Wild Boars are hunted illegally as well. Photo:Haaretz/Nir Kafri Wildlife in Israel have always been under threat from economic over-development and hunting, including poaching by migrant farm workers. Illegal poaching and outdoor hunting in the country has now reached levels that could soon result in some animal species becoming extinct or unable to naturally sustain […]
When we first learned about the 120,000 square meter artificial lagoon in Sharm el Sheikh designed to be the largest of its kind in the world, we wondered whether it would lift off or crumble in failure as so many of Egypt’s grand projects have done. We need wonder no more since World Architecture News […]
She might travel on a budget, but this backpacker can spend double the amount of money of the average non-budget traveller, and she’ll probably have more fun. It’s easy to look down on the lowly backpackers when you are a country looking to earn lots of income from tourism. Many Middle Eastern countries rely seriously […]
Think Wem Wenders meets Knots Landing at this natural cliff top resort on Koh Samui, Thailand. As I get older and find myself with the itch to get away, I am turning more and more to all inclusive holidays, especially the last minute deal sites to help me find a cheap, and simple holidays not […]
Installed already in Qatar, reef recovery time can be decreased from 50 to 100 years to 7 to 15 with these ceramic antler-like artificial reefs. One of the great dilemmas for marine protected areas is ensuring marine ecosystems overcome issues related to “shifting baselines”: the extent to which marine areas have been driven from their […]
Even Green Prophets need to get out of the Middle East once and a while. Although you can find the world’s most perfect sand and beaches on the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea in Sinai, or pristine beaches in the Gulf, sometimes we just want something a little different. This February we took one of […]
It’s called Deepstaria Enigmatica, but what is it? A very cool video of a mysterious creature filmed during deep-sea drilling 5000 feet below sea level near the United Kingdom on April 25, has created much clamor amongst scientists. Theories about the species of this animal ranged from a jellyfish to an unknown marine version of the Loch […]
There’ll be a little black spot on the Sun today… (in June). Watch out for Venus come sunrise. A rare transit of Venus will be visible at local sunrise throughout the Mideast on the morning of Wednesday June 6, 2012. A transit occurs when one celestial body passes in front of another from an observer’s […]
A bird-brained theory: Turkish farmers suspect a European bee-eater found in their fields of spying for Israel. When a farmer in Gaziantep province in southeastern Turkey came across a dead bird in his field several days ago, he thought nothing of it — until he noticed a band around its leg, reading “Israel Tel Aviv”, […]
We’re fond of saying that nature knows no borders but we could never have illustrated the point as well as a recent story from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). The Barn Owls pictured above have recently parented seven little owlets in a nesting box situated on Kibbutz Ma’oz Hai’im just […]
A list of women’s names written in cuneiform is the only remnant of this unidentified language, which was spoken 2,500 years ago. Found in the remains of an enormous palace that was destroyed by a fire around 700 BCE, the clay tablet pictured above holds the only remnants of a language previously unknown to modern […]
Conservationists in Jordan have criticized a news website for reporting positively on a video which shows two men posing with a dead owl they claim to have killed Images have emerged of more animal rights abuse in the Middle East – this time in Jordan. A video was posted on a Jordanian news site showing […]
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 […]
Nobody offers up adrenalin and nature bliss quite like Adventures in Lebanon. Their first whitewater rafting trip of the season on Nahr El Assi – an animated river roaring with springtime snowmelt – commences at 8.30am on Sunday at Futuroscope in Beirut and ends twelve hours later in the same spot. A scenic three hour […]
Four years ago Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) schemed a plan to eradicate the blue-leafed wattle (acacia saligna), an invasive species native to Australia that threatened to overrun the native plant species in Nahal Sorek National Park. Just a few years ago the blue-leafed wattle spread beyond the park’s boundaries to eight spots along the […]