangers of Exploring Africa on the Back of an Elephant

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 06:43:12 GMT

After miles of gravel and some upright spinning funnels of dust devils and the light brown scrub of the bush, and the immensity of woodland and camel thorns—after all that thirst, the Okavango Delta is unexpectedly drenched, as the desert deliquesces into a watery mirage, a deep green marvel that bubbles up and sprawls over the left shoulder of Botswana as a succession of swamps. Most river deltas occur at the edge of a landmass, widening and dumping soil and water, enlarging the shore, pouring the current into a body of water. The Okavango is unusual in being landlocked; the stream of the river, fed by numerous watercourses draining from a catchment area in the planalto of Angola, t

Coffee Here, and Coffee There: How Different People Serve the World’s Favorite Hot Drink

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:07:57 GMT

Travelers must be accepting of all tastes and flavors encountered along the way—but it may be difficult to argue that Italian espresso is anything but superior to all other manifestations of coffee. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Brian Legate. Few people anywhere begin the day without a hot drink. Chocolate and tea are popular morning jump-starters. Yerba maté, famously Argentinean, is gaining a reputation globally. Some people contrive creative blends of apple cider vinegar, herbs and honey. But coffee dominates the morning hour in every time zone. While the plant that produces the beans is native to tropical east Africa, two main species of coffee—Coffea arabica and C. canephora, or C

A Snowball Fight in the West Bank

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 07:51:20 GMT

For the first time in their lifetimes, these teenagers got to enjoy the thrill of a fresh layer of snow

Lions Are Disappearing From Africa

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 03:39:00 GMT

Photo: Cody Kwok In Africa, the circle of life is fraying: Simba and his pride are rapidly losing ground. New research shows that lions are quickly disappearing across Africa’s once-thriving savannahs due to human population growth and massive land use conversion. Lions, a new Panthera report says, exist on less than 75 percent of their original habitat, which comprises an area larger than the United States. Over the past three decades, lion populations declined about 50 percent, to fewer than 35,000 individuals today. To figure out how lions are doing in the field, the researchers used Google Earth’s high-res satellite images to examine savannah habitat across Africa. They

Hunt for African Wildlife From Your Computer

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 05:02:05 GMT

Photo: Snapshot Serengeti Released to the world yesterday, the brand new online science project Snapshot Serengeti compiles millions of photographs that have been captured over the past few years by 225 automated camera traps spread around Serengeti National Park—photographs showing everything from lions and waterbuck, to elephants, gazelle or honey-badgers. As part of the larger Zooniverse collective, Snapshot Serengeti is a citizen science project. The photographs, captured as part of a research project by scientists at the University of Minnesota, may be fun to look at, but they are not by themselves particularly valuable scientifically. On the projects’ blog, Margaret Kosmala,

Protected Mountain Gorilla Population Rises by Ten Percent in Two Years

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 02:15:44 GMT

Photo: weesam2010 For once, there’s good news on the species conservation front. The world’s population of mountain gorillas has increased by more than 10 percent in just two years, most likely thanks to conservation efforts that have successfully engaged the local Ugandan community. Only a few decades ago, The Guardian writes, conservationists predicted that mountain gorillas could be extinct by the end of the 20th century. War, habitat destruction, poaching and disease threatened their population. But since 2010, Uganda’s remaining 786 mountain gorillas have grown their population to 880. Conservationists think the success story stems from balancing species survival

More Wines from Unexpected Places

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 05:36:00 GMT

As prim and tidy as hedges at the Queen’s palace, a vineyard in England reminds us that rising temperatures are now allowing for wine production in the world’s higher latitudes. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Andrew Callow. Today we continue on the thread we left dangling a week ago—of unexpected places to find locally made wine. We looked at Baja California, China, India and North Carolina—each of which offers wine-tasting trails for unknowing tourists who might have been bracing themselves for a dry vacation. This time, we find a surprise wine industry in America, unlikely vineyards bearing the heat of the tropics, and grapevines planted by experimental winegr

