Israel & Petra

traunerk

I finally got around to processing a bunch of shots from this past summer when I traveled with my family to Israel and for a day to Petra in Jordan. Here are a few teasers with a link to my favorite (so far) 20 shots. There is also a more extensive gallery under "TRAVEL" for those inclined to take a more detailed tour through Israel and Petra.

Link to Top 20 - http://www.kt.smugmug.com/gallery/3628426#P-1-15


Hope you enjoy...

The Bahai Temple in Haifa, Israel - world headquarters of the Bahai Faith


Painted Electrical Box in Zefat (also known as Safed) - perhaps the premier artist colony in Israel.


First view of the Treasury Building carved out of the rock wall at Ancient Petra in Jordan. For those unfamiliar, Petra was the site of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade climax scenes and was filmed at least in part on location. Petra is considered one of the modern wonders of the world.


Jordanian Honor Guard at Petra - these guards are almost certainly Bedouin as Palestinians are rarely seen in the southern half of Jordan - the desert that borders Israel.


If you want more, holler and I'll be glad to post more extensively on the trip...

Regards..KT

kdog

Awesome. Best pictorial of Israel I've ever seen, Keith. I looked at every one of your pictures in your public Israel 2007 galleries. You had no worries venturing into Jordan?

I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to see more extensive commentary on the trip. You evidently posted at an unfortunate time because everybody is still going gaga over the Glacier shootout threads (and rightfully so of course.)

Cheers,
-joel

traunerk

Hey, Joel...
Thanks for the kind words. Believe it or not, in this endeavor, if you keep taking enough shots, you actually do start to get better. I think my quotient of keepers definitely increased on this trip. And I do appreciate what a shootout or meet and greet can do to us orphan threads

Petra was a piece of luck. It was not on our itinerary, but my brother in law, who is one of the senior guides in Israel, had no fears about Petra and said it was possible to arrange on a free day we had planned in Eilat (Petra is about a two hour trip from Eilat in Southern Israel). I felt that it was something that should not be missed given we actually had a chance to go and I don't regret the trip one bit - it was spectacular. Mostly it is considered fairly safe as the bedouin control southern Jordan and there are few, if any Palestinians in the area - not true of northern Jordan however. Of course, about two weeks after we got back, we understood that a travel warning was put out to Israeli citizens about Petra given specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah plans to kidnap israeli tourists. So perhaps we were lucky/naive. But to anyone who has a chance to go - it may be hot but it is an amazing sight.

Regards..Keith

Ann McRae

Spectacular - really beautiful scenes, incredibly well captured.

ann

cwphotos

Very nice. I would so love to go there some day.

traunerk

Thank you Ann and CW -
believe it or not, i haven't quite yet finished processing. There are at least a couple of more winners in the last two folders...

Regards...Keith

DJ-S1

traunerk wrote:

If you want more, holler and I'll be glad to post more extensively on the trip...

HOLLER! More please!

JenGrace

That first picture looks almost ethereal. I would personally love to see more of your trip. :