1st century synagogue sand for sale

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Situation is too complicated for me to blog about, so today let's have a simple post instead.

For ABC Wednesday   S is for  tiny bottles of Sea of Galilee water and corked bottles of synagogue sand.
Only 8 shekels.
At the Magdala gift shop for pilgrims and tourists.
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Wiki Loves Monuments (historical landmarks) photo contest

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Photographers, bloggers, natives, tourists--get your cameras ready!
Or your archives.
Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 is in progress!

Wikipedia needs photos, old or new, of your local cultural heritage and the best entries in their big photo contest will get prizes.

I read through the list of moreshet/heritage places in Israel and realized that my archive is already full of such pictures.
Maybe I should upload a bunch and try for the shekel prizes of

• First place: ILS 5000 (about $1,250)
• Second place: ILS 3000 (about $750)
• Third place: ILS 2000 (about $500)

Worldwide, 142,511 images have already been uploaded; and in Israel, 353.

Check the website to see if your country is participating and what the final date is.
In Israel, the contest (like everything else here) starts and ends (Oct. 15) later than in non-Jewish countries because of the chagim, the holidays.

About the contest for Israel
FAQs in Hebrew
Help Desk in English
Wiki Loves Monuments blog
2011 contest jury report (judging criteria, etc.)

I am new to this; does anyone have any advice? It sounds like a good thing to do, this contributing to Wiki and freely sharing pictures of my beloved country . . . . Is it?
It means anyone in the world can use our photographs, for any purpose, including commercial.
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UPDATE: See added information in the comments section, e.g. re the Wiki contest in the USA.
UPDATE #2:  The Jerusalem Post writes about the competition in Israel.
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(This post can be good for Our World Tuesday.)
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A red double-decker

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London?!
Na, this is just Jerusalem, on Mount Herzl.

Tis the season for tourists to sit upstairs in the circular tour bus, under a blue (and very hot) sky.
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For SkyWatch Friday.
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The southern wall

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It was 8 o'clock in the morning but already a line of tourist buses was parked along the southern wall of the Old City.
The driver stands and waits for the guide to bring their group out from the nearby Dung Gate.
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Across the street from the same bench is a barbed-wired wall with an old sign of UNRWA.
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But sitting on the bench you would have this view--the old Turkish city wall and on top of what we call the Temple Mount, al Aksa mosque.
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The city is currently building ways to walk inside the Ophel antiquities at the base of the wall.
The sign said "Maslul HaMikvaot--HaOphel," meaning The Mikva Route.
Should be interesting!
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P.S. For those who enjoyed yesterday's post about doner kebab etc. --I added a comedy skit.
Thanks to daughter Naomi for this funny Armstrong & Miller video about the Neanderthal origins of shwarma!
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Welcome miners from Chile!

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Today Israel will welcome 31 of the 33 Chilean miners as they arrive in Jerusalem to begin an 8-day pilgrimage of thanksgiving.
The men are accompanied by their wives or girlfriends.
Our Ministry of Tourism is paying for their air fare and expenses.
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More about it here:
Jerusalem Post  and Israelity.

Photos are from the opal exposition in Sydney, Australia.
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UPDATE:  Now the papers are saying that 23 (and not 31) of the miners arrived.  They are having a wonderful and moving time at the holy places.
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Jerusalem above and below

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Enlarge the photo and you can see a guide with arm outstretched and his two tourists looking and listening.
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They are standing on this observation plaza, and the guide is pointing to the vast stretch of Jerusalem to the west.

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Just below is the donors' wall with names of those who contributed for the construction of this corner of the university.

Behind the trees are the outer buildings of the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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At the foot of the modern outlook I was surprised to find ancient burial caves.

I counted some ten or eleven kokhim.

Actually, the whole ridge of Mount Scopus was a huge necropolis for the dead of Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago.

I'm glad the excavators and conservation people found a nice way to preserve this part of the cemetery and even integrate it into its new surroundings.

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Here ends today's tour for That's My World Tuesday. Shalom!

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Four-legged public transportation

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Public transportation for the tourist public

It is a must for tourists in Israel to take a ride on a donkey or camel.
With lots of photos taken, of course.
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The City Daily Photo group's Theme Day is about Public Transportation.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants .

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Speaking of camels, want a good laugh?
As part of a new publicity campaign, our Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs released three video clips gently mocking French, Spanish, and English reporters for their alleged assumptions about the Jewish state. The idea is to teach Israelis traveling abroad or meeting foreign visitors how to counter stereotypes and spread good PR.
For the funny camel video, click on Clip 3 here.
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Light on the water

The lights of a tourist boat reflected on the calm waters of the Sea of Galilee.
This is a party boat about to dock at the Lido. From the shore I could hear the loud music and the stomping of dancing feet.
Later I will show you the more reverent kind of Galilee boats--the ones for Christian pilgrims.
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For "Weekend Reflections," hosted by James in Pennsylvania, half a world away from Tiberias.
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Knights Palace

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K-Day today at ABC Wednesday.

At the end of Freres Street, next to the Latin Patriarchate, near the New Gate, in the Christian Quarter, inside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, is a small hotel.

It's the Knights Palace!

Before the middle of the 19th century, Jerusalem had no hotels. Only after mid-century, when tourism per se began to the Holy Land, were hotels built.

Pilgrims who came on pilgrimage had hostels for their meagre needs, but wealthier tourists from abroad wanted more comfortable accommodation.

Knights Palace dates mostly to the 1880s.

Even the restrooms in the lobby go with the knightly motif.

Some of the 50 hotel rooms (on the right, not the left!).

The Knights Palace website is here.

For a time, the building served as a theological seminary.

As you might guess from the KHS Knight's photo on the wall, the building is also the base in Jerusalem of the Knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

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AND . . . today is Michaelmas, the Feast Day of the Archangel St. Michael and All Angels!

As Nestor writes in his blog Every Day's A Holiday!, "Perhaps because of his position as the leader of the army of angels in Revelation, Michael became the patron saint of knights, whom fighters called upon in times of battle."

Happy Michaelmas to all Christians who are celebrating the feast day.

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Camels

Waiting for the tourists on the Mount of Olives. . .

Here they come. Four kids on one camel!

Down in the Negev desert, camels owned by Bedouin graze freely.


These are Dromedaries. The Bactrian camels in Asia have two humps.
A mnemonic to remember: letter D on its side is like one hump and B is two.
In the early 1900s Israel had 20,000 camels. Today their numbers are down to maybe 2,500.
 A very interesting article on the Jewish veterinarian who cares for the Bedouin camels just appeared in the Jerusalem Post. You can read why camels are disappearing by clicking here.
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Lots more animals can be found at the Camera-Critters blog every Sunday.

R is for . . . (Part 2)

Red bus that takes tourists 'round Jerusalem.
Red raw meat with ribs, ready to buy in Shuk Machaneh Yehuda market.