Part 2 of the Epic Saga

I'm following the trail of the Book of Mormon prophet, Lehi, as he left Jerusalem, Israel for a point near Salalah, Oman. There, the scriptures record, his son Nephi build a boat and the family set sail for Meso America about 600 years BC.

A secluded coastal valley has been discovered that exactly matches the scriptural description in Mormon's book. The camels are ready and eager to go.

Click here for a map showing Lehi's trail that we are following

http://www.latter-day.com/bofm/arabia.htm

Back to the journey and more on camels later.
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Where is Mecca from here?

On the flight from NY, along with altitude, ground speed, GPS location etc, the TV monitors also showed an arrow, angling off one side of the plane, like a compass direction. It wasn't pointing north ~ unless we were really lost. My seat partner explained that it pointed towards Mecca. If you're on a plane for 12 hours and need to pray 5 times a day towards Mecca, it's a handy aid.

Hotel rooms had aids too. Prayer rugs were also provided. However, no Gideon bibles in the bedside tables.

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We had a "cultural" adventure in Jordan. The people belong to tribes. Each has their own status. If you mix nationalities, job positions, and politics with a dash of liquor.... whoa!

I don't understand a lick of Arabic but body language told me to duck.

Sorry, no photos of that.

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Leaving Petra, Jordan behind (scroll down for an earlier entry), we flew overnight to Musqat, Oman. A beautiful, clean, modern city brought into the 21st century only recently by the present sultan who was educated abroad.

We attended church in Musqat. The little branch was thrilled to host us. They have a beautiful building. I took pictures of every room and every ceiling. I'll spare you the over kill. The members there are mostly oil company employees from the states or elsewhere.

Visiting the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque of Muscat was sensory overload. I just love mosques!!

Note the reflection in the marble!

The Quran (or Koran) on the building

Detail of a doorknob.....

Marble tile everywhere

This mosque is simply amazing. The men's section holds more than 6,000 praying men. Suspended is a chandelier made of Swarovski crystal. It is 8 meters across and weighs 9 tons

The carpet is all one woven piece!

Pictures can't describe the size and grandeur of the men's prayer room. Pictures describing the size and grandeur of the women's section however, *is* quite possible. Conveniently, women can pray at home. Here, Leah is modeling.

The Boat......

We visited a National Geographic site where a crew was constructing a replica of a 3,000 year old boat. The planks were being hand carved and then sewn together. The rope, made of coconut fibers, becomes stronger in seawater.

The night in the cave....

With the storm at sea, the planned beach camp was canceled in favor of cave camping. Our guide was born in a cave and although he is a city dweller out of necessity now, he loves his home cave and goes back often.

He told us of hauling water in goatskin bags and described how clean the caves always were before plastics and other city garbage came into their lives.

On the other side, he said many children died from drinking water soiled by camels. And water from goatskin bags didn't taste that great. There are tradeoffs for either lifestyle.

The table was spread for our evening meal which was more like a picnic of survival food, but we ate it with relish.

The rain shifted during the night. People near the outer edge of the cave had to get their sleeping pads in, closer under shelter. Our guide who was sleeping near-by, confessed later that he had awakened and saw "his children" scurrying about. He thought about offering to help but decided he would pretend to sleep through it.

The Cave

A member of our group awoke to meet this strange bedfellow next to him.

I'm sorry there wasn't an object such as a shoe in the photo to give a size comparison.

Although no one slept well that night, the cave camping was one of the highlights of the trip.

A hard boiled, breakfast egg. Their chickens are more sophisticated than ours...

A "wadi" is the valley through which water runs to the sea. The point where the water enters the ocean is called the Khor. We visited 3 proposed sites: Khor Rori, Khor Mughsayl and Khor Kharfot. One of them could possibly be what Nephi called the "Land Bountiful"

The scriptures list 12 distinctive traits. 1) It must lie nearly eastward from Nahom, Yeman where Ishmael died.

2) It must have access to the coast.

3) It must be a fertile area,

4) with much fruit, honey,

Khor Mughsayl in stormy weather

5) ship building timber and

6) a year-round water source.

