the arab world , heritage and civilization

I left hand years for the orient and the land of the setting sun and discovered with the lands of
the east and the west learned from each other. I followed my destiny living by the famous
hadith of the prophet search for wisdom all the way to china for 28 years. I made this voyagemy
life going from region to region according to the will of God .

That is how leaving my hometown I discovered a composite and diverse land. The intersection
of Africa asia and Europe a land with a community of cultures that crossed fertilized to give
birth to great civilizations. Oh good people find some entertainment in this retelling of my
wanderings in the arab lands.

I crossed roman Africa and made a first stop at velu ballast in the heart of the county velu
palace is backed with the mountains of zaroon and home of vast plains. It was an important
berber site probably one of juba to’s royal residences when rome annexted the region in 42 ad
velu billis became one of the principal cities of the empire and the roman officers made it their
home velu billis reached its climax in two and three ad these ruins are a testament to its vast
prospetery and I sepent long moments sensing what life must have been like in those ancient
times.

I returned to the Mediterranean where it bathes the remains of te pasa there I felt life to be
gentle the city offers itself to the sea the alleys opened towards the shore stone and sea are in
harmony . that’s how one can explain the magic of a place. I plunged into the ancient kingdom
of new mead and dixcovered fascinating team guide an arch constructed by Trajan dominates
the ruins there I discovered the severity and military coarsenessof the cities of the roman
empire in contrast to the pasa . tim god is austere built by legendary’s the city had the same
spirit at its founders the city and it columns as if petrified by time left a strong impression on
me and resonated strangely with me even further east . I arrived at the site at dusk its ruins
were grandiose and is if softened by the sourrounding countryside the network of roads
connected the towns and plowed through the countryside which was irrigated and rich with
olive groves and wheat fields according to historians and chroniclears this countryside fed the
entire roman population . at el djem in the centre of the country how could one not be awed by
this impressive colosseum . its size equaled the one in rome constructed in the same manner .
the surrounding country is flat and makes the ruins even more impressive this country of olive
groves is the richest of all the roman provinces .

As there magnificent soft jude mosaics testify the carthage region was the most prosperous of
the roman empire it was called Africa. That’s how roman carthage gave it’s bame to the rest of
the continent proud of its history carthage dominates the sea virgil tells us it was foundednby
the queen didn’t who came from Phoenicia in 814 BC the city dominated Mediterranean
commerce until its destruction by rome in 146 BC . it was on the Libyan coast that are
prolonged my voyage into the ancient lands the sight of leptis magna subrata and CLN rang the
meditteranean coast and dazzled the traveller in me every city was a little rome heavily
populated the temples and theatres the forums and edifices of the city backed by the sea
allows one to imagine what social life must have been like urban and intense during four
centuries of roman accupation the empire erected nearly 500 cities populated by more than
5000 souls and the ampere Trajan still watches over their majestic ruins

I left the coastal road and I continued east joining a noble caravan that thank god was kept safe
from attacks and bandits so we went deep into the Libyan desert .

Nothing can rival the pyramids that dominate the visa plane key ops Katherine and me kirino’s
seem to be aternally watched over by the colossal edifice known as the sphinx . going down the
nile larrived at luxor a city built on the site of ancient thebes and immortalized in song by
homer luke’s R with its forest of Collins its obelisks and palace of giant a humble traveler . I felt
crushed by stone and the weight of the centuries .

Futher on I went down into a valley surrounded by mountains and queries to discover the
tombs of dignitaries and so verne’s the valley of beauty is what the Egyptians call it and in the
valley of the queens on the western bank of the nile the funeral temple of queen Hatshepsut
has its back against the rock as if emerging from its entrails . everything began with king mena’s
who unified upper and lower Egypt this mythic king founded the first of 30 dynasties that
descended down to the 4th century BC one has to travel far back into memory to find traces of
the first voyages in the land of the pharaohs . I remembered my reading it was said that on
seeing there frescoes Herodotus was fascinated by the hieroglyphic writings and the cult of
animals plato completed his voyages of exploration in these temples as if traveling back to the
font of wisdom . the nile has sweetest water of all rives without it nothing would exist humans
have always tried to tame it to make it beneficial . south of aswan in nubia in the hearth of
deep Africa lies the ground temple of abu simbel erected by ramses ii for seated columns
including one representing ramses the great watch over the sanctuary not far away’s the
temple of his spouse. Nefertari never before had a woman been shown on a temple exterior .

Beyond always going east I crossed the red sea and steered by generous beeze I hastened to
land on the banks of a happy Arabia . I arrived in the royalty of sabah under inclement weather
the monsoon rains turned the mountainsides green the genius of the ancient Yemenites
showed in the clever use of runoff water creating an opulent land out of their country it has
been said that a millennium before IIRIRA the rains diminished bit-by-bit valley started looking
deserts. Intense deforestation created devastating floods. It was all these climatic changes as
wellas demographic and economic ones . that overtuned southern arab civilization lerge
hydraulic works contained the river water a series of dikes and canals thus allow the
development of network of irrigated land Across the entire country.

