Blessed, Cursed, Claimed
On foot through the Holy Lands - Part III of The Out Eden Walk
Arab Christians in Jordan hike to pray beneath a cross during Feast of Epiphany week near the banks of the Jordan River, next to the location where it is believed Jesus was baptized.
Stylized carvings of camels, one with a rider aboard (at left), are among the thousands of petroglyphs and inscriptions left by travelers over 2,500 years or more in Wadi Hafir, a narrow, boulder-strewn canyon in southern Jordan. In many ways, petroglyphs are the earliest forms of journalism.
Shepherds care for sheep along the slopes of Mount Nebo, Jordan. It is believed that near here Moses stood and looked out across the promised land. The shepherds are all Syrian refugees who work for local livestock owners, having fled Syrian due to the continuing war.
Gassameh, wife of Dakhelallah Sabbah Bedul, prepares dinner for the family over the fire in their home which is located inside a Nabataean cave. The family has been living for many years Umm al Beyar ruins, part of the Nebetean cave dwellers that live near the Snake Monument in UNESCO heritage site known as Petra.
Bedouin children inside their home which is a cave, once used as a tomb during the Nabataean, Petra, Jordan.
Within a most epic landscape, the Bedul family prepares dinner over a fire in their home which is located inside a Nabataean cave located in the Petra, Jordan. The government has been trying to move bedouins outside the perimeter of this UNESCO heritage site for years, unable to do ancient traditions and culture.
Catapult balls in the original storage room at Shobak Castle in the area known as Shobak, Jordan. The castle was built in 1115 by Baldwin I of Jerusalem during his expedition to the area where he captured Aqaba on the Red Sea in 1116. A legacy in centuries of conflict even today.
The harsh beautiful landscape of Shobak, Jordan. This lands has seen thousands of years of war and bloodshed.
Jabal Haroun, Aaron's Mountain. At 1,350 metres above sea-level it is the highest peak in the area of Petra, Jordan. It is believed Moses' brother, Aaron, died and was buried atop the peak in the distance with the white dome-shaped tomb.
Mohammad, 11, picking tomatoes in Gowera village 30 mins north of Aqaba in southern Jordan. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled their homeland already in 2013 due to civil war, years before the mass exodus, and the rise of ISIS in 2017. The only work the refugees can find after three years in Jordan is in agriculture moving around Jordan wherever they can find work.
A young Syrian refugee gets an airlift while others stick to the back-bending work of picking tomatoes in Jordan, now home to more than half a million Syrians fleeing the bloody civil war.
Taking a brief rest from Tomato picking in Gowera village, 30 minutes north of Aqaba in southern Jordan. These Syrian refugees have been stateless for more than three years due to the civil war in their country.
Two Syrian refugee families live in UN-supplied tents by the roadside in the Jordanian village of Fayfa.
Anad, 27, injured by shrapnel when missiles landed on his village in Syria, now lives as a refugee in Muthalath Ainaizah Camp, home to 50-60 men, women, and children, or a total of 14 families, all from Hamah, Syria. Some of the refugees have been in Jordan for over a year.
Over cups of tea and puffs on a hookah, Bedouin men company with the past in the Jordanian desert. A phone shows a picture of Auda Abu Tayi, a legendary ally of Lawrence of Arabia.
Wadi Hafeer, Jordan. Many Star Wars movies were filmed in this epic landscape
Tire makes in the sand under the moonlight, next to the Seven Pillars mountain, said to be the inspiration for T.E. Lawrence's book, Seven Pillars Wisdom. These sandstone mountains are located in Wadi Rum, Jordan.
Rubbish strewed across the desert in Wadi Rum, Jordan
The narrow pathway towards Petra in preparation for Petra by Night, a cultural event presented at the historic edifice known as the Treasury, carved into the ravines and mountains by the Nabatean nearly 3000 years ago in southern Jordan.
After walking through Saudi Arabia, writer and National Geographic Explorer, Paul Salopek, arrives with his mule through the wind-carved canyons of Wadi Musa in Jordan marking year four of the Out of Eden Walk.
Paul Salopek trying to catch the phone signal to use the internet on his Macbook Air in the desert of Wadi Araba, Jordan.
Paul Salopek by the campfire with Hamoudi Alweijah al Bedul in the desert of Wadi Araba, Jordan.
Brehuiescu Vasile, from Romania, being baptized in the Jordan River along the Jordan River from Wadi Kharrar, Jordan, on Epiphany Day. It is believed that in this river at this location, John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ.
A family makes a film for their daughter's bat mitzvah as they dance around a burst water pipe in the desert somewhere between Jericho and Bethlehem in the Israeli part of West Bank. Water shortages are a critical issue in this part of the Middle East.
After crossing the border from Jordan into West Bank, National Geographic writer and Explorer, Paul Salopek, walks the final 30 miles through the scorching heat of the Jericho desert towards Bethlehem.
National Geographic Explorer and writer, Paul Salopek, comes upon the Israeli West Bank barrier or Separation Barrier in Bethlehem, West Bank, used to divide Palestinians and Israelis, the first wall he's run into since starting the Out of Eden Walk more than one year earlier in Ethiopia.
Throwing back exploded tear gas canister to Israeli soldiers, Palestinian In the West Bank village of Bil'in protest the expansion of an Israeli settlement that spills onto their side of the Separation Barrier.
Tear gas canisters lodged in concertina wire at the separation barrier in Bil'in, a Palestinian village in the West Bank where an Israeli settlement has been built in recent years. Bel'in is one of two key anti-Israeli protest villages in the West Bank. Riots and protests frequently occur due to Israel's continuing settlement advances into the West Bank.
Muslims from India pray alongside Jews at King David’s Tomb, on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, one of the few places in Israel where members of the two faiths worship together. A synagogue, a mosque, and a Crusader church have all occupied the site.
Samaritan priests argue with each other before prior to a circumcision ceremony in the village of Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim. Over 90% of the worldwide population of Samaritans live in very close proximity to Gerizim, mostly in Kiryat Luza. Samaritanism is a religion closely related to Judaism
Children at the Samaritan school in Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim. Over 90% of the worldwide population of Samaritans live in very close proximity to Gerizim, mostly in Kiryat Luza.
Dark suits and beards predominate in Mea Shearim, a Jerusalem enclave of ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews. The sexes are kept separate in many public activities, from eating to worship, in a district little changed since its settlement in 1874.
Palestinian military keep watch over Manger Square in Bethlehem, while Sponge Bob and Winnie the Poo balloons pass on Christmas Eve, 2013
At midnight on Christmas Eve, Christian faithful kiss and touch the spot believed to be where Christ was born located in the grotto or basement area at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Carl James Joseph—an American known as the Jesus Guy for his emulation of the Savior—beds down at the 9th Station of the Cross in Jerusalem’s Old City with only a blanket and a Bible. Christian pilgrims have been following Jesus’ footsteps since the fourth century.
Good Friday service at the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate (Convent) of St. James Church in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel.
Palm Sunday inside the Church of the Holy Sepluchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel.
Orthodox Christian pilgrims from eastern Europe exult in having their candles lit with “holy fire,” believed to emanate on the day before Easter from the site of Jesus’ tomb, in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Orthodox faithful rush to touch the water that was used to wash the Greek Orthodox Patriarch's feet, considered sacred, on Holy Saturday outside the Church of the Holy Sepluchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel.
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians praying on the eve of Holy Saturday in the Ethiopian Chapel on the roof of Church of the Holy Sepluchre in the Old City in Jerusalem.
Members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church rejoice in a dousing of holy water during Easter Week in Jerusalem’s Old City. More than a hundred thousand Ethiopians have immigrated to Israel since 1948.
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians pray upon a cross in the basement of the Convent of the Flagellation in the Old City in Jerusalem on Good Friday. It is believed that Jesus was whipped before carrying the cross to his crucifixion.
Ray of sunlight during the Holy Fire ceremony inside the Church of the Holy Sepluchre in the Old City in Jerusalem.
Christian pray inside the Chapel of the Angel upon a small alter believed to contain a piece of the bolder that closed Christ's Tomb located inside the entrance of the Tomb of Christ on Easter Sunday inside the Church of the Holy Sepluchre located in the Old City.
Olive trees in Gethsemane, the garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem most famous as the place where, according to the gospels, Jesus prayed and his disciples slept the night here before Jesus' crucifixion.
Modern Anthropocene along the Out of Eden Walk in the West Bank — Boeing 707 aircraft and carnival bumper cars rest in a field just outside Nablis in the West Bank. Owned by brothers Atallah and Khamis al-Sairafi, they plan to one day turn the aircraft into a restaurant.
Youths explore Roman ruins at Samaria-Sebaste, a West Bank archaeological site divided between Israeli and Palestinian control. A forum and a temple to Augustus remain from the pre-Christian Roman city.
The old souk or old market in Nablus, West Bank.
Haloom Abu Mussalam, a watermelon vendor, balances three of his fruitful offerings to drivers passing along the street just outside of Nablus, West Bank.
Plastic tarps, caught in trees and fencing in Jericho, West Bank. This area of the West Bank is part of Abraham's Path. The Abraham Path is a cultural route believed to have been the path of Islamic, Christian, and Jewish patriarch Abraham’s ancient journey across the Ancient Near East, today heavily covered in rubbish.
Ayla Naim, 24, and her fiancé, Maor Portal, 26, posing in the water for wedding photographer along the beach in Akko, Israel, a popular location for couples to be photographed.
The Mediterranean Sea by the Rosh HaNiqra grottoes in northern Israel, at the border with Lebanon.