alanorth/picturingjordan.com
1
0
Fork 0
Code Releases Activity

Regenerate with Hugo 0.20

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
Alan Orth
2017-04-12 10:18:51 +03:00
parent 4dbd13507d
commit 1bc6671e54
134 changed files with 1163 additions and 625 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

241
public/index.xml
View File

@ -2,13 +2,15 @@
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<channel>
<title>Picturing Jordan</title>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/index.xml</link>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/</link>
<description>Recent content on Picturing Jordan</description>
<generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a &lt;a rel=&#39;license&#39; href=&#39;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/&#39;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license&lt;/a&gt;.</copyright>
<lastBuildDate>Wed, 05 Apr 2017 08:50:44 +0300</lastBuildDate>
<atom:link href="https://picturingjordan.com/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<atom:link href="https://picturingjordan.com/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<item>
<title>Greco–Roman Ruins in Jerash</title>
@ -31,9 +33,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;Jordan&amp;rsquo;s location in the geographical &amp;ldquo;near east&amp;rdquo; has exposed the country to dozens of civilizations over the course of history. Over the last three thousand years alone this region has experienced the coming and going of the Persian, Greek, Roman, Nabataean, Byzantine, and Ottoman — to name a few — empires, the legacies of which are often still visible today.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The ruins in Jerash are one of those legacies. Complete with arches, colonnades, hippodrome, baths, theaters, temples, and more, Jerash is the most well-preserved of Jordan&amp;rsquo;s Greco–Roman sites.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -57,9 +57,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;You could easily lose yourself — both literally and figuratively — in the endless red sand and towering rock skyscrapers of Wadi Rum. This majestic place, known to even the Greeks and the Romans, has been inhabited for thousands of years and is unlike any other place on Earth. The unique landscape has been featured in a handful of Hollywood movies, for example &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_(film)&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lawrence of Arabia&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(film)&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Martian&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Take a local &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedouin&#34;&gt;Bedouin&lt;/a&gt; guide, sleep in a tent, and experience the beautiful tranquility of Jordan&amp;rsquo;s desert expanses.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -83,9 +81,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;Jordan&amp;rsquo;s Dead Sea coast is the perfect place to get away from the hustle and bustle of Amman. If you&amp;rsquo;re looking for something a little more wholesome and minimalistic — not to mention cheaper — than an elegant five-star resort, look no further than &lt;a href=&#34;http://wildjordan.com/&#34;&gt;Wild Jordan&amp;rsquo;s&lt;/a&gt; chalets at Wadi Mujib.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wild Jordan staff are friendly and genuinely care about nature conservation. Trips to this and other reserves are part of an impressive &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.rscn.org.jo/&#34;&gt;government effort&lt;/a&gt; to preserve Jordan&amp;rsquo;s natural spaces.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -109,25 +105,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;While not &lt;em&gt;technically&lt;/em&gt; in Jordan, Jerusalem&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock&#34;&gt;Dome of the Rock&lt;/a&gt; is basically just a stone&amp;rsquo;s throw away from Amman (pun intended). Not only is this shrine capped with a golden dome, covered in vibrant Ottoman-era tilework, and adorned with elegant Arabic calligraphy, it also boasts an &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_Stone&#34;&gt;impressive resume of sacred claims to fame&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;figure &gt;
&lt;img src=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2017/01/IMG_20170117_092406.jpg&#34; alt=&#34;The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount&#34; /&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/figcaption&gt;
&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The shrine, built nearly 1,000 years ago, stands atop a hotly contested complex called the &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Mount&#34;&gt;Temple Mount&lt;/a&gt; (&amp;ldquo;Noble Sanctuary&amp;rdquo; in Arabic) that dates back to the Canaanites four thousand years ago — like I said, an impressive resume!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a secular person it&amp;rsquo;s all a bit too heavy for my taste, but there&amp;rsquo;s no doubt that the complex is stunningly beautiful. Visitation of the Temple Mount is open to the non-Muslim public from 7:30 to 11:00 AM from the access bridge at the Western Wall in the Jewish Quarter of the old city.