Just two hour’s drive east of Dubai, the Al Hayl Fort or Palace paints a succinct picture of Emirati life before artificial islands and enormous skyscrapers became “normal.” Located in a wadi among the Hajar mountains, the remarkable earthen compound was built in 1932 by then ruler of Fujairah Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hamdan. It’s a […]
It might seem like I haven’t picked up an atlas in a while since Green Prophet is devoted to Middle Eastern issues, but this story about a Brazilian beekeeper and his appropriately-suited helper was just too sweet not to share. After all, donkeys are essential to thousands of residents from Morocco to Yemen, and beekeepers from […]
Everyone older than ten has likely experienced the exquisite agony and transformation of a broken heart. Which means that just about everyone has probably developed their own recipe for healing as well. Some people go on “retail therapy” sprees to sweeten the pain, others crawl up in a tiny ball on their bed and stay […]
While humans inch closer to their eventual demise by burning up the resources upon which they so richly depend, the earth’s “lower” species are making moves to ensure their longevity. US and Israeli researchers published a joint study in the journal Current Biology that unveils how a desert shrub called Ochradenus baccatus outwits the spiny mice […]
Spencer Tunick will return to Israel this September to celebrate the anniversary of last year’s wildly controversial Dead Sea naked photo shoot. Designed to draw attention to the plight of the hyper-saline (and dangerously endangered) lake shared by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories, the art campaign was enormously successful even though it drew widespread […]
This building is located in Niavaran, Tehran – a district in the northern foothills. The climate in this area is completely different than the south and center of Tehran because of the nearby Alborz Mountains. Unfortunately, many old gardens in the area have been destroyed by urbanization projects over the last century. But Mohammed Reza Nikbahkt took a […]
Trying to choose an eco adventure in the Middle East? These countries: Oman, Israel, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco are your best bet.
Desert locusts traveling southwest from Algeria and Libya threaten to decimate crops in Niger and Mali, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned on Wednesday. Since rebel forces killed Gaddafi in October last year, insecurity along both sides of the Algerian-Libyan border has hampered pest control efforts, allowing locusts to swarm across […]
Nothing is more earth-friendly than carving out an existence in the belly of a cave. Yet, despite its 1985 UNESCO cultural and natural World Heritage Site listing, development and mass tourism often overrun traditional life in the surreal fairy-chimney-pocked landscape of Turkey’s Göreme-Cappadocia, rendering genuine cave dwellers a near-extinct species. Gripped by a longstanding love […]
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 […]
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 […]
Last year in Cyprus a total of 2.8 million migrating birds were trapped and killed to make a pickled dish called ambelopoulia. It’s a serious crime and offenders face fines of up to €17,000 and three years in jail if caught, but Agriculture Minister Sophocles Aletaris told an EU delegation concerned about environmental issues that […]
A lion even more sickly than this one was stuffed and put on display in a Gaza zoo.
A growing but still small cadre of environmentalists are taking on the final frontier: nature and intimacy. Julie McIntyre, an ‘Earth ceremonialist’ and director for the Center for Earth Relations is an ecological visionary. Trained in plant medicine, Ayurveda, Reiki, medical herbalism, wilderness survival and holistic health, she’s the lastest to write a book about […]
An Israeli designer creates a rug that incorporates real pebbles. Walking on them is like a foot massage! It’s pretty common these days to see pottery and household objects that are designed to resemble nature. And carpets too. While you may see pathways made of pebbles, it’s not likely you’ll find them inside your carpets. […]