Al Jazzar Mosque, Akko
sunflowers, central Israel
part of Herod’s Northern Palace on Masada
aqueduct at Akko
on the Red Sea near Eilat
Foto Friday – Israel
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Author Archives: yalla2013
NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 114
The opera house and performing arts center pictured above opened on August 31, 2016, with a performance by Placido Domingo. The city in question is well known for brash, record-breaking innovation, not so much for arts appreciation. With this beautiful, state-of-the-art facility, the city reveals that it does indeed have a taste for high culture. The design was inspired by the traditional sailing vessel of the region, the dhow.
The opera house stands in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
photo credit: the Washington Post
Can you name that city?
See below for answers.
Proyecto Muraleando, Community Arts in Havana
In 2001, artists Manuel Diaz Baldrich and Ernesto Quirch Paz began offering free art classes in their depressed Lawton neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. The project quickly evolved into comprehensive community revitalization, fostering civic participation, social cohesion, and investment in place and community. Today, Lawton rings with creative, collaborative energy, the entire neighborhood a rambling art installation. The visual arts are complemented by performing arts; and everything comes together with a joyous street party every six weeks, with music, dance,food and guest artists from around Cuba and abroad.
In the first decade, workshops were held in the streets or a neighborhood park, using the sides of buildings as canvas and found objects to create sculpture. In 2011 an abandoned water tank was transformed into a workshop, performance space and community center.
Foto Friday – Cuba
NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 113
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (La Batalla de Girón) was an unsuccessful military invasion of our mystery country by a CIA backed paramilitary group in April 1961.
On April 15, B-26 bombers attacked air fields and on April 16, 1,400 troops, including infantry and paratroopers, landed at Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs. A local militia was initially overwhelmed, before Prime Minister Fidel Castro took control of the counter-offensive operation. On April 20, the invaders surrendered.
Can you name that county?
See below for answers.
5 Things to do in Trinidad de Cuba
1. Walk around the city center
Trinidad de Cuba was founded in the 16th century but it really took off in the 18th century when it became a highly productive center of sugar production. Neoclassical, Moorish and Baroque colonial buildings line the cobbled streets, ghosts of a gilded age. Some are perfectly restored, many more are faded and worn, but still beautiful. Trinidad claims to be the best preserved colonial city in Latin America. It could be true. Continue reading
Foto Friday – Moroccan Portals
As we cross the threshold from the work week to the weekend here in North America, I offer a feast of Moroccan portals for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to our friend Kathy Moroney for sharing her photos.
NAME THAT COUNTRY Episode 112
Even in its ruined state, the Roman Temple of Hercules, including the evocative, disembodied Hand of Hercules, commands the high ground in the city of Amman.
Amman’s central hill, Jabal al-Qala’a or the Citadel, was among the earliest parts of the city to be settled, with archaeological evidence of habitation going back to the Neolithic period. A list of occupiers includes many of the usual suspects, as well as a few relatively small, regional powers – Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, biblical Ammonites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and the early Islamic Umayyad and Ayyubid dynasties. The Umayyad Palace is another prominent historical remnant on the Citadel.
Can you name that county?
See below for answers.
Dana Biosphere Reserve, Jordan
Dana Biosphere Reserve, Jordan
At around 120 square miles, the Dana Biosphere Reserve is the largest nature reserve in Jordan. It’s located just off the King’s Highway (or the Dead Sea-Aqaba Highway, depending on where you enter) between the Dead Sea and Petra.
On the eastern edge, the 15th-century village of Dana commands the reserve’s high point at almost 5000 feet. The low point is more than 160 ft below sea level, at Wadi Araba.
Dana Village
The reserve is cut through with deep sheltered canyons and trails for all levels of hikers. The convergence of 4 biogeographical zones means a range of environments, from lush highlands and scrubby slopes to parched wadi beds, supporting a rich biodiversity, with some 800 plant and 450 animal species endemic to Europe, Asia and Africa.
Dana Biosphere Reserve, Jordan
Dana Biosphere Reserve, Jordan
In its management of the reserve, the NGO Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) strives to balance environmental conservation with the economic needs of the local Bedouin tribes. In 2005, the RSCN built the Feynan Ecolodge in Feynan Wadi, where copper mining had been the main industry for over 3 thousand years.
The remaining copper is deep and would require environmentally devastating blasting to reach. The lodge, and tourism in general, provides a sustainable economic alternative to copper mining.
Rummana campground, Dana Biosphere Reserve
The Rummana campground at the other end of the reserve near Dana Village offers tent camping with jaw-dropping views.
Foto Friday – Cuba
stormy day at Colon Cemetery in Havana
back streets of Havana
Trinidad de Cuba
Plaza de San Francisco de Asis, Havana
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