Snakes: The Good, the Bad and the Deadly

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 01:24:00 GMT

The reticulated python of Southeast Asia is among the world’s two largest snake species (the green anaconda is equally bulky). The “retic” has killed humans before but is arguably more beautiful than it is dangerous. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Global Herper. Where would we be without snakes? Rodent populations might boom, the native bird assemblage of Guam would probably remain mostly intact today and 100,000 people every year would not die of venomous bites. As we can see, snakes bring both good and bad to the world we share with them. But mostly, these reptiles have been cast in the role of evil. It’s easy to see why, if we just take a glance at the scari

Make Way for the African Penguins

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The lives of penguins on South Africa’s Robben Island are defined by the rhythms of their daily commute. Every morning, they parade down penguin highways to the sea, and every evening they return to their nests along the same paths, full of half-digested fish that they regurgitate to their whining chicks. I was crouched behind a camouflage net to avoid scaring skittish birds on their way home after a long day of fishing. My job was to read the numbers on flipper bands. Scientists have banded about 4,000 chicks and 40,000 adult penguins in this area over the past 33 years to find out how long they live and where they feed, swim and nest. Eight penguins, not yet tagged, teetered on t

Lake Baikal and More of the Weirdest Lakes of the World

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 07:50:00 GMT

Desolate wilderness surrounds the giant Lake Baikal, the deepest, oldest and most voluminous lake on earth. Photo courtesy of Flickr user mrullmi. No lake is more lake than Lake Baikal. Set deep within the Russian subcontinent, Baikal is the deepest, oldest and most voluminous of all lakes, a superstar of superlatives in hydrology, geology, ecology and history. The lake is more than 5,300 feet deep (exact figures vary) at its most profound point, which lies about 4,000 feet below sea level. With 12,248 square miles of surface area, Baikal averages 2,442 feet deep—its crescent moon-shaped figure a vast rift valley that first appeared about 25 million years ago through the diverge

Timbuktu’s Ancient Relics Lay In Ruins At Hands of Militant Group

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 03:03:21 GMT

The mudbrick mosque Djingareyber dates back to 1325 CE. Photo: Erwin Boldwidt The 15th century tombs and cultural relics of Timbuktu, a key trade and social center of the ancient world, are being destroyed by an armed group known as the Ansar Dine. According to the Guardian, Locals said the attackers had threatened to destroy all of the 16 main mausoleum sites… witnesses said Ansar Dine had already destroyed the mausoleums of three local saints – Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi el-Mokhtar and Alfa Moya – and at least seven tombs. The Associated Press says, The Islamic faction, known as Ansar Dine, or “Protectors of the Faith,” seized control of Timbuktu last week after ousting the Tuareg

World Wildlife Hunt

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 05:03:01 GMT

King Juan Carlos, at right, stands with his guide from Rann Safaris as his dead Botswanan elephant lies propped against a tree. The king of Spain visited Botswana recently, and on the famous savanna, teeming with animals familiar from the picture books we read as youths, King Juan Carlos shot and killed an elephant. When I heard about the king’s outing, I decided to learn a little more about Botswana’s laws governing the protection—or lack thereof—of Africa’s most famous creatures. It turns out that many of them can be lawfully killed for those who buy the privilege. According to the website of Rann Safaris, the hunting outfit that guided King Carlos (who happens to

For Wildebeests, Danger Ahead

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:00:00 GMT

When the grass turns brittle and the streams run dry, the wildebeests grow restless. Milling in uneasy circles, scanning the horizon, sniffing the air for distant scents, the shaggy animals move slowly north, looking for the rains that bring new grass—and the promise of life for a population numbering some 1.2 million animals. “It’s amazing how keyed in they are to the rains,” says Suzi Eszterhas, an American photographer who has lived among the wildebeests for years to document their perilous annual journey, which covers about a thousand looping miles. From the broad Serengeti grasslands on the plains of Tanzania, the wildebeests trudge west through low hills towa

Africa on the Fly

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:00:00 GMT

The children playing at the elementary school across the street from George Steinmetz's house didn't miss a beat when, grunting in his driveway, he strapped on his flying machine. His outfit was pure New Jersey dad—loafers, blue jeans and a fleece vest—but his hair was wild and the shadows beneath his eyes were as dark as the volcanic craters he likes to photograph from the sky. Steinmetz had been up until 3 that morning dangling from the rafters of his garage to test his new motorized paragliding harness. "To be honest, it's a big pain," he said as his assistant, Jessica Licciardello, yanked at the engine's cord, checking it before we headed out for a test flight. "But, you se

Should Americans Travel to the Middle East?

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:38:00 GMT

Often the crux of conversation about nuclear threats and U.S. foreign policy, Iran has a lesser-known side of hospitality to travelers. Among its most popular tourist attractions is the ruined city of Persepolis. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Sebastia Giralt. India and Turkey are currently two of the hottest tickets for traveling Americans—but the arid Muslim nations in between are not. Once an exotic region hospitable to travelers, the Middle East has changed—especially in recent tumultuous years, and today the area is often perceived as a murky and dangerous blur on the map, and many otherwise adventurous travelers have placed all nations from the Nile to the western Him

A Journey to Obama’s Kenya

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:22:45 GMT

The new asphalt highway to Barack Obama’s ancestral village winds past maize fields and thatched-roof mud huts for several miles before terminating at a startling sight: a row of lime-green cottages with pink pagoda-style roofs, flanked by two whitewashed, four-story villas. Kogelo Village Resort, a 40-bed hotel and conference center that opened last November, is the latest manifestation of the worldwide fascination with the U.S. president’s Kenyan roots. Owner Nicholas Rajula, a big man with a booming voice, was sitting beneath a canopy on the parched front lawn answering a pair of cellphones when I drove through the gate. Rajula stirred controversy here in 2007, shortly after

Evolution World Tour: Wadi Hitan, Egypt

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:55:59 GMT

In 1902, a team of geologists guided their camels into a valley in Egypt’s Western Desert—a desolate, dream-like place. Centuries of strong wind had sculpted sandstone rocks into alien shapes, and at night the moonlight was so bright that the sand glowed like gold. There was no water for miles. A nearby hill was known as “Mountain of Hell” because of the infernal summer heat. Yet in this parched valley lay the bones of whales. Some of the skeletons were 50 feet long, with vertebrae as thick as campfire logs. They dated back 37 million years, to an era when a shallow, tropical sea covered this area and all of northern Egypt. And although the geologists didn’

Evolution World Tour: The Cradle of Humankind, South Africa

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Three million years ago, an eagle soared above an enormous forest in South Africa and zeroed in on its target. Among a group of hominids searching for fruits, nuts and seeds, a 3-year-old child had strayed too far away from its mother. The eagle swooped down, grabbed the 25-pound toddler with its talons and flew off to its nest, perched above the opening to an underground cave. As the eagle dined on its meal, scraps fell into the cave below. Similarly hair-raising tales—hominids being dragged into caves by leopards or accidentally falling into hidden holes—explain why South Africa’s limestone caves are the world’s greatest source of hominid fossils. About 900 have

Take in South Africa From Table Mountain National Park

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 04:39:32 GMT

Comprising nearly three-quarters of South Africa’s Cape Peninsula, including a mountain chain, beaches, coves and cliffs, Table Mountain National Park is among the most scenic and biologically diverse preserves in the world. At the northern end of the 60,540-acre park is Table Mountain, the flat-topped granite and sandstone massif that rises 3,562 feet above Cape Town. The summit can be reached on foot, about a 2 ½-hour hike, or by cable car, which takes four to five minutes. Once there visitors have a spectacular view of the sprawling city, Table Bay and, about 7 ½ miles in the distance, Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. They can also take a walk alo

Ghana’s Monument to Sorrow and Survival

Wed, 18 May 2011 09:38:03 GMT

When traffic cooperates, it’s a three-hour bus ride from Accra to Cape Coast, Ghana. But an attentive passenger can pass the time watching for roadside signs that display improbable mixes of piety and commercialism (on the outskirts of Accra, the “But Seek First the Kingdom of God Construction Works”) or uproarious irreverence (in Cape Coast, the “Don’t Mind Your Wife Chop Shop”—“chop shop” being Ghanaian slang for a food stand). Ghana’s attractions include clubs that play the irresistibly danceable local music known as highlife, contact with nature and wildlife in the country’s national parks, and shopping for handicrafts

Morocco's Extraordinary Donkeys

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:00:00 GMT

The donkey I couldn't forget was coming around a corner in the walled city of Fez, Morocco, with six color televisions strapped to his back. If I could tell you the exact intersection where I saw him, I would do so, but pinpointing a location in Fez is a formidable challenge, a little like noting GPS coordinates in a spider web. I might be able to be more precise about where I saw the donkey if I knew how to extrapolate location using the position of the sun, but I don't. Moreover, there wasn't any sun to be seen and barely a sliver of sky, because leaning in all around me were the sheer walls of the medina—the old walled portion of Fez—where the buildings are so packed and sta

Day 1: Seeing Kenya from the Sky

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:14:42 GMT

June 13, Nairobi, Kenya. Weather: Sunny, warm and humid. Mpala Ranch (elev. 6000 feet): Sunny, warm, cool breezes. The redoubtable Francine Berkowitz, director of international relations for the Smithsonian informs me that the Institution and its people are involved in activities in 88 countries, ranging from large permanent operations like the Panama to remote sites visited only occasionally by researchers and scientists collecting data. These international operations are critical to the diverse and varied work of the Smithsonian and that that is what brings me to Kenya. I am here to visit the Africa that are at risk as the human population encroaches into what was once natural habitat.

Endangered Site: Famagusta Walled City, Cyprus

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:00:00 GMT

"All ships and all wares," a 14th-century German traveler wrote, "must needs come first to Famagusta." The port city on the northeastern coast of Cyprus was once on a bustling shipping lane, carrying merchants from Europe and the Near East and armies of Christian knights and Ottoman Turks. Famagusta rose to prominence between the 12th and 15th centuries, most notably as the city where the Crusader kings of Jerusalem were crowned. Now ancient Famagusta, tucked into a modern city of 35,000 people, also called Famagusta, is largely forgotten, except, perhaps, as the setting for Shakespeare's Othello. Some 200 buildings—reflecting Byzantine, French Gothic and Italian

Endangered Site: Chinguetti, Mauritania

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:00:00 GMT

The Sahara is expanding southward at a rate of 30 miles per year—and part of the desert's recently acquired territory is a 260-acre patch of land in north-central Mauritania, home to the village of Chinguetti, once a vibrant trading and religious center. Sand piles up in the narrow paths between decrepit buildings, in the courtyards of abandoned homes and near the mosque that has attracted Sunni pilgrims since the 13th century. After a visit in 1996, writer and photographer Kit Constable Maxwell predicted that Chinguetti would be buried without a trace within generations. "Like so many desert towns through history, it is a casualty of time and the changing face of mankind's cult

Endangered Site: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Feuding monks at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem don't just cast the first stone—they stockpile rocks in anticipation of future altercations. Several holy men landed in the hospital two Christmases ago after a fight broke out over the dusting of church chandeliers. The occasional brawls at the 1,700-year-old basilica, believed to mark the birthplace of Jesus Christ, reflect the difficulty of housing three Christian denominations under a single roof. And now that roof is rotting, threatening the structural integrity of the building. Parts of the wooden truss structure date to the 15th century, and holes in the timbers allow dirty water to drip upon the precious paintings and

Endangered Site: The City of Hasankeyf, Turkey

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:00:00 GMT

The waters of the Tigris River gave rise to the first settlements of the Fertile Crescent in Anatolia and Mesopotamia—the cradle of civilization. The ancient city of Hasankeyf, built on and around the banks of the river in southeastern Turkey, may be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, spanning some 10,000 years. Hasankeyf and its surrounding limestone cliffs are home to thousands of human-made caves, 300 medieval monuments and a unique canyon ecosystem—all combining to create a beguiling open-air museum. But the city, along with the archaeological artifacts still buried beneath it, is slated to become a sunken treasure. Despite widespread protes

The Enduring Splendors of, Yes, Afghanistan

Sat, 01 Feb 2003 05:00:00 GMT

Our quest begins beside an austere sarcophagus of white, black and pink marble with a simple little ivory-colored mosque below and vast terraced flower gardens beyond, high above the dusty, war-battered city of Kabul. The man buried beneath these stones, Zahiruddin Mohammed Babur, was one of Asia’s greatest empire builders. Starting about the time of Columbus as an Uzbek princeling in the Fergana Valley north of Afghanistan, Babur and his followers captured eastern Afghanistan and Kabul; from there they rode east across the Khyber Pass, to conquer northern India all the way to the Himalayas. Three of us, photographer Beth Wald, my Afghan friend Azat Mir, and I, are setting out to

