Category Middle East

Monday Morning Blues – Camel Photo Bomber, Palmyra, Syria

I took this shot in May 2009 and it always makes me smile.

Monday Morning Blues – Our Lady Of Lebanon, Beirut

This statue of Our Lady of Lebanon stands on a hilltop near Beirut. It is reached via a terrifying cable car – I definitely shut my eyes when we lurched from the top!

A-Z April Challenge – J is for Jerash in Jordan

Colonnade in Jerash, Jordan

Sunday Photos – The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus

I visited Damascus in 2009 and was totally mesmerised by the great mosque, especially after dark. Here is a gallery of some of the photos I took.

Monday Morning Blues – Jerash, Jordan

Most Roman ruins have at least one memorable feature such as an impressive amphitheatre, triumphal arch, aqueduct or bathhouse. With Jerash in Jordan it is the curved colonnade, which is pictured below. Join us over on Twitter every Monday morning when we post our far away photos featuring the colour blue @wilburstravels

Aleppo Souk, Syria

My Top Ten Big Cities Outside Europe – #1, Aleppo, Syria

Aleppo, Syria – population 1.8 million (estimated) Vying with Damascus to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world (6,000 years and still counting despite the recent devastation), Aleppo became my favourite from the moment that we met in May 2009. I had travelled by train from Istanbul to Adana in Turkey and then […]

My Top Ten Big Cities Outside Europe #6 – Beirut

#6 – Beirut, Lebanon (population estimated 1.3 million) The hardships currently faced by the Lebanese in general and the Beirutis in particular are hard to bear. The devastating explosion caused by negligent storage of fertiliser is symbolic of a incompetent, corrupt and careless regime. One can only hope that this changes very soon. I visited […]

My Top Ten Big Cities Outside Europe #7 – Damascus

#7 – Damascus, Syria (population estimated 1.8 million) I visited Damascus in 2009, two years before civil war broke out. As a government stronghold, the main city has seen relatively little damage compared to the territories that were held by ‘rebel factions’ or ISIS. We travelled by bus from the Roman ruins at Palmyra and […]

Beirut – A Scarred City

The explosion at the port of Beirut and the terrible aftermath is painful to watch. A city and its people that suffered so much in the bloody civil war of the ’80s are in anguish once more. It never rains but it pours – economic hardship, Covid 19 and now this awful avoidable tragedy. I […]

Wordless Wednesday – Camels In The Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan