Balat is not a neighborhood you would visit on a standard tour to Istanbul—the kind that shuttles you between giant mosques like Hagia Sophia. If you want a real taste of the city and the people who live there, wander a smaller neighborhood. Balat is my favorite for its cobblestone lanes, record shops, cafés, second-hand clothing stores, colorful stairs, textiles and towel shops—and the cats. Cats rule Balat, and much of Istanbul.

Be prepared to lose yourself wandering around this village-like part of the city. I’d spend half a day in Balat, much of it in wanderer mode. This is one of Istanbul’s most quietly enchanting quarters, where cultures overlap not as a museum piece, but as a living, breathing fact.

For centuries Balat has been home to Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and Muslims, and that mosaic still shapes the streets. You’ll pass the Ahrida Synagogue, Orthodox churches, and modest mosques within minutes of each other. Unlike grand Sultanahmet, Balat’s diversity feels intimate and domestic—it’s history at human scale you can still touch and feel. Homes and cafés are built among crumbling walls and old fortifications, and the vibe among the people is good. As my Uber driver said arriving in Balat, “In Istanbul we love our cats, and hate our mayor.”

Balat has recently become a magnet for vintage lovers and collectors (some say it happened when Coffee Department opened in 2010), but it hasn’t lost its edge and grit.

Find old record players spinning Turkish tunes, bent silverware, Anatolian rugs, colorful caftans, postcards, rusted tools, and ceramic cups poking out from tiny shops that are halfway between a flea market and a time capsule. We saw men dancing in the street and attractive local couples (lovers?) having intense coffee conversations in the late sunny morning—on a weekday.

The prices in the second-hand clothing shops are not what they once were (here is our old guide to second hand clothing shops in Istanbul around Istiklal street), but the items are well-curated. And the second-hand shops in Istanbul will still offer you eastern garb such as cloaks and overcoats, plus colorful wool sweaters. The stairs and buildings in Balat are colorful too.

The joy of being in Balat—or in Istanbul in general—is not ticking off addresses and sites of interest. It’s letting curiosity pull you down side streets where eye contact can lead to a conversation.

Three Cafes Worth Lingering In

Velvet Cafe – A Balat institution. Mismatched furniture, plants everywhere, and the feeling that time has agreed to slow down. Looks like a place to join a revolution—or start one.

Naftalin Kafe – Nostalgia perfected: old family photos, radios, and Turkish coffee that tastes like it belongs to the room. Cats rule the café. Notice our top photo taken recently outside Naftalin on one of the main tourist streets, where the cat is telling the waitress who to serve next.

Coffee Department in Balat – A more modern stop with excellent coffee, popular with locals and creatives without breaking the spell of the neighborhood. Believed to be the café that opened Balat up to becoming a prime tourist destination.

This is cat country, and humans know it. Cats lounge on stoops, café chairs, shop counters, and car hoods with total confidence and airs of superiority. They do let you touch—on their terms. Bowls of food appear mysteriously. Some cats even drop down on a rope from the sky (or the top-floor apartment). People have built cat houses for their furry friends, and non-profits exist to help foreigners send a beloved Balat street-cat back home with quarantine and papers (see Paws of Hope if you are interested in the adoption process). This is far from the Erdoğan-style Turkey that has called for the culling of millions of Turkish street dogs.

In Balat, cats are not a feature. They are the management.

Explore your faith in interfaith

Balat wears its interfaith history casually. As you wander, the names surface naturally: the Ahrida Synagogue and Yanbol Synagogue, quiet and inward-looking, echo Balat’s once-thriving Jewish life. Then the call to prayer drifts from neighborhood mosques like Ferruh Kethüda, Tahta Minare, and Balat Çavuş; and church bells mark time at St. George (Aya Yorgi), St. Mary of the Mongols, and the iron-clad St. Stephen Church by the water. Holding time are the crumbling Byzantine walls—cracked, vine-covered, and indifferent to faith—reminding you that in Balat, coexistence was a daily habit.

Follow the slope down toward the historic Golden Horn and you’ll find fishermen casting lines for small fish, chatting here and there while watching the water—and making sure the crows and the cats don’t fish the tiny fish out of the buckets.

