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Newsletter #17 - October 10-16, 1959 |
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Newsletter #17
October 9-16, 1959 Mailed Cairo, Egypt 10/19/59 Recd. Philadelphia 10/23/59 Hello, once again! [October 11] Here we are in another country after a very nice flight from New Delhi to Karachi via PIA, or Pakistan International Airlines. The city of Karachi is flat and sprawling and rather drab although it does have wide streets and some handsome public buildings. It has a rather fine harbor on the Arabian Sea. Being Moslem, the women for the most part observe purdah (seclusion with faces veiled) but many also dress Western style. A burka is the name of the heavy veil with which women cover themselves from head to foot and these veils have two tiny embroidered holes in the face area to see through. The most unusual sights for tourists in Karachi are the camel-drawn carts which you see on all the streets. The refugee areas are really pathetic to see but those areas have been frightening in all these countries. We met a lovely Pakistanian girl by the name of Mergish Bharucha and had several lengthy conversations with her. She was an exchange student to U.S. over a year ago and her ambition is to go back to U.S. some day to live. Also met Roy Patell, who is a flight engineer on PIA and a brother to Zarin Patell, whom Beth Smith asked me to visit, but she was out of town while we were there. Her brother was charming and will convey our greetings to his sister. After our dinner at the Metropole Hotel we sat and watched the beautifully gowned ladies who were having a dance in one of the hotel's special rooms. Their saris were really beautiful and most of the women were quite attractive. [October 12] Today we had another 7-1/2 hour flight from Karachi to Beirut by Pan American Airlines and enjoyed a delicious breakfast and lunch en route. We are staying at Hotel Select overlooking beautiful St. George's Bay in Beirut. Lebanon is a lovely little country but quite noisy as the streets are bedlam and the trolleys, the motor horns and the yelling of the people are indescribable. Most of the city has very narrow streets and everyone drives large American cars, so the traffic is terrific and trying to cross the streets night or day is a problem if you don't care to be hit. The shoeshine boys in Beirut have beautiful shining brass shoeshine boxes which are quite elaborate, and you find men and boys with large brass or pottery jugs slung over their shoulders filled with drinks and they clang two brass dishes together to call attention to their wares. If you just stand and watch the people go by or walk the market and bazaar districts, you see many interesting sights. [October 13] Today starting at 7:30 A.M. we hired a car and driver to take us to see the magnificent ruins of Baalbek. We drove for miles and miles |
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Newsletter #17
and saw barren but colorful mountain slopes, the color in the absolutely barren hillsides is really lovely with streaks of purple, yellow, brown and pink. We drove through beautiful summer resorts up the western slopes of Mount Lebanon through a pass then down to a fertile plain and then to Baalbek, the city of the Sun God. Baalbek was founded in the Phoenician period and after its conquest by Alexander the Great it was named Heliopolis. Here we found the ruins of the Great Citadel, the Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Bacchus, the God of Wine, and the Temple of Venus. These are the ruins of Greek, Roman, Christian and Moslem building over a period of 2,500 years. At the main site are the ruins of an acropolis, a forecourt, a basilica and a temple. North of Baalbek is a mosque In ruins and a few remains of a Roman theatre. From Baalbek we drove for 2-1/2 more hours to Damascus in Syria and going through all the customs and police barriers was quite a trial. The origin of Damascus is unknown, but it is considered to be the oldest still inhabited city in the world. It is situated on a plain at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and is a desert oasis kept green by two rivers that emerge from the hills nearby and flow through Damascus and ultimately lose themselves in the sands of the desert beyond. It is a unique experience to visit Damascus as the people, and the cafes and general atmosphere are all intriguing. The old walls and the minarets of its nearly 250 mosques, about 70 of which are still in use, and the narrow and dirty streets of the old section are in strange contrast to its fine modern residential sections, which have broad avenues and imposing homes. The population of nearly 300,000 is mostly Mohammedan, but with a variety of sects which can be identified