There are still hundreds of important remains dating from the earliest centuries before our time
such as these contructions unwrought pedestals . it is said that these contructions were
doubtlessly the homes of important people tribal chiefs or rich traders the basis show that they
indeed fortresses these ruins tell us that the cities of the hammar kingdoms were opulent
because they combined irrigation incense and spice production with their commerce outside
the country .

I went further always deeper into the Arabian peninsula after several says of walking a little
tired I arrived in the heart of the dajia region but I had been told about mountaha which
concealed strange necropolis ‘as dating from the 3 rd millennium before Christ . my curiosity
helped me overcome my fatigue I saw in effect hi shay blooms of dry stones history linkz the to
the shining luminar civilization which flower during this encient Arabic park.

But civilizations are like humans they are born they flourish and then they die and leave us
traces that describe their history like these inscriptions carved in rock the most ancient
incriptions of the sabaeankingdoms that go back to early 7 th century BC . I headed north
towards the center of the arab peninsula between the mountainous barrier of hedged that lines
the red sea and the coast of the gulf where there is notning but sand and rock at the site
named raja lian I questioned myself about the enigma of these traces ofrock carefully arranged
in the desert in actuality the entire region is rife with pre-islamic remains like these rocks
resembling al tars raised to praise the gods . here-carved inscriptions indicate that life existed
for thousand of years the desert always was passage for caravans from yemen headed for
Mediterranean ports and the extremely arid conditions made the desert the kingdom of the
dromedaries as these carvings reveal . it seems that dromedaries were not domesticated until
1500 years before our time and the first caravans appeared in 12 BC . I to follow the incense
road that crosses the Arabian peninsula from south to north it would become the spice road
than the silk rpute linking the indian continent with the Mediterranean coast.

I lingered in mada insulate to try and discover the mystery of these novation tombs the work of
a people from the northwest corner of the peninsula the tombs are carved directly in the rock
and take on the colors of the sun violet at dawn blinding with the suns’s brightness at midday
and pink at sunset .

Domain of sand and rock these immense spaces that sometimes become steps are the home
lands of a nomadic Bedouin in the summer the need for pastures was critical by following the
dry river banks the nomads went searching for water one tribe could thus be made up of
nomads tending their herds and those who remainded at an oasis created in part from the wind
according to the words of the prophet the horde of arabia’s beauties and a large part of its
culture the pure blood Arabian has a reputation of being particularly hardy they were the
privileged of the aristocracies of the oasis are the steps around the edged of the fertile crescent
the arab people knew how ro develop the vast echoing culture intellectuals and savings wrote a
series of treaties and poetic works because equestrians craft is a military art of high spirituality
and the north I headed towards the generous baks of the tigris in search of ancient the sore

Iraq

Basara the point of departure for the fabulous voyages of Sinbad the sailor the city was a
fortiled town since the Mesopotamian era brick architecture proliferated and revealed this
cultures genius this strong place was transformed in 636 during the time of caliph omar its
influence reached beyond Mesopotamia .

Thanks to two great rivers the tigris and the Euphrates all of sumerian Mesopotamia was
irrigated and possessed the riched agricultural character palm dates trees cover the entire
bazaar region making it the largest palm grove in the world .

Here to a tight network of irrigation canals made good use of the rivers water the city was in
the very center of a watery web .

I disembarked and one of the Euphrates. I wanted t reach Babylon. Babylon at last the kingdom
of the chaldeans the pearl of cities whose name means door of the gods all the tsar’s and
travelers spoke of it . it was as if I alreay knew it the city was founded 24 centuries before Christ
by an American a people of semitic origin Babylon reminds us that Mesopotamian life grew
around cities that were real city-states . the city would reach a high level of civilization
wellbefore the greek and roman eras the restored ruins date from about 600 BC from the time
of kings nabo polis are a nabucco dinosaur today this mythic city offers a mix of ruins and
beautiful restorations reminding us hat Musa potamia is the oldest known cicilization . the
civilization influenced all of the semitic near eat and the biblical as well as the greeks by way of
the hit T DS the city is born from clay and a mix of Acadians and sumerians and the 4 th century
BC one can still find it’s faint traces in all of today’s cultures. In fact the cimmerian civilization
gave humanity its most significant contribution cuneiform writing . I was in admiration almost
moved before these ideograms I was told these signs were traced in what clay using wood still
it’s in this way the world of the gods and humns left traces that survived all the ways down to
our era . I felt a great debt towards these men because this is the way I understood the origins
of our great mythological literature such as the epic of Gilgamesh which inspired much of the
bible between the dead sea and the red sea I got back on the road and travelled to the
nabataean region discovering whatbwas called patriot Arabia
However forgetting about the time I lost my self in the ruins of the citadel in amman these
columns marked the site of the tample of venus which became a chuch in the 6 th century