Second hand clothing and vintage shops in Balat, Istanbul

Istanbul is known for its curios and second-hand clothing shops. You will get a taste of it all in Balat as you wander the streets. We came across a few vintage and second-hand clothing shops. The prices were not cheap (a T-shirt was priced around 25 Euros), so if you are in the business of bargain-basement shopping, better shop elsewhere in America or Canada at church thrift shops.

Ayca Vintage

Ayca vintage has a great vibe, with African drumming and song beckoning you to come in. We guessed it was the owner who peeked at us from under her hat—cat nearby—journaling. The shop is stocked with vintage caftans and colorful sweaters. She’s taken the selection job out of your day.

Ayvansaray mahallesi sultan çeşmesi cad. no:83A BALAT Fatih / istanbul

Twobavintage

Around the same area is Twobavintage, which stocks mainly kitschy kitchen items and relics from another era. There is a small selection of clothes in the back.

Ayvansaray Mahallesi Sultan Çesmesi Sokak No 94 Balat

Kulis vintage

Expect to pay a pretty penny for thrifted T-shirts and second-hand, western style here at Kulis Vintage. We found the same in Berlin when we were there 2 months ago. Highly curated, high prices—which is the way of the world for curated vintage in cities. Kensington Market in Toronto has been like that for decades.

Exploring the streets and finding colorful umbrellas and painted stairs in Balat is a must. Some parts are tourist traps, demanding you buy food before you enter. Some coffee shop owners say they have the best rooftop views of the Golden Horn. We can’t confirm.

We found an excellent towel and blanket shop with great prices. Where you can still find a deal is if you are looking for high-quality Turkish cotton towels. We found a shop, pictured below, where we bought a few high-quality towels for 200 LR each, about $5 USD. We didn’t bother bargaining because the price was fair and the seller was very nice.

His shop was down the street from Ayca Eastern Design. We didn’t get the full name, so show this man’s photo around the neighborhood and the locals will point out the way.

Off the Path: Working-Class Istanbul

Another face of Balat reveals itself when you leave the “Instagram streets.” Wander toward Cibali, where workshops still hum—metalworkers, repair shops, small factories—and life feels practical. This is also where you brush up against literary history.

Nearby lived Orhan Kemal, one of Turkey’s great writers of the working class. Kemal was the chronicler of laborers, factory hands, and the urban poor. He worked near the old Cibali Tobacco Factory (today part of Istanbul University), quite close to his former home, and wrote about the very people you still encounter here.

His presence lingers not as a plaque-heavy attraction, but as a spirit. We walked past his modest corner house that holds a plaque to his name. Impressive wooden houses nearby are for sale, and we dream about being a writer from his vantage point in this now-charming location.

Balat isn’t polished, and that’s exactly the point. It rewards slow walking and making mistakes. Tune into a few landmarks that interest you and wander toward them, noticing what you meet, smell, and hear along the way. On one of our meanderings we came across three schoolboys “cat-napping” a cat in their backpack to take home.

We also appreciated that some of the local artisans, like the owner of ilitya, are opening their studios for hands-on experiences. He is a graduate of design school and, unlike the thousands of traditional pottery studios in Turkey, he sells modern functional-ware. Made in molds and glazed in the studio, you can buy—or study and make your own—your choice.

We took a taxi to Balat from our hotel, but plenty of buses and trams run right to this neighborhood.

Green Prophet’s trip to Istanbul was sponsored by the United Religions Initiative, an interfaith network for peace and reconciliation. Their travel grant allowed us to tour Istanbul’s heritage independently to witness and report on the city’s diversity and heritage.

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Long before prophets, before Israelite kings or Jerusalem temples, the people of Canaan lived by the rhythm of the soil. They planted vines on the slopes of the Jezreel Valley, crushed grapes beneath their feet, and poured the first sweet liquid to their gods. Now, a remarkable discovery near Tel Megiddo in Israel reveals how ancient wine and worship intertwined at the dawn of urban life in the Holy Land.

