These little yellow pods are affectionately known as Coco Taxis because of their resemblance to coconuts. They compete for tourist business with classic American cars, which famously grace the island roads of our mystery country. Essentially, the Coco Taxi is a motorized rickshaw, with 3 wheels and room for a driver and two passengers. If you don’t mind squeezing, a Coco Taxi will get you where you’re going for less money than a “Yank Tank.”
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The Greco-Roman city of Pella (named for the birthplace of Alexander the Great) was a Decapolis city, one of 10 centers of Greek culture established on the eastern fringes of the Hellenistic Greek world. Pella is located about 80 miles north of our mystery country’s capital city Amman (built on the site of another Decapolis city, Philadelphia).
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The “blue city” of Chefchaouen is a meditation on the divine, often represented by the color blue in Jewish tradition.The village was founded in 1471 by Jews and Muslims fleeing the Spanish Reconquest. Jews also fled here prior to World War II, but most left upon the founding of Israel in 1948.
Chefchaouen is tucked into the Rif Mountains in the northwest of our mystery country, a compact maze of narrow lanes framed by crisp blue and white Andalusian architecture. Although it’s several hours from the population centers and tourist hubs of the country, more and more visitors are making the trek to experience the crisp air and relatively low-key charms of this mountain jewel.
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In 1947, local Bedouins found the first cache of what came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls in a Judean Desert cave. Eventually, eleven caves would yield pieces of some 800 ancient manuscripts, the last found in 1956. It’s generally accepted that the scrolls were collected by the Essenes, or a similar Jewish sect, which had a community living at Qumran, in the shadow of the caves.
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The ceremonial solar boat pictured above is one of several found buried at Giza, near three of the largest and most famous royal tombs ever known. The boat may have been used to carry the body of the deceased king down river to his burial. Or, the boat may have been meant for use in the afterlife, to carry the king across the sky with the sun. The ancient people of our mystery country believed the afterlife mirrored life as they knew it before death. They were buried with items from their lives that would ensure them a comfortable and successful existence in eternity.
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With its elegant design and amazing acoustics, the theater at Epidaurus is widely considered to be the pinnacle of ancient performance venues. The theater was built as a compliment to the nearby Asclepeion health center. Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing, was born at Epidaurus, and his sanctuary there drew health-seekers from around the known world for almost a millennium, from the 6th-century BCE to the 5th-century CE, well into the Christian era. Dramatic performance was considered therapeutic and Asclepeion patients were often prescribed an evening at the theater.
The theater is still in regular use, especially during the annual, summer Epidaurus Festival.
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The Chora Museum (originally a church, then a mosque) is a wee bit removed from the most famous sites (i.e. Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace…) of our mystery country’s largest city, but well worth the effort to visit. The existing 11th-century structure was built on the remains of a 4th-century Byzantine church. When the original church was built, it was outside the city walls, hence the name Chora, which means “country” in ancient Greek. Most of the frescos and mosaics are from the 14th century. After the Ottoman conquest, the church was converted to a mosque and the figurative art, not allowed in Islam, was covered in plaster. Restoration of the mosaics and frescos began in the 1940s.
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Nakhal Fort pictured above is just one of many beautiful, grand old fortresses standing watch over our mystery country. It is located in the north of the country, in the foothills of the Western Hajar Mountains, about 75 miles west of the national capital Muscat.
The fort has been expanded and renovated many times over the centuries but its origin is pre-Islamic, so sometime before the 7th century. The fort wraps around the top of a natural prominence, giving it a unique shape that can appear both an imposing monument and an extension of the rugged landscape.
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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
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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.
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