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -151,9 +129,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabataeans&#34;&gt;Nabataeans&lt;/a&gt; were a tribe who became filthy rich on the trade of frankincense, myrrh, and spices in the Arabian peninsula around 2,000 years ago. They built Petra as the capital of their flourishing civilization. Hauntingly beautiful stone facades standing one hundred meters tall are amazingly intact and well preserved to this day.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane once said that &amp;ldquo;the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; suppose,&amp;rdquo; alluding to the fact that physical sciences often raise more questions than they answer, leaving us scratching our heads. After visiting Petra I was overwhelmed with a similar feeling, that Petra is not only grander than we suppose, but grander than we &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; suppose. What I would give to have seen it in its time!&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -177,9 +153,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m ashamed to say that it took me almost one month to discover this sweet, cheesy dessert after moving to Jordan. Originally from &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nablus&#34;&gt;Nablus&lt;/a&gt;, a Palestinian city apparently known for &amp;ldquo;high cuisine,&amp;rdquo; &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanafeh&#34;&gt;kanafeh&lt;/a&gt; is one of those things that they just can&amp;rsquo;t make fast enough. At one famous shop called Habibah in downtown Amman there is always a line, and it&amp;rsquo;s even a bit stressful ordering there unless you know what you&amp;rsquo;re doing!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Another good place to buy kanafeh is at a sweets shop called Nafeesah. Both it and Habibah have several shops around the city, but I&amp;rsquo;m still not sure which one is better.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -227,23 +201,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://wildjordan.com/&#34;&gt;Wild Jordan&lt;/a&gt; has an ingenious day trip where you pay &lt;em&gt;them&lt;/em&gt; to take &lt;em&gt;you&lt;/em&gt; to pick olives on a farm in Ajloun — the family who owns the farm even comes out to watch you and give you tips! Like I said: genius. Jokes aside, it was actually a lot of fun, and the point is to educate you about the olive harvest and its importance to people in the region.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The olive harvest usually starts around October or November. One of the major factors deciding when exactly to start the harvest is rain, as wet olives apparently produce more oil. In addition to olive oil itself, people in the community make a few food and beauty products from the olives and sell them through community owned and operated enterprises like the Soap House and the Biscuit House. You can &lt;a href=&#34;http://wildjordan.com/content/ajloun-forest-reserve-1&#34;&gt;find out more&lt;/a&gt; on the Wild Jordan website.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;figure &gt;
&lt;img src=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/11/IMG_20161118_130626.jpg&#34; alt=&#34;How many olives can ten amateurs pick in thirty minutes?&#34; /&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;How many olives can ten amateurs pick in thirty minutes?&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/figcaption&gt;
&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -267,9 +225,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;http://jordanriver.jo&#34;&gt;Jordan River Foundation&lt;/a&gt; has a showroom on Rainbow Street where they &lt;em&gt;brilliantly&lt;/em&gt; showcase traditional, everyday objects from the region in a fresh, modern way. It&amp;rsquo;s like someone went and replaced all the things in your grandma&amp;rsquo;s rural kitchen with newer, brightly accented ones. All of the wood, cloth, and clay work here is produced by people in local communities, and, as far as I know, the proceeds from sales go back to supporting them.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I commend the &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.qrf.org/&#34;&gt;Queen Rania Foundation&lt;/a&gt; for another seriously impressive initiative. Keep up the good work!&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -293,9 +249,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;The best way to describe the Sheikh Zayed mosque would be &amp;ldquo;the pearl of Aqaba.&amp;rdquo; There is a lot to love about this picturesque mosque by the Jordanian seaside, but its crown jewel — to continue the analogy — is the impeccable Arabic calligraphy inlaid in its facade. Sadly, Aqaba itself &lt;a href=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/10/aqaba-dirty-disappointing/&#34;&gt;isn&amp;rsquo;t much to write home about&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Originally built in 1975, the mosque was refurbished in 2010 as part of a larger &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.marsazayed.com/&#34;&gt;effort to revitalize the Red Sea port city&lt;/a&gt; and was modeled after the &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.szgmc.gov.ae/en/&#34;&gt;Sheikh Zayed Grand mosque&lt;/a&gt; in Abu Dhabi.