An Israel Antiquities Authority excavation conducted ahead of road construction on Highway 66 has uncovered one of the earliest known winepresses in the country — about 5,000 years old — and a collection of ritual vessels that bring to light the domestic cult of the Canaanites. The excavation, financed by the Netivei Israel – National Transport Infrastructure Company, was part of a large-scale development upgrading the main artery that links Yokneam, the Jezreel Valley, and the Gilboa region.

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, “Impressive evidence of Jezreel Valley settlement expansion at the onset of urbanization, and of the Canaanite cult that existed in the land before the Israelites entered the region, was recently uncovered east of Tel Megiddo.”

The discoveries reveal how daily life, agriculture, and religion once merged seamlessly across the northern valleys.

From the Early Bronze Age IB, a small rock-cut winepress was exposed — a sloping treading floor that channeled juice into a hewn collection vat. “This winepress is unique, one of very few known from such an ancient period when urbanization first took place in our region,” explained Dr. Amir Golani and Barak Tzin, Excavation Directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

“Winepresses are indeed very common throughout the country, but it is very difficult to date them. Until now, indirect evidence indicated that wine could have been produced 5,000 years ago, but we did not have conclusive proof of this – a ‘smoking gun’ that would clearly show when this happened in our area. This winepress finally provides new and clear evidence that early wine production actually took place here.”

Around the press, the team uncovered dwellings and courtyards that hint at an early village economy. The winemaking enterprise was likely community-based, tied to the cycles of agriculture and celebration. Megiddo’s residents were already part of a regional network that shipped jars of oil, grain, and perhaps even wine to Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world.

Folk Worship in the Fields

A later phase of the excavation, dating about 3,300 years ago to the Late Bronze Age II, uncovered evidence of popular Canaanite worship just outside the ancient city’s gate. Archaeologists found a miniature ceramic model of a shrine, imported Cypriot jugs, and an intact set of vessels used for libations — the ceremonial pouring of liquids.

Among them was a zoomorphic vessel in the form of a ram. The IAA described how it worked: “A small bowl, which was attached to the ram’s body, was designed to function as a funnel; and a similar bowl – with a handle – was probably held to pour the liquid into the funnel during a ceremony. The ram’s head was shaped like a spout. Once the vessel was filled, tilting the ram forward spilled the liquid out from its mouth to collect it into a small bowl placed before it. The vessel seems intended for pouring a valuable liquid such as milk, oil, wine or another beverage, which could either be drunk directly from the spout, or poured into a smaller vessel for consumption, or as a votive gift.”

The vessels had been deliberately buried in the earth. Their placement suggested small-scale rituals carried out by farmers outside the city’s main temple precinct. In the words of the Authority, “The burial locations of these ritual vessels in the ground yet in the direct line of sight to the large temple area operating at Tel Megiddo in the Late Bronze Age II – may indicate a Canaanite folk cult that took place outside the city on the way to the main city gate – possibly by local farmers who could not enter the city and its temple, coming from their nearby fields to offer consecrations of liquids or valuable agricultural produce, such as wine or oil.”

This “folk cult” reveals a side of ancient religion often missed in grand temple ruins. These were ordinary people, not priests or kings, giving thanks to the land through what they produced. Wine, oil, and milk were not merely commodities but sacred mediums that connected the human and divine.

Layers of Faith and Soil

The Megiddo discoveries illuminate the continuity of belief that tied Canaanite farmers to their earth. For more than a century, excavations at Tel Megiddo have revealed palaces, temples, and gates that mark the rise of urban civilization. But these new finds, uncovered along the modern highway, extend that story beyond the city walls. They show that devotion was not confined to elites but lived in courtyards and fields.

“Megiddo has been excavated for over a century,” the researchers summarized. “While it is long-recognized as a key site in the study of ancient urbanism and Canaanite worship, the excavations we conducted east of the tel have revealed a new part of the matrix between the known settlement in the city – evidence of which has been revealed upon the tel – and the activities taking place in the area around and outside the city. The 5,000-year-old hewn winepress places the beginnings of the local wine industry in a very early urban-settlement context, while the offerings from the period about 3,300 years ago indicate the continuity of ritual consecration and libations outside the sacred complex within the tell, possibly expressing aspects of the local Canaanite folk cult.”