by their customs of dressing. In Damascus we had to hire a Syrian car and driver which is a money-making racket and he drove us through the street called Straight, which is a famous narrow street that is lined with shops and street sails which runs from the Eastern Gate to the Western Gate. We then went to the underground House of Ananias and to the old walls and gates, which is the section where St. Paul escaped by being lowered in a basket. Later we saw the Al Azem Palace and the Mosque of the Omayads, which was originally the Church of St. John the Baptist. There is a shrine inside the mosque reputedly containing the head of St. John the Baptist. This mosque is old but had lovely bronze doors. We also visited the tomb of Saladin. We then went back to change to our Lebanese driver to return to Beirut. From then on we had trouble as leaving Damascus Meredith took a picture from the car window and almost immediately we were surrounded by Syrian civilians and a few soldiers who wanted the camera, the film, etc. Meredith took the film out but would not hand over the camera, so we were then driven to the Army Headquarters and after about 3/4 hour of bickering we started for Beirut once more, which was 144 miles away. Needless to say by this time I was a nervous wreck and our driver drove like a maniac and passed every car on the road. He drove fast going to Baalbek and Damascus, but going back was far worse He got a ticket for speeding but just tore it to pieces. I went right to bed when I got back to our hotel, as I was really sick. [October 15] After breakfast and feeling fine again, we took a private tour around Beirut and its surrounding areas. We came across many camel caravans on the move and it surely is a most picturesque sight; we also drove through typical little dusty villages. We saw several mosques and - 2 -
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| the Pigeon Grotto which is a colossal boulder in the sea with a natural tunnel through it. We also saw the American University, which is the largest American educational unit outside the U.S.A., and went down where the huge ships are docked in the busy harbor. After taking a tour of the residential area and seeing the modern apartment houses and new structures we saw the race track and their new stadium, which is tremendous and beautiful. We spent four days and three nights in Beirut, Lebanon and Syria and are now [October 16] in Jerusalem after a 1-1/2 hour flight by Middle Eastern Airlines (MBA). The flight was interesting as we saw the hillsides of sand, the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. (This area in long-ago days was known as the Land of Canaan; under the Israelites it was called the land of Israel; in the time of Christ it was referred to as Judea) We are now in the Old Jerusalem in Jordan and the new city of Jerusalem in Israel is only about a hundred feet away with a narrow strip of land called "No Man's Land" between them. (No picture taking anywhere near this area.) In Old Jerusalem City itself we walked for 4-1/2 hours within the walls, which are noisy, dirty, confusing and full of narrow little twisting streets with squalid, overcrowded living quarters and myriads of little shops, markets and offices. Without our guide we would have been lost in 15 minutes. You have a depressed, disappointed and disillusioned feeling by the atmosphere within the walls as you expected it to be more Christian-like. There are seven gates to the Old City, which are named Damascus, New, Jaffa, Herod, St. Stephen, Dung and Zion date. The Golden Gate is sealed and it was through this gate Christ was to have used on Palm Sunday to enter Jerusalem. We entered by Herod's Gate and we were in and out of all seven during our walk among donkeys, goats, beggars and people. I'll only mention some of the many important places we saw within the walls of the city as to elaborate would take pages. We visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, (the accepted site of the Crucifixion of Christ and his Tomb), the Wailing Wall, the Church of St. Ann (built over the birthplace of the Virgin Mary), the Pool of Bethesda (the place where Christ healed the cripple), the Citadel or David's Tower, the stables of Solomon, the Way of the Cross (the fourteen stops which Christ made while carrying the cross), Al Haram Mosque, Dome of the Rock (the site of Mount Morlah where Abraham was to sacrifice his son) and many churches within these walls. Outside the walls on another tour we saw the Valley of Kidron which is between the Old City and the Mount of Olives, the Fountain of the Virgin, the Garden of Gethsemane with its eight very old olive trees, lovely flowers, the Church of All Nations or the Basilica of the Agony, which marks the site of