You can get thrown in jail in Saudi Arabia for making out on the beach, but with its new leader’s mission to modernize the ultra-conservative Islamic society, Saudi Arabia may become one of the top 10 beach destinations in the world. Maybe even topless? Well, let’s not go that far. But it is located on […]
The Australian government is investigating the case of a 95-year-old Perth woman accused of looting artefacts from Middle Eastern countries including Egypt. Joan Howard – now dubbed “Indiana Joan” – lived in during the 1960s and 70s with her husband, a senior official with the United Nations.
The oldest evidence of food storage rituals has been found by researchers from the University of Haifa and the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin during excavations at the prehistoric site of Tel Tsaf, in Israel. An unusual pottery vessel illuminates how people climbed social statuses fast. The vessel, which is over 7,000 years old, reveals […]
The design team of Henkin Irit and Shavit Zohar have converted a centuries-old building in Safed into a thoroughly modern home, strategically introducing new glass windows and doors to the old stone structure, flooding the interior with sunshine that paints the rooms with a changing wash of light and shadows. Construction of the 175 m2 […]
A diving club struck gold on a recent expedition off the Mediterranean city of Caesarea, finding a priceless trove of coins dating back more than 1,000 years. The stash was discovered on the seabed that was once home to ancient Roman-era port city Caesarea, considered one of the flagship archaeological sites of Israel. Harsh winter storms have pounded […]
But the story inside this story is that anyone with a full wallet can buy a full dinosaur (or downgrade to specific bones, teeth, or fossil imprints).
Refrigeration is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of modern man, but it has come at a price. Not only do they require a great deal of energy to stay cool, but they also rely on ozone-depleting chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs), or freon, though some countries have phased these out. As an increasing number of people walk […]
In an interview with local treehugger Oded Yaffe, who takes care of sick and injured trees all over Israel, he told us at Green Prophet that he saw this sad news on TV and says that "whoever did this thing is really crazy, and can just as much kill someone on the road in a 'hit and run' incident."
Petra’s pink city was built by water smart Nabateans. Ancient Jewish prayers still recited today include special mention of dew in the summer and rain in the winter. Survival of Israelites back then, and of the Israelis in modern times, rests largely on how much water is available for agriculture. While Israel has answers to […]
Palmaculture is a new name for an old concept – one which helped green the Middle East with traditional palm gardens called bustans For centuries now date palm groves have been present in the hot deserts of MENA stretching from Morocco in the west to Yemen in the south. Indeed these man-made ecosystems have been […]
How do the Syrian beehive-shaped houses made out of mud manage to stay so cool in extreme desert conditions?
Way before there were electronic ways to condition our temperatures, cooling methods were built into the architecture of traditional Middle Eastern homes. Such as the beehive homes found in Syria.