As Eli Escusido, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, noted, “The Israel Antiquities Authority’s extensive excavations along the route of the Jezreel Valley road are revealing, layer by layer, the wealth of history hidden and embedded in the soil here. The exposure of ancient wine-making facilities, and the evidence of folk worship outside of Megiddo, allow us to become acquainted with the daily life and beliefs of the region’s residents over the course of thousands of years.”

The finds will soon be displayed at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of the Land of Israel in Jerusalem. “These remarkable discoveries are a national asset and proof that advancing national infrastructure can proceed with full responsibility towards the past,” added Nissim Peretz, CEO of Netivei Yisrael.

The soil of Canaan still holds the scent of crushed grapes. Five millennia later, wine remains part of the region’s spirit — a testament to how the people of this land once turned harvest into holiness, and work into prayer.

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Plagues are no stranger to the western east: The Plague of Amwas (Arabic: طاعون عمواس‎, romanized: ṭāʿūn ʿAmwās), also spelled plague of Emmaus, was a bubonic plague epidemic that afflicted Islamic Syria in 638–639, toward the end of the Muslim conquest of the region. It killed about 25,000 Muslim troops and led to some interesting religious rulings on plagues in general.

As we know relations between humans and disease are one of the oldest, older than agriculture or formation of the first urban centers. Different pandemics were sometimes turning points in human history when they caused economic losses, depopulation, political instability, and the collapse of the state.

In 2020, we are witnessing the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and countries around the world. Five months since the World Health Organization detected COVID-19, epidemiologists still have no clue how to curb the disease while economists didn’t evaluate the final impact of this crisis on the world’s financial system. The blockade will likely continue for the rest of the year, and in the coming years, we will have to fundamentally change our social and work habits, like working from home and teleconferencing. 

During the time of Khalif Oman Ibn Khattab – 634 to 644 years CE – Muslim armies were engaged in the series of military campaigns in the Levant against Byzantine troops. Soon after the conquest of Syria (634-637 CE), something unpredictable happened in 638/639 CE when the plague broke out in the village of Amwas (Ancient Emmaus), about 20 miles southeast of Jerusalem.

Emmaus is a town mentioned in the Gospel of Luke of the New Testament. Luke reports that Jesus appeared, after his death and resurrection, before two of his disciples while they were walking on the road to Emmaus. It is now located in Israel and around it is the home to a national park called Canada Park.

The Plague of Amwas was one of the series of pandemics called Justinian Plagues that ravished the Eastern Mediterranean for centuries. It began as usual from rats living and traveling on merchant ships in 540 to 541 CE and lasted with recurrences until 750 CE.

The Plague of Amwas was the first major pandemic that hit the early Muslim communities. The event is famous in Islamic tradition for debate between Caliph Omar Ibn Khatab and prominent Muslim commanders who refused Omar’s advice to withdraw to Medina and the outcome of the pandemic that killed between 25,000 to 30,000 people including Companions of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

The plague spread to Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, and the pandemic was preceded by a severe famine in the southern Levant. 

Upon receiving news that the plague broke out in Syria, Caliph Omar Ibn Khattab left the capital Medina to personally monitor what measures were taken to isolate the pandemic. Leaders of the Sham arrived in Sargh to greet Caliph Omar and among them were Amr Abu Ubeidah Bin Al Jarrah (commander of armies that captured Damascus and Jerusalem), Khalid Bin Al Walid (the commander during Ridda Wars that broke out after Prophet Mohammed’s death), Amr Bin Al Aas (the later governor of Egypt), Yazid Abu Sufyan (the commander in the conquest of Palestine) and Suhail Bin Amr (commander of one of the brigades in the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 CE).

During the meeting, the situation in Syria was discussed and one group supported the return to Medina while others insisted on continuing the campaign despite the plague. After Caliph Omar decided to withdraw to Medina, Abu Ubeidah and his supporters returned to Syria.