Christ's prayer and agony on the night of his betrayal and arrest on Maundy Thursday, the Tomb of the Virgin, Solomon's Pools, the Mt. of Olives 2,665 feet high which marks the site of Christ's ascension to Heaven by the Little Church of the Ascension, Mt. Zion, which is considered the site of the Last Supper and the House of Caiaphas where Christ was taken prisoner. We next drove to Bethlehem via of Mary and Joseph only 5 miles from Jerusalem but a very much longer route today in order to avoid crossing into Israel. When approaching Bethlehem our guide pointed out the Field of Booz and the Shepherd's Field, and we went to the Milk Grotto, the Church of the Nativity over the grotto where Christ was born in a stable, and Rachel's Tomb. Needless to say, the entire area here is full of historical and biblical sites, but I've only mentioned - 3 -
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Newsletter #17
those most familiar to the average person. Our next town of interest was Bethany, which was the home of Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus, and Simon the Leper. On the site of a lovely church is the place where Jesus called forth Lazarus from the tomb. We next drove 24 miles northeast from Jerusalem to Jericho, the oldest walled and inhabited city in the world. Here we saw splendid gardens and palm trees which produce a considerable revenue for its people. Among the places of interest in and around Jericho were: Elisha's Fountain, where we saw many women and girls filling their large water jugs and carrying them on their heads, and the Mount of Temptation, where Jesus spent 40 days fasting and was tempted by Satan. Our next stop was the River Jordan, where we washed our hands and where Jesus was baptized by John; and then on many miles to the Dead Sea, where we again washed our hands in its very salty waters and saw its beautiful black stones. (The Dead Sea is the lowest spot in the earth and is 1297 feet below sea level.) We returned to Jerusalem as the sun was setting and it made a lovely trip through the multicolored hills and valleys of sand and the Bedouin tribes who are camped among the hills in their drab carelessly pitched tents. (These are the Nomadic Arabs.) We enjoyed our tours in the Holy Land immensely, but we sure paid a high fee to see it, although we feel richly rewarded by all we learned these past two days. As you drove through the fertile section as well as the barren country, you could visualize Jesus walking among the people as their style of dress, habits and manner of living is much as we imagined it was in biblical days. We are leaving feeling happy to have had the opportunity to walk among these many sacred and holy places and feel our pilgrimage here will remain imbedded in our memories, as we were delighted with its heights of rugged purple hued mountains as well as with its spectacular sandstone cliffs, dry arid desert, deep tropical Jordan Valley with its luxuriant vegetation and the gently rolling hills of Jerusalem. [October 17] Our next flight is to Egypt by Air Jordan and we leave the airport outside of Jerusalem watching the city until it's no longer in our sight, hoping to perhaps come back again in the future. While flying to Cairo we had quite a thrill when the plane flew rather low over the Sues Canal and we could see the many ships going through this famous waterway. We also had some very fine views of the Red Sea earlier in our flight, which was about 2-1/4 hours to Cairo. After the usual Customs, declarations and health formalities, we took a ride through Cairo to our downtown Hotel Continental Savoy. It is considered one of the finest and largest cities in Africa and is the largest city in the Arab world, but since we're arriving after dark I cannot appreciate its vastness. We had just time to make it for dinner before the dining room closed, so we had no time to dress differently. Tomorrow starts another Newsletter week, so I'll save Egypt for next week. I'm sure we'll enjoy the sights of Egypt and if Meredith can rent a camera as we have done in Beirut and Jerusalem, I'm sure we'll be much better satisfied as we hate to miss important pictures and as yet his camera has not come back from Sweden. - 4 -
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Newsletter #17
Another reminder that we'll be at least 15 days ahead of our itinerary from now on as we've been traveling by plane at places where we formerly had planned to take a ship. Thus far we've hit our mail stops just about right, but not from here on. Until we sign on again tomorrow to start a new week, we'll say good night and pleasant dreams and we hope all of you are feeling; as well as we are. As ever, Charlotte & Meredith - 5 -
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