Egypt's Crowning Glory

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 04:00:00 GMT

Like some 24-carat Band-Aid, the finely worked gold plaque, inscribed with animal-headed gods and a giant eye, once covered an incision in the abdomen of Psusennes I of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty. Through the cut 3,000 years ago, embalmers removed the pharaoh’s internal organs for safekeeping; the king would need them again in the afterlife. The plaque’s mysterious eye certified that no evil spirits had entered the pharaoh’s body. When found in 1939, the mummy of the dead king, who reigned from 1039-991 B.C., was fairly heaped with such amulets—bangles, armbands, rings, and a fabulous pectoral of gleaming gold, turquoise and lapis lazuli. Even his toes were prote

Dazzling Dubai

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 04:00:00 GMT

At the sheikh rashid terminal of Dubai International Airport—a glittering temple of Ali Baba eclecticism and gateway to this 1,500-square-mile principality on the Persian Gulf—a visitor steps onto a carpet patterned after wind-ruffled desert sand, passes goldtone replicas of palm trees and continues past a shop-till-you-drop duty-free store where one can buy a bar of gold or a raffle ticket for a Maserati. Afew steps away stands the special departure gate for Hajj pilgrims en route to Mecca. They have their own Starbucks counter. Beyond the terminal lies a startling skyline: high-rise hotels and office buildings of stainless steel and blue glass springing straight out of the

Letter from Lahore: Reinventing Pakistan

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:29:36 GMT

One night, as troops from Pakistan’s army massed 300 miles away to hunt for remnants of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, I went to a concert in my hometown of Lahore. It was a pleasant evening, warm, with a light breeze carrying the smell of April flowers: flame trees, magnolias, jasmine. We sat outside on carpets spread across the lawn of a white bungalow, the audience ranging from teenagers with soul patches and ponytails to elegant matrons in saris. My back ached slightly, and I mentioned this to a friend as I reached for the only available cushion I could see. “Don’t even think about it,” she said, patting her very pregnant belly. “It&r

A New Day in Iran?

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 05:00:00 GMT

The police officer stepped into the traffic, blocking our car. Tapping the hood twice, he waved us to the side of the road. My driver, Amir, who had been grinning broadly to the Persian pop his new speaker system thumped out, turned grim. “I don’t have a downtown permit,” he said, referring to the official sticker allowing cars in central Tehran at rush hour. “It could be a heavy fine.” We stepped out of the car and approached the officer. He was young, not more than 25, with a peach fuzz mustache. “I’m a journalist from America,” I said in Persian. “Please write the ticket in my name. It’s my fault.” “You have come

Vuvuzela: The Buzz of the World Cup

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:55:18 GMT

Players taking to the pitch for the World Cup games in South Africa may want to pack some extra equipment in addition to shinguards, cleats and jerseys: earplugs. The earplugs will protect against the aural assault of vuvuzelas. The plastic horns are a South African cultural phenomenon that that when played by hundreds or thousands of fans, sounds like a giant, angry swarm of hornets amplified to a volume that would make Ozzy Osbourne flinch. South African fans play the horns to spur their favorite players into action on the field. “It’s really loud,” says John Nauright, professor of sports management at George Mason University and the author of “Long Run to Free

Looting Mali's History

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:00:00 GMT

I'm sitting in the courtyard of a mud-walled compound in a village in central Mali, 40 miles east of the Niger River, waiting for a clandestine meeting to begin. Donkeys, sheep, goats, chickens and ducks wander around the courtyard; a dozen women pound millet, chat in singsong voices and cast shy glances in my direction. My host, whom I'll call Ahmadou Oungoyba, is a slim, prosperous-looking man draped in a purple bubu, a traditional Malian gown. He disappears into a storage room, then emerges minutes later carrying several objects wrapped in white cloth. Oungoyba unfolds the first bundle to reveal a Giacometti-like human figure carved out of weathered blond wood. He says the piece, splint

