Turkey is a country full of beautiful sites and one of the most unique is the exotic landscape of Cappadocia. The LA Times has a gallery of photographs (with descriptive captions) online, with some nice photos taken from a hot air balloon. Cappadocia is mentioned in the New Testament as one of the destinations of the letter of 1 Peter.
HT: Explorator
Logos is set to release a new product entitled “1,000 Bible Images.” The projected ship date is June 2, which means that the pre-publication price of $20 will soon expire. From the screenshots, it appears that the illustrations are all black-and-white line drawings. The collection’s description begins:
Now you can literally see the people, places, and events of the Bible text—right in front of your eyes! Bring your study of the Bible to life with this collection of 1,000 images, drawings, and illustrations—all produced by professional artists under the supervision of biblical scholars, in association with the German Bible Society. This vivid artwork shows the biblical sites, religious objects, plants and animals, archaeological findings, scenes from daily life in the Bible, and much more! As reliable documentation of biblical life, these images often give a better illustration and explanation than the text itself can give.
If you’ve ever considered a trip to Israel with young children, this NY Times article provides some ideas for what to do. Depending on the length of your visit and where you call home, I would make a few more suggestions: Hai Bar Animal Reserve, Timna Park with the Tabernacle Model, snorkeling in Eilat, the Armored Corps Museum at Latrun, Mini-Israel, a canoe ride on the Jordan River, a beach on the Mediterranean such as Ashkelon, and yes, Yad VaShem.
Hiking in the Judean wilderness can be great fun, but if you do it, take all precautions. Every year someone loses their life, and this weekend it was a 22-year-old hiking all alone.
The Pope has begun a week-long visit to Jordan and Israel with words of respect for Islam. From the JPost:
“My visit to Jordan gives me a welcome opportunity to speak of my deep respect for the Muslim community, and to pay tribute to the leadership shown by his majesty the king in promoting a better understanding of the virtues proclaimed by Islam,” Benedict said shortly after landing in Amman.
A traveler sends along photos from Nazareth of Muslim preparations for the Pope’s visit. The large building in the background is the Church of the Annunciation, which the Pope is scheduled to visit on Thursday.
The New York Times reports on the reopening of the ruins of Babylon to the public.
BABYLON, Iraq — After decades of dictatorship and disrepair, Iraq is celebrating its renewed sovereignty over the Babylon archaeological site — by fighting over the place, over its past and future and, of course, over its spoils. Time long ago eroded the sun-dried bricks that shaped ancient Babylon, the city of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, where Daniel read the writing on the wall and Alexander the Great died. Colonial archaeologists packed off its treasures to Europe a century ago. Saddam Hussein rebuilt the site in his own megalomaniacal image. American and Polish troops turned it into a military camp, digging trenches and filling barricades with soil peppered with fragments of a biblical-era civilization. Now, the provincial government in Babil has seized control of much of Babylon — unlawfully, according to the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage — and opened a park beside a branch of the Euphrates River, a place that draws visitors by the busload…. Now with the support of some officials in Baghdad, the local government has reopened the excavated ruins of Babylon’s ancient core, shuttered ever since the American invasion in 2003. It has done so despite warnings by archaeologists that the reopening threatens to damage further what remains of one of the world’s first great cities before the site can be adequately protected.
The full story is here.
The traditional tomb of Ezekiel is being renovated by the Iraqi government. From the Jerusalem Post:
The Iraqi government has launched a project to renovate the interior of the prophet Ezekiel’s shrine in the small town of Kifl, south of Baghdad, and the country’s Ministry for Tourism and Antiquities says it hopes to eventually repair and renovate other Jewish sites across the country.
“The ministry is concerned with all Iraqi heritage, whether it is Christian or Jewish or from any other religion,” ministry spokesman Abdelzahra al-Talaqani told AFP. “The present plans do not include the synagogues in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Fallujah and other places because of lack of funding, but I think they will be included in future plans.”
Iraqi Jewry was once one of the largest and most prominent Jewish communities in the Middle East.
But after Israel’s establishment, more than 120,000 Iraqi Jews moved to Israel in the 1950s in a clandestine operation dubbed Operation Ezra and Nehemiah amid an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence.
Outside the shrine of the prophet – who followed Jews into the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BC – is a 14th-century brick minaret, while the inside is shaped like a synagogue, with old wooden arks that used to contain Torah scrolls and the remains of a Mehitza – a separation for men and women….
The tombs of the prophets Daniel, Ezra, Nahum and Jonah are also purported to be located in Iraq.
You can add this to your list of sites to visit on your next trip.
Traditional tomb of Ezekiel, exterior, 1932 
Traditional tomb of Ezekiel, interior, 1932 If you’re interested in the visit of the Catholic Pope to Israel next month, the Israel Ministry of Tourism has established a website: Holyland Pilgrimage: A Bridge for Peace. Questions of just how interested in peace the pope is have been raised following reports of his plans to meet with a terrorist-supporting mayor in Galilee.
The ministry has also created a 5-minute video in preparation for the visit. The video features stunning aerial photography of numerous sites in Israel and is worth watching even if the pilgrimage doesn’t get you excited.