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -319,9 +273,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m struggling to find words to describe my trip to Jordan&amp;rsquo;s coastal city Aqaba. Initially, the contrast between dry desert, rocky mountains, and the turquoise water of the Red Sea is visually striking — imagine Matt Damon in &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(film)&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Martian&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, but where he goes snorkeling on a coral reef instead of growing potatoes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If that sounds too good to be true, it is! Sadly, I found Aqaba to be dirty — used diapers on the beach, locals arrogantly throwing trash on the street, trash floating around the reef, etc — and full of obnoxious, poorly behaved tourists.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -345,9 +297,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Hussein_Mosque&#34;&gt;King Hussein mosque&lt;/a&gt; was built in 2005 and is the largest mosque in Jordan. I haven&amp;rsquo;t visited it yet, but I&amp;rsquo;ve spent quite a few evenings admiring it from a balcony in the &lt;em&gt;Khalda&lt;/em&gt; neighborhood of West Amman.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Technical: Nikon D3100, ten-second exposure time, post processed from RAW with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.darktable.org/&#34;&gt;darktable&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -371,9 +321,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;Another day, another exquisite, hand-painted ceiling in Amman. Just like the &lt;a href=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/beautiful-hand-painted-woodwork/&#34;&gt;other hand-painted wood ceiling&lt;/a&gt; I posted about two weeks ago, the work was done by an old Syrian man. This one is actually in my flat, and I may or may not have taken this picture while laying on my back on the living room floor.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Technical: Nikon D3100, post processed from RAW with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.darktable.org/&#34;&gt;darktable&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -397,9 +345,7 @@
&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s a unique wetland nature preserve an hour and a half from Amman — in thirty minutes of walking around, I saw birds, snakes, crabs, fish, and even water buffaloes! For thousands of years Azraq was a massive, thriving oasis whose ecological diversity supported human settlements, but in recent decades it has come dangerously close to drying up due to increased water usage from surrounding cities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Learn more about the wetlands on a trip with &lt;a href=&#34;http://wildjordan.com/&#34;&gt;Wild Jordan&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;http://experiencejordan.com/&#34;&gt;Experience Jordan&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;turn off the water in your shower or sink when you don&amp;rsquo;t need it!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
@ -423,6 +369,159 @@
&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s a shop in one of Amman&amp;rsquo;s downtown markets that sells traditional sweets. I&amp;rsquo;m not sure who was more excited about this half kilo of &lt;em&gt;baklawa&lt;/em&gt; — me, or the jovial young Jordanian selling it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Saint Thaddeus Church in Amman</title>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/saint-thaddeus-church-amman/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 Sep 2016 14:58:34 +0300</pubDate>
<guid>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/saint-thaddeus-church-amman/</guid>
<description>&lt;figure &gt;
&lt;img src=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/IMG_20160919_141959.jpg&#34; alt=&#34;Armenian church with pointy steeple&#34; /&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Easily one of the most unique buildings in Amman&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/figcaption&gt;
&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Even if the number of mosques in Amman &lt;em&gt;didn&amp;rsquo;t&lt;/em&gt; outnumber churches by a factor of ten, the Saint Thaddeus Armenian Apostolic church would still stand out. The unique architecture caught my eye once and then I started seeing it every time I glanced at Jabal Al-Ashrafieh. After weeks of squinting and asking myself &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Is that an Armenian church?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; I finally went on an scavenger hunt and found it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Camping in the Dana Biosphere Reserve</title>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/camping-dana-biosphere-reserve/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Sep 2016 09:48:23 +0300</pubDate>
<guid>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/camping-dana-biosphere-reserve/</guid>
<description>&lt;figure &gt;
&lt;img src=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/DSC_0031.JPG&#34; alt=&#34;Just after sunrise at a camp in the Dana Biosphere&#34; /&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Just after sunrise at a camp in the Dana Biosphere&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/figcaption&gt;