Defending the Rhino

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Johannesburg’s bustling O. R. Tambo International Airport is an easy place to get lost in a crowd, and that’s just what a 29-year-old Vietnamese man named Xuan Hoang was hoping to do one day in March last year—just lie low until he could board his flight home. The police dog sniffing the line of passengers didn’t worry him; he’d checked his baggage through to Ho Chi Minh City. But behind the scenes, police were also using X-ray scanners on luggage checked to Vietnam, believed to be the epicenter of a new war on rhinos. And when Hoang’s bag appeared on the screen, they saw the unmistakable shape of rhinoceros horns—six of them, weighing more than 35

Inside Cape Town

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:16:09 GMT

From the deck of a 40-foot sloop plying the chilly waters of Table Bay, Paul Maré gazes back at the illuminated skyline of Cape Town. It is early evening, at the close of a clear day in December. Maré and his crew, racing in the Royal Cape Yacht Club's final regatta before Christmas, hoist the jib and head the sloop out to sea. A fierce southeaster is blowing, typical of this time of year, and Maré's crew members cheer as they tack round the last race buoy and speed back toward shore and a celebratory braai, or barbecue, awaiting them on the club's patio. Maré, the descendant of French Huguenots who immigrated to South Africa in the late 17th century, is presid

Seeing Dubai Through a Cell Phone Camera

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 07:00:00 GMT

For years Joel Sternfeld roamed the country with the sort of camera that rests on a tripod and usually requires the photographer to compose each shot carefully from beneath a black drape. Beginning in the late 1980s he became known for photographs that examined how Americans related to one another and to their environment—his best-known book, American Prospects (1987), highlighted incongruities between people and places, such as a woman sunbathing with warships in the far background, or a firefighter buying a pumpkin while a house burns. But for his most recent project, he went to Dubai and took pictures in shopping malls with an iPhone. This new direction was, in fact, a logical

The Sport of Camel Jumping

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Among the members of the Zaraniq tribe on the west coast of Yemen are, apparently, the world’s only professional camel jumpers. “This is what we do,” says Bhayder Mohammed Yusef Qubaisi, a champion bounder. The presumably ancient sport was recently documented by Adam Reynolds, a 30-year-old photojournalist from Bloomington, Indiana. Reynolds spent six months in Yemen before being deported this past May, he believes for photographing leaders of a secessionist movement. Politically, Yemen is troubled, with a repressive but weak government beleaguered by insurgents in the largely lawless northern and southern regions. U.S. authorities have expressed concern that a large num

Robben Island: A Monument to Courage

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The busload of tourists on Robben Island grew quiet as Yasien Mohamed, our 63-year-old guide, gestured to a bleak limestone quarry on the side of the road. It was here, he said, that Nelson Mandela toiled virtually every day for 13 years, digging up rock, some of which paved the road we were driving on. The sun was so relentless, the quarry so bright and dusty, that Mandela was stricken with “snow blindness” that damaged his eyes. Nevertheless, Mandela and other heroes of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, such as Govan Mbeki and Walter Sisulu, used their time in this quarry to teach each other literature, philosophy and political theory, among other things. “

Isfahan: Iran’s Hidden Jewel

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:08:58 GMT

Andrew Lawler has written for newsletters, newspapers, and magazines about topics ranging from astronomy to zoology. He has been a Washington reporter covering Capitol Hill and the White House, a Boston correspondent for a science magazine writing about universities, and now is a freelancer living in the woods of Maine. What drew you to this story? Can you describe its genesis? One morning I woke up in a hotel room in Washington and watched the coverage surrounding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to the US. I was appalled by the presentation of Iran as a barbaric state intent on terrorism. Having traveled before in that country, my experience was profoundly different. That

Keepers of the Lost Ark?

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 03:01:37 GMT

"They shall make an ark of acacia wood," God commanded Moses in the Book of Exodus, after delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. And so the Israelites built an ark, or chest, gilding it inside and out. And into this chest Moses placed stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, as given to him on Mount Sinai. Thus the ark “was worshipped by the Israelites as the embodiment of God Himself,” writes Graham Hancock in The Sign and the Seal. "Biblical and other archaic sources speak of the Ark blazing with fire and light...stopping rivers, blasting whole armies." (Steven Spielberg's 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark provides a special-effects approximation.) Accord