In the long run, because of his moral and leadership qualities, Omar Ibn Khattab was planning to appoint Abu Ubeidah as his imminent successor, and to save him from the raging plague, he sent a letter to him urging Abu Ubeidah to immediately come for consultations in the capital Medina. Abu Ubeidah read between lines and refused the order telling the caliph that he can’t forsake his men who were dying from the plague. Soon after this reply to the caliph, Abu Ubeidah perished in the plague and very soon after him the newly appointed governor of Syria Muath Bin Jabal faced the same fate.

Words of Wisdom from Muslim Scholars

The Plague of Amwas depleted Muslim ranks in Syria but also showed what steps should be taken in the times of pandemics.

According to Hadiths, Prophet Muhammad reportedly noted: “When you hear that a plague is in a land, don’t go to it, and if it occurs in a land that you are already in then don’t leave it.” (Al Bukhaari [5739] and Muslim [2219)] narrated from ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan ibn ‘Awf.)

Later on, the episode was used for theological debates on predestination, free will, theodicy, and causality as well as jurisprudence (the permissibility of entering or leaving a plague-infested area), and medicine (the nature of contagion, disease transmission, and treatment of the plague or other contagious diseases).  Muslim theologians also hint at another debate: the belief in the transmissibility of the plague and the conviction that dying of the plague while trusting in God results in martyrdom.

What is similar to modern-day measures on COVID-19 is the principle of quarantine: the important element of every pandemic is the human to human contact which should be minimized or completely eliminated during the outbreak. The principle of life protecting in Islam refers to protecting the public and personal health. Therefore Muslims are obliged to follow instructions of experts and in the case of pandemics virologists, epidemiologists, and other specialists.

More stories below that explore Muslim faith and human life:

https://www.greenprophet.com/2018/03/shaving-in-arabia-the-halal-and-the-haram/

Why Muslims don’t drink alcohol

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Excavations in Tel Motza, four miles north of Jerusalem, reveal a huge Iron Age II temple where local ancients practiced cultic worship. This is surprising, given the recorded efforts of Biblical kings Hezekiah and Josiah to eliminate pagan religions in Israel.

It’s estimated that the temple was built in the late 10th or early 9th centuries BCE and was used for worship until the early 6th century BCE. These estimated dates bring it into the time during which the David’s Temple in Jerusalem functioned as the Holy Land’s religious center and governmental authority.

Archaeologists Shua Kisilevitz of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University’s Institute of Archaeology recently published research into the excavation in the January/February 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Motza has been inhabited for close to 9,000 years. It was a fertile agricultural center, a major hub for grain storage, and famous for horse breeding in ancient times. Crucially, it was also a crossroads linking the south to Jerusalem, bringing pilgrims, merchants, and emigrants through the region, which increased its economic importance. ​

Findings suggest that the government centered in Jerusalem’s Temple recognized the religious needs of non-Hebrew populations. Or one might consider that as Motza was an important economic center largely populated by cult worshipers, it would have made sense for the government to allow the building of this temple. Being close enough to Jerusalem, it would have been easy to keep an administrative eye on it.

“You could not have built a major monumental temple so close to Jerusalem, without sanction by the ruling polity,” said Kisilevitz.

The cultic temple is laid out according to the same plan as David’s Temple, with the east-west orientation typical of sites of worship of those times; a rectangular building, and a fore-court where congregants would gather.  The archaeologists note that this plan was commonly used to construct temples in the Near East, such as those in ‘Ain Dara and Tell Ta‘yinat, Syria, The Motza temple feasibly could have been built  by Syrian workers, as was also the Temple in Jerusalem.

Aerial view of Motza excavations (P. Partouche, SkyView)

Kilievitz says,

“Definitely there was cultic activity going on throughout the region. I think at some point we will find more temples.”

Lipschits states, “Our discoveries thus far have fundamentally changed the way we understand the religious practices of Judahites.”

Among other findings are an altar and a wealth of artifacts, including animal and human figurines, bowls, cult stands (ceramic or stone stands for ritual use) and a pit where animal bones, presumably sacrifices, and discarded ritual objects were respectfully laid away.

(Yael Yolovitch/Israel Antiquities Authority)

The variety of gods identified by figurines and representations on other objects points to the temple being dedicated to no one particular god, but to a pantheon,  including  the  bloody Ba’al  and  the  fertility goddess Astarte.

