In addition to exploring and eating our way through the warm and wonderful cities of Beirut, Damascus and Ramallah, during our Middle East trip we also managed to spend a good deal of time visiting some of the world’s most notorious tourist traps. Lucky for us we had some fantastic company along the way to help us endure several days of disappointing food, regrettably high prices and cheesy souvenir shops.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that there weren’t highlights to visiting these famously ‘biblical’ cities and landscapes. But I think I must have been to every building, rock or pebble in the Middle East where it might be written that “Jesus was here” - from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to the Manger in Bethlehem where the ‘reason for the season’ was born. Truly, these are the moments that I’m probably happy to have checked of my list of things to do in life, but certainly wouldn’t want to repeat.
Before heading to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, we actually spent a long week touristing in Jordan moving by taxi from Amman to Petra to Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. It became apparent to me that Jordan is a country thriving on tourism to the point that it feels like everything is made ready for the tourist gaze. People, commodities and spaces work to conform outward appearances to an assumed imaginary of what the Middle East should look and feel like according to what has been constructed in orientalist painting, literature, film and photography.
The result is an odd and at times unsettling experience that constantly moved me to reflect on how our contrived ideas about authenticity have shaped the spaces, societies and economies of these places.
There is more to write on this subject than I have room for here. So I’ve compiled a photo essay of some of the most striking and strangest images Jia Ching and I captured during this leg of our journey.
I’ve tried to avoid posting my own versions of photos you’ve probably already seen a hundred times before. Instead I aim to share different glimpses or comments on places that are already well documented, well travelled and well photographed. Stunning silhouetted landscapes and overwhelming tourist clusterf*cks that I won’t soon forget. Enjoy!
PETRA
The red sand structures of Petra topped by concrete towers of Wadi Musa, a city that has supported the archeological site and tourist destination for generations.
This is Siq: I love this photo because it really captures that “are we there yet” feeling one gets after having wandered along the well worn path through the narrow canyon that leads into Petra four or five times over.
Camels, camels everywhere. Here is a glimpse of the busy atmosphere catering to tourists when they first reach the Treasury inside Petra.
Bedouins casually pose and play music for gawking tourists ready with cameras that recreate this image we recognize from having seen it already a million times before in orientalist paintings and the pages of National Geographic.
Ancient Nabatean dwellings now have to compete for space with tourist restaurants and souvenir tents along Petra’s old roads.
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WADI RUM
Climbing the foothills of Wadi Rum’s colorful and dynamic desert peaks.
Scrambling towards this land bridge is like a Wadi Rum tourist rite of passage.
Sunset stroll through an expanse of red sand and stone.
Browsing the souvenirs for sale in a Bedouin tent pit stop.
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DEAD SEA
Salty stuff.
A moment of serenity.
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JERUSALEM
Entering the Dome of the Rock at dusk.
After prayer in the Dome of the Rock.
Get in line to peek inside the cave where Jesus was buried.
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BETHLEHEM
Tourists flock to the church built to house where Jesus was born.
Mad rush to the spot where baby Jesus was here.
Take home your very own baby Jesus.
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AMMAN
Hilly city.
View of the old amphitheatre and new public plaza under construction.
A street view.