Khor Rori

It needs to be
7) a sheltered port with

8) access to the open ocean.

Even more specifically, there needs to be

9) a "mount" nearby with

10) ore and flint present and

11) points from which one could be thrown into the depths of the sea.

Finally, 12) it is most likely secluded from a populated area.

In visiting the first two candidates for the Land Bountiful, Kor Rori and Khor Mughsayl, it was quite obvious to me that they were missing on a few important points.

Unfortunately, the third and most perfect candidate, was unavailable for us to explore. The storm off the coast of Somalia, in eastern Africa, sent high winds, unusal rain and rough seas to the Omani coast. It was too dangerous for our little, hired fishing boats to take us in. We were terribly disappointed and could only imagine how perfect it must be.

Khor Kharfot through the mist

Khor Rori on a beautiful day!

Greeting a camel...... One must always be respectful. A camel never forgets. Our guide is the St. Francis of the Arabian world. He is kind to camels and to us, his "children"

Ali, an expert in hieroglyphics is finding the bridge between the ancient people of Colorado who wrote in the same language as a historic Arabic group in Oman. A fascinating study.

Wherever you go in the world, there's always a discussion whether active

Or passive....
A mediating moment while the tourists take pictures of the same ol' thing that last week's tourists took pictures of. A bit of the new with the old - such as guard rails and Coleman coolers.

Finding the native fruit....

An offering of fruit to one of his ailing tourist "children".

A peaceful man with a kind heart and a gentle nature. A practicing example of a pure religion. One that serves with good and sincere intent.

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There are no stray or "wild" camels. Their names are known. There are desert camels and mountain camels. There are milk camels, meat camels, packing camels and racing camels. There are no forgetful camels or insensitive camels. You must treat them kindly.

After a few days, we got used to seeing camels strolling around.

And then we met the "friendly camel" who loves people.He was an orphan brought up in a household with the children. They taught him all about Classic Coke

He downed 2 cans straight. I imagine it would become expensive if he had a craving to refill after a long desert trip.

This baby camel is less than 2 weeks old. Dang cute.

Looking out to sea at Khor Rori

Dancing in the Arabian sea and drinking camel's milk

In the Beginning.....
The early morning sun is rising in the wilderness. Our journey started in Jordan ~ John the Baptist country. Strangely, the "wilderness" means lots of hills of rock and dirt.

Lehi's Trail is on this map. We didn't follow it exactly. Lacking the time, funds and political connections, we flew over Saudi Arabia instead of going through it as Lehi did. Click here!! Check the map!!

http://www.latter-day.com/bofm/arabia.htm

We started and finished at the same points however. Before picking up the trail in Jerusalem, we came from Jordan and then crossed to Israel. Here we could see there weren't any welcome mats out for the Israelies on the Palestinian side.....

Lehi lived in Jerusalem until he was called by God to leave. We followed his trail down past the Dead Sea and out to the Red Sea. That is where we crossed back into Jordan to catch a flight for Muscat, Oman. From there we flew to Salalah in the south of Oman. (Check that map!) There 3 proposed sites for the Land Bountiful awaited our inspection. If only Lehi had it so easy.

Meanwhile, back in The Big City
The Dome of the Rock is my favorite spot in Jerusalem. To be more "spiritually correct", I should say my favorite spot is the Garden of Gethsemane or, the Garden Tomb - but this mosque has such wonderful mosaic work!

You may click to enlarge it!!

I am enthralled with the BYU Jerusalem Center. The architecture of the building is nothing short of inspirational. Free community concerts are held every Sunday evening.
The audiences view the lights of Jerusalem through the scenic windows as they listen to the finest organ in the city.

It is the most incredible place of all - right up there with The Dome of the Rock.

There are a lot of feral cats. This underfed kitten isn't as big as the curb. I had to bring the photo home since I couldn't rescue the kitty.

Leaving the big city... We descended to the Dead Sea. We saw the hills of Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

We stopped at the oasis Ein Gedi. It could have been here that Lehi's family stopped while the boys returned to Jerusalem to fetch the plates from their Uncle Laban. Later, they went back again to invite their Uncle Ishmael, and his girls, to join them. It probably took them a month to make the round trip from this spot.