The researchers say that discovering when the temple stopped being used as such is a key issue. King Josiah’s reforms, ca. 640-609 BCE, would have caused it to shut down for cultic worship – but when or if this site was affected by those reforms is still unknown. It would be nice to think that, through a stroke of luck, some sort of document will be unearthed to enlighten us.

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They were found in a 4000 year old tomb. Begging the question – why a jar of decapitated toads? What strange customs did our ancestors practice? According to archaeologists who uncovered the recent finding, the frogs were part of ancient funeral practices.

Researchers say these fascinating findings from an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation near the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo shed light on burial customs in the Canaanite period  – the Middle Bronze Age. The archaeological excavation yielded the remains of at least nine toads, and evidence of the cultivation of date palms and myrtle in the area.

According to the excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Shua Kisilevitz and Zohar Turgeman-Yaffe: “This section of the Nahal Repha’im basin was fertile ground for settlement throughout time, especially during the Canaanite period. In recent years excavations in the area have uncovered two settlement sites, two temples and a number of cemeteries, which provide new insight into the life of the local population at that time.”

According to Kisilevitz and Turgeman-Yaffe: “For an archaeologist, finding tombs that were intentionally sealed in antiquity is a priceless treasure, because they are a time capsule that allows us to encounter objects almost just as they were originally left. At that time, it was customary to bury the dead with offerings that constituted a kind of “burial kit,” which, it was believed, would serve the deceased in the afterworld. When we removed the stone that blocked the tomb opening, we were excited to discover intact bowls and jars.

“In one of the jars, to our surprise, we found a heap of small bones. The study of the bones, by Dr. Lior Weisbrod of the University of Haifa, revealed at least nine toads. Interestingly, they had been decapitated.”

Another intriguing finding came to light through analysis of sediments collected from the clay jars and examined under a microscope. The examination, by Dr. Dafna Langgut of Tel Aviv University, revealed that shortly before the vessels were placed in the tomb, they came into contact with various plants including date palms and myrtle bushes.

This fact is interesting because this is not the natural habitat for those species, and they therefore seem to have been planted here intentionally. According to Dr. Langgut, in this period the date palm symbolized fertility and rejuvenation, which could explain why the ancients cultivated the trees in this environment, where they do not grow naturally. According to the scholars, these plants may have been part of an orchard planted in an area where funeral rituals were held, during which offerings of food and objects were made to the deceased. The scholars surmise that the jar with the headless toads was among these offerings.

The research will be presented for the first time on Thursday, October 18, at the conference “New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region,” open to the public, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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Samhuinn is Scotch gaelic for the month of November, the traditional end of Celtic summer. This time marked the boundary between light and dark, life and death, good and evil. It was believed that the veil between this world and the next was thinnest at this time of year.

Fires were lit to guide spirits of the dead through the transition and chase away the bad spirits. This pagan holiday was so intertwined with Celtic traditions that the Roman Catholics couldn’t crush it, so they adapted it and adopted it as “All Soul’s Day” or “All Saint’s (Hallows) Day and the night before, “All Hallow’s Eve” we now know as Halloween.

Carved turnips way more frightening than pumpkins

Christian fires burned on hilltops where pagan fires had burned for 1000 years. The Irish made lanterns out of turnips (see photo above) to guide ‘Stingy Jack’ and other wandering souls caught in the netherworld while warding away the evil spirits with frightening masks and Jack O’ lanterns made from carved turnips.

But when Scottish and Irish people emigrated to America, they found that turnips weren’t as plentiful in the new world as pumpkins — a traditional native American harvest food.

Add Aztec chocolate, cheap plastic decorations, costumes and customs from around the world and you have modern Halloween.

This strangely modified holiday has only recently been re-imported to the Celtic regions where it was born. Now it is enjoyed around the world as far away as Japan and China by those who don’t read too much into a melting-pot tradition which celebrates nothing more than a chance to pretend to be someone else for an evening.

