Traveller Ian Wright begins his journey in the Middle
East in Jordan. In the Wadi
Rum desert he joins guests at a Bedouin wedding.
Before travelling south to the ruins of Petra he rides a  camel and has a swim in the Dead Sea.
After Jordan, Ian travels on to Lebanon.
In Beirut he rides with a motorbike
brigade, then heads south into the occupied zone where
he talks to the UN peacekeeping forces.
Ian's next destination is Baalbeck in the fertile Bekaa valley, one of
the most spectacular Roman temples in the world. It
was a major place of worship sacred to the god Jupiter.
Ian begins his visit to Syria in Damascus,
where he observes the 'jumping sufis' experiencing religious
ecstasy in a mosque, and relaxes in a Turkish bath.
In Aleppo, Ian goes shopping in a large
outside market called a Souk, then goes to see some
clay beehive style houses nearby. He is introduced to
the world of the 'whirling dervishes', one of Islam's
important mystical orders, inspired in the 13th Century
by the poet Mevlana Rumi.
 The final leg of his journey takes Ian south east to
the ancient Roman desert town Palmyra.
He ends his trip in the peace and quiet of a desert
monastery. |