&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A few weeks ago I slept in a tent on the cusp of Jordan&amp;rsquo;s Rift Valley. &lt;a href=&#34;http://wildjordan.com/&#34;&gt;Wild Jordan&lt;/a&gt; has regular hiking and camping trips to the reserve and they are very affordable. The staff are friendly and genuinely care about nature conservation. Trips to this and other national parks are part of an impressive &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.rscn.org.jo/&#34;&gt;government effort&lt;/a&gt; to preserve Jordan&amp;rsquo;s natural spaces.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Beautiful Hand-Painted Woodwork</title>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/beautiful-hand-painted-woodwork/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 17 Sep 2016 15:48:23 +0300</pubDate>
<guid>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/beautiful-hand-painted-woodwork/</guid>
<description>&lt;figure &gt;
&lt;img src=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/IMG_20160916_174409.jpg&#34; alt=&#34;Beautiful hand-painted wood panels on the ceiling&#34; /&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Beautiful hand-painted wood panels on the ceiling&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/figcaption&gt;
&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s an old Syrian man who does this fantastic hand painting on wood panels in Amman. Three flats in our building have them installed on the ceiling, but this one takes the cake. I&amp;rsquo;m not sure if it&amp;rsquo;s typical for the region or not — the man was referencing pictures from a Russian art book — but they are exquisite.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Don&#39;t WhatsApp and Drive</title>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/dont-whatsapp-and-drive/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 15 Sep 2016 14:10:48 +0300</pubDate>
<guid>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/dont-whatsapp-and-drive/</guid>
<description>&lt;figure &gt;
&lt;img src=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/IMG_20160810_162505.jpg&#34; alt=&#34;Billboard in Amman cautions against using your phone while driving&#34; /&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Billboard in Amman cautions against using your phone while driving&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/figcaption&gt;
&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I can&amp;rsquo;t even read Arabic but I&amp;rsquo;m pretty sure that billboard is telling people to &lt;em&gt;put their fucking phones down while driving&lt;/em&gt;. It&amp;rsquo;s like an epidemic here. I&amp;rsquo;ve never seen people look less at the road while driving than here in Amman.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>About</title>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/about/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 14 Sep 2016 16:33:27 +0300</pubDate>
<guid>https://picturingjordan.com/about/</guid>
<description>Alan lived and worked in Kenya for eight years, first as a volunteer teaching computer science at a rural college, and later as a Linux systems administrator at a livestock research institute in Nairobi. During his time in Kenya he traveled extensively around East Africa and blogged about his experiences. He is passionate about open-source software, information security, and the freedom of information — naturally, he blogs about that too.</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Eid Mubarak in Your Neighborhood Dumpster</title>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/eid-mubarak-neighborhood-dumpster/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 14 Sep 2016 09:36:00 +0300</pubDate>
<guid>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/eid-mubarak-neighborhood-dumpster/</guid>
<description>&lt;figure &gt;
&lt;img src=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/sheep-dumpster-eid-al-adha.jpg&#34; alt=&#34;Sheep carcass lazily discarded in neighborhood dumpster&#34; /&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Sheep carcass lazily discarded in neighborhood dumpster&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/figcaption&gt;
&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As Muslims around the world are busy wishing each other a blessed &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha&#34;&gt;Eid al-Adha&lt;/a&gt;, some poor bastard has to clean up this lazily discarded sheep carcass from my local dumpster (note the entrails spilled below). Keep it classy, Jordan.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>No Noise Near the Noisy Mosque</title>
<link>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/no-noise-near-noisy-mosque/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Sep 2016 19:32:36 +0300</pubDate>
<guid>https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/no-noise-near-noisy-mosque/</guid>
<description>&lt;figure &gt;
&lt;img src=&#34;https://picturingjordan.com/2016/09/no-noise-near-mosque.jpg&#34; alt=&#34;Sign forbidding sound near mosque on Rainbow Street, Amman&#34; /&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Sign forbidding sound near mosque on Rainbow Street, Amman&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/figcaption&gt;
&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The irony is rich with this one, because this mosque has a sound system from another planet. If I wasn&amp;rsquo;t worried about my personal safety I&amp;rsquo;d put up a sign right next to it saying: &lt;em&gt;Please mute your mosque, there is a sleeping Alan 50m away&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
</item>