And if you are wondering about the picture above: Photo of Jack O’Lanterns, carved from turnips from the National Museum of Ireland, Museum of Country Life, Castlebar, Co Mayo

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Jonah is my favorite biblical story, I was saddened to learn that ISIS, a radical Sunni Islam group blew up Jonah’s tomb with complete disregard to human heritage.

Left, right and center the militant group is imposing Sharia law and with that blowing up whatever holy sites it can find. Jonah’s tomb was bombed this past July.

Jonah is considered a biblical prophet. He was challenged by God to go from the port of Jaffa, sail up the sea and then travel to the city of Nineveh (now in present day Iraq) to ask the people to repent for their sins. Jonah, for the most part didn’t really want the job, as it seems, and spent a part of his journey inside the mouth of a whale. Even surviving that ordeal he still wasn’t running to Nineveh.

Blowing up Jonah’s tomb is like blowing up our collective past and future.

According to reports militants from Islamic State (known formerly and now commonly as ISIS) destroyed the Shrine of Yunus (Tomb of Jonah) Mosque in Mosul, Iraq on July 24. They also blew up the Biblical town of Nineveh.

At first residents were told that they were barred to enter there to pray. The militants laid down explosives and detonated the tomb. Not only are the ISIS savages destroying good people, they are ripping human history to shreds.

Video shows the destruction of Jonah’s tomb:

The mosque with Jonah’s tomb after it was destroyed:

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The crescent moon is a symbol of Islam. Muslim, Jewish and Christian holidays revolve around cycles of the moon. So it’s no big surprise that an ancient structure, devoted to the moon, has recently been uncovered in Israel.

Israel is the birthplace of monotheism, belief in one God, but this new structure paid homage to a Mesopotamian-era moon god, new research uncovers. Older than Stonehenge and older than many pyramids, it is not just a stone wall as it was once believed.

Israeli archeologists originally thought that the structure, located in Northern Israel, and known as the Jethro Cairn, or Rujum en-Nabi Shua’ayb transliterated from Arabic, was part of an ancient city found near the Sea of Galilee (and close to where my husband was born!).

But Israeli archeologist Ido Wachtel says that the 5,000 year old wall is likely paying tribute to “Sin” an ancient moon god also known as “Nanna.”

Jethro Cairn meant to mark out natural resources

The structure is 500 feet long, and the crescent shape is “Sin’s” symbol. He is usually shown riding a bull. This Jethro Cairn structure would have taken 35,000 days to build. The crescent is located 18 miles from Bet Yareh, which means house of the moon god. The name of the crescent is after Jethro (in Hebrew Yitro), an important prophet from the Druize sect.

Wachtel presented his findings at the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East.

Wachtel, a student of Hebrew University in Jerusalem writes: “The proposed interpretation for this site is that it constituted a prominent landmark in its natural landscape, serving to mark possession and to assert authority and rights over natural resources by a local rural or pastoral population.”

Not long ago a very unusual cairn of stones appeared in the Sea of Galilee, supporting evidence that Jesus may have walked on water without the need for a serious miracle.

Archaeology in the Middle East must be protected

At any rate, these archeology findings show us that the Middle East region is important to protect – and that the moon and natural cycles of the earth have linked us from the beginning of history – possibly time.

We need to protect sites like the Jethro Cairn. Not just for people of today but for inquisitive ones of tomorrow. Let’s find a way to respect and protect archeology in the Middle East and vulnerable locations like Syria, Egypt, Iraq and any other region under the reign of conflict, terror and survival.

When I was in Syria 14 years ago, locals gave me gifts from archeology sites. They were wide open, and no one was there to protect them. The situation has only gotten much worse in Syria.

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If Jesus had a Facebook account, this could be his profile picture. So says Richard Neave, a medical artist famed for reconstructing legendary faces from antiquity. (See the reconstructed face of Ramses II here). With a team of Israeli archeologists and British scientists, he recreated what they claim is the most accurate image of Jesus.

For Christ’s sake, is this for real?  Short, black, kinky hair wrapped around thick features? A swarthy man looking awfully well fed?

Western culture paints a far different picture of a tall, slim man with flowing locks threaded with golden highlights.  He has light-colored eyes set in a pale face that sprouts wispy facial hair. It’s a look rocked by 1970’s musicians, think Neil Young, George Harrison, even Frank Zappa.