These ibex aren't much to look at - especially since they blend into the rocky scenery. However, they might have been food for Lehi's family while Nephi and his brothers were on their mission to Jerusalem. Eating ibex (if ibex were there then) would have saved on camel slaughtering.

At Ein Gedi, our guide talked of this "floating water" ~his native description of a waterfall. (It's actually visible if you click to enlarge it)

A replica of the portable tabernacle that the children of Israel carried around for so many years in the wilderness.
Egypt plays a close role in the history of Christianity. I never made the connections before. I knew Mary and Joseph went to Egypt to save their baby boy from Herod. Abraham frequented the temple in Luxor. Moses was raised in Egypt. Joseph was sold as a slave to Egyptians. His family went to Egypt for food years later. Yes, I'm starting to see a connection .....

Working the mines.... Egyptians mined copper in the Israel. (At a place called Timna, to be more exact....) The Incense Trail we followed was a common trading route for transporting goods between Israel and other countries. It makes perfect sense that Lehi and his family, being prosperous business people, would know the Arabic, Hebrew and Egyptian languages. The family would also have all the traveling equipment ready at hand to pick up and leave town when God told them to.

Nephi was probably apprenticed in metallurgy. He had an appreciation for the metal work in Laban's sword hilt; he, himself, owned a bow of fine steel; and when God commanded him to build a boat, he only asked where to find the metal he needed to make some tools.


The mines at Timna are narrow, unimpressive, shafts. The openings to the shafts aren't very exciting.

The covers aren't any more exciting than the holes are.

Digging and passing along small buckets of ore without electric lighting or ventilation made me wonder. Why didn't they do the open pit method, such as the Kennecott copper mine in Utah?

Maybe because using hand tools back then was a lot of work. Ya think?

There are footholds carved into the shaft for moving up and down. Here is a cut-away example of what the shafts look like inside.

Big Dreams.....We were told that later in our tour, we would be camping out. We would experience what it was like for Lehi's family to be on the move and sleeping al fresco under the Arabian stars. I was looking forward to it.

Since leaving the hotels, the quality of toilet facilities were often disgusted... uh....I mean discussed among the women on the tour. I wonder if Ishmael's girls ever said anything?

We came across this "Out of Africa" camp site. It fostered hope in the non-campers of our group that our campsite would be as pleasant. These are nice tents.... the "bathrooms" I declined to photo.... eeewww.

Lawrence of Arabia needed to be rescued! We mounted several sagging, dinged up, rusty jeeps and rattled out at full speed over the desert sands. No seat belts! The thrill! What would mom say? What would Uncle Sam say? Who the heck cares???

After following the trail down from Jerusalem, past the Dead Sea to the Red Sea, we crossed back to over to Jordan. There we could see Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. All 4, are neighbors to each other. The dirt and hills weren't much for pictures, and neither was I, so I'm having Leah model here.

Standing in Jordan with Egypt on her right, Israel on her left and Saudi Arabia at the end of her shadow (give or take a several kilometers...)










Back on the bus.....and in southern Jordan, we visit Petra !! Maybe Lehi knew of this magnificent and mysterious lost city. It was a vibrant trading hub that vanished from maps in the seventh century AD. In 1812, a Swiss scholar disguised as a Bedouin trader discovered and identified the ruins as the ancient Nabataean capital.

Petra is located in remote desert canyons. It was at the cross roads of caravan trade routes between Arabia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. The Nabatiaeans carved the city's temples, tombs, and theaters directly into the region's red sandstone cliffs.




















I didn't take many photos of the place. However the "Treasury" and the carved edifices in the rock are amazing. If it is possible to capture mystery and greatness at all, try this slide show of someone else's photos. http://www.pbase.com/mansour_mouasher/petra.

Personally, I distracted myself with a little horseback riding adventure as you can see.....

Next it is "Good-bye Jordan, and Hello Oman!"



journal writing by lamplight in the cave at Mughsayl