And he’s scrawny like Russell Brand, not brawny like Russell Crowe.

That’s not only an industrial-age Western view – the mosaic portrait below is from Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.

“The fact that he probably looked a great deal more like a darker-skinned Semite than westerners are used to seeing him pictured is a reminder of his universality,” Charles D. Hackett, director of Episcopal studies at the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, told Popular Mechanics, “And [it is] a reminder of our tendency to sinfully appropriate him in the service of our cultural values.”

The New Testament doesn’t describe Christ’s appearance, no contemporary drawings of him have ever been found. But there are clues.

Recall the Gospel of Matthew: when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas Iscariot had to point him out because the soldiers couldn’t tell him from his disciples. It’s logical that he would have looked like the Galilean Semites of his era, and not a white-boy rock and roller.

Neave and his research team started with Semite skulls from near Jerusalem, where Jesus lived and preached. Tapping into forensic anthropology – the same scientific toolkit used to solve crimes – Neave used special software to determine the thickness of soft tissue at key areas of the face, making it possible to re-create the muscles and skin overlying a representative Semite skull.

Results, verified against anthropological data, were used to digitally reconstruct the face. Next, researchers cast a skull, applying layers of clay matching computer-specified facial tissue, topped with simulated skin. The nose, lips and eyelids were modeled in accordance with underlying muscles.

Neave’s team turned to drawings found at archeological sites dated to the first century to determine Christ’s hair and coloration.  Clues indicated that Jesus had dark eyes and hair, and that, in line with Jewish tradition, he was bearded.

Analyzing skeletal remains, archeologists established that Christ’s contemporaries averaged a smidge taller than 5 feet and weighed about 110 pounds. They theorize that after years of outdoor work, this most famous carpenter would have been muscular with a weather-beaten face.

Neave emphasizes that his re-creation is simply that of an adult man who lived in the same place and at the same time as Jesus. Alison Galloway, professor of anthropology at the University of California in Santa Cruz, told Popular Mechanics, “This is probably a lot closer to the truth than the work of many great masters.”

Images of Christ in order of appearance from Popular Mechanics; Christ from Hagia Sophia mosaic; Wikipedia; Catholic Tradition; and Wikimedia Commons

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Many do-gooders go to countries like Afghanistan, where culture prohibits girls from certain activities common in the west, in an effort to save them, but Australian skater Oliver Percovich took his mission one step further by consulting with the local community and government to establish a facility that fits in with the prevailing cultural ethos.

Although girls are not permitted to ride bicycles in Afghanistan (like Saudi), skateboarding is considered a perfectly modest activity.

So when Percovich first showed up on the streets of Kabul with three skateboards and found himself surrounded by happy faces eager to learn what to do with them, he faced few obstacles upon opening a skateboarding school.

“I always like to go high on the ramps,” said Hanifa, a 14 year old Afghan skater. “When I’m up there I feel free, like I’m flying. I like that feeling a lot.”

In fact, the Afghan National Olympic Committee donated the 5,428 square meters of land on which the first school was built, though certain cultural exigencies have to be observed, such as keeping girls and boys classes separate, and girls have to be instructed by females only.

In addition to teaching skateboarding, the facility offers educational classes, including environmental science, so that children between the ages of 5 and 18 are developing their minds along with their confidence and physical dexterity.

It is the first international development initiative to combine skateboarding with educational outcomes, according to its website.

Several years down the road, Skateistan has uplifted hundreds of children. Roughly 40 percent of them are girls, and 50 percent of them are either street kids or refugees. And after experiencing such great success in Kabul, they opened two more branches – first in Cambodia and most recently in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan’s fourth largest city. 

They have also established a grassroots street-level program in Pakistan.

“The students themselves decide what they want to learn – we connect them with a safe space and opportunities for them to develop the skills that they consider important,” according to Skateistan.

Since many of the children live in dangerous areas, the school even provides transport to ensure they are able to attend classes safely. Even so, a few children were once killed in a bombing attack, underscoring the devastating context in which this beautiful program uplifts our precious youth.

:: Skateistan

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