The Holy Lands

Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel, site where
the archangel Gabriel appeared to inform Mary that she would
be blessed to give birth to the Son of God, Jesus.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a country more steeped in religion than Israel, where three of the world's great religions began.

As we learned in Sunday School, Moses led his people on an Exodus out of slavery in Egypt, parting the Red Sea en route to the Promised Land.  Moses never saw the Land of Israel, because he could not follow directions.

No, he wasn't ignoring his wife and refusing to stop at a gas station to ask for help.

Old Testament Stories Depicted on
Door at Basilica of the Annunciation

Moses failed to follow God's commands exactly and took credit himself for God's miracle of bringing forth drinking water from a rock.

Interesting that water, the rights for which was the basis for the creation of cities and subsequent civilizations, can often be found at the heart of religions.

Anyway, Moses wandered in the desert for forty years, and in fact, everyone in his generation died before seeing their destination that is now called Israel. 

God gave the Jews many amazing military victories in their prime, and those stories for me as a child were as vivid as The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter for today's youth, thanks to engaging lessons from my great Sunday School teachers, Mr. Ball and Dave Willett, augmented by Charlton Heston movies.

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine (Israel),
site of the manger where Jesus was born to Mary.

Unfortunately, the Israelites didn't stay faithful to God, and subsequently the Promised Land was overtaken by other kingdoms like the Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans, with Jews strewn throughout the world, often initially enslaved, then cyclically they earned freedom, built wealth, suffered persecution for being successful and eventually would be stripped of their wealth and livelihoods, at which point the process would start from scratch again.

Jesus's Childhood Home in Nazareth is thought to be a grotto.

As unlikely as it seems, they continued to practice their religion, which served as a reason to keep their language alive in foreign lands.

Over 2500 years later, Israel was re-established as a Jewish homeland in the aftermath of World War II.

Millions of Jews had been used as laboratory rats and slaughtered in the Holocaust, and some enlightened world leaders determined the best chance for ending the cycle would be to return the Israelites to the land promised to them by God.

Bustling Port of Haifa, Israel

Jews had already begun re-settling in their homeland from the late 1800's with the Zionist movement.  Prior to that, the land in what is now Israel had devolved over the centuries into mostly desolate wasteland under the neglectful care of nomadic wanderers, as you can easily read about in Mark Twain's reflections on the region during the 19th century, The Innocents Abroad.

Japan's Take On Madonna and
Jesus, Part of International Series
of Paintings in Nazareth at the
Church of the Annunciation.

In the interim between Israelites being scattered throughout the earth and the resurrection of Israel, the Jew Jesus of Nazareth rose to become the most famous person to have ever walked the earth.  His followers spread the word far and wide, establishing another great religion, Christianity.

Recently, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, visited the United States to great fanfare.

The Catholic Church, of course, is headquartered in the Vatican, an independent nation located within Rome.

Catholicism was founded by a disciple of Jesus, the fisherman Simon whom Jesus said he would call Petros (Peter), which means "rock."

Some have speculated the name to be a small bit of black humor based on Jesus foreseeing Peter would deny Him three times before the cock crowed along the way to Jesus's crucifixion, but most believe it was because Jesus knew Peter's heart was always true.

Statue of Simon Peter in his hometown
of Capharnaum by the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus said he would build his church on this Petros, and it is said that Peter's bones are buried beneath St. Peter's Basilica, the incredible Catholic Church at the Vatican.

However, because these lands of Israel are where Jesus grew up, preached, died for our sins and resurrected, it has been considered the Holy Land by Christians for centuries.

Against all odds, Christianity spread to be the dominant religion throughout Europe thanks to Emperor Constantine, a Christian himself who issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD that de-criminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire.

In 325 AD, Constantine's First Council of Nicaea brought together diverse Christian sects (and actually some pagan rituals) into one orthodoxy.  About that same time, Constantine prohibited construction of new pagan temples, and by the end of his reign he was destroying them.

Mount of Beatitudes overlooking the Sea of Galilee,
where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.

During our trip, we would visit many remarkable sites said to be the exact places where major events in the life of our Savior unfolded, but most were designated as such in 326 to 328 AD, when Constantine's 80 year-old mother Helena came to the Holy Lands to locate and consecrate them.

It is a matter of faith as to whether you believe she nailed them all exactly based on oral traditions passed down from the time shortly after Jesus returned from death (at which point His followers by all reports had been chased out of town or killed) or if she was duped by con artists seeking royal coin, but it is nonetheless moving to be in the right general areas.

Palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of  St. John
in Rhodes,  Greece

You may recall that about 800 years later, Europeans became outraged by Muslim persecution of Christians in Jerusalem and began the Crusades to re-claim the Holy Lands.

That, of course, brings up the third great religion of the region, Islam, which accepts most tenets of the Old Testament and the New Testament, except the resurrection of Jesus and the belief that He was the fulfillment of the prophecies.  

Gateway to Old Jerusalem

Muslims believe Mohammed followed Jesus as the next great messenger from God, and in something of a repeat of history, Mohammed led his chosen people to nationhood in the Middle East.

In 570 AD, Mohammed was born in Mecca, which is the holiest city for Muslims.  Islam is linked to Israel because the foundations of his religion are in those earlier religions.  Plus, the Muslim version of manifest destiny calls for them to control all of the Holy Lands, including Israel.

In addition, Mohammed had a special connection to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, because he was taken there one night by an angelic beast named Buraq en route to ascending to heaven to meet the ancient prophets of the Jews and Christians plus even God Himself.

"I was brought by al-Burg who is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place his hoof at a distance equal to the range of vision. I mounted it and came to the Temple (Bait-ul Maqdis in Jerusalem), then tethered it to the ring used by the prophets."

Jerusalem, Israel

The Dome of the Rock Mosque on the Temple Mount in Old Jerusalem marks the spot of the ascension to heaven.

The mosque's location creates a major problem for Jews, because it blocks them from re-building the Jewish Temple on the site of the first one built by King Solomon in the tenth century BC.

Mural at Elvis Gas Station Near Jerusalem selling Elvis
postcard that read, "I saw the King in Jerusalem."

Because Israel is a free nation that respects property rights and allows people to worship in any way they want, there is nothing the Jews can do about it.

Let me stress here that there are many things about Islam to be admired, including the fact that followers pray five times each day.

River Jordan Baptismal Area Tiles

Muslims are required to make themselves clean before prayer, which encouraged good hygiene before anyone knew what germs were, similar to "religious" rules from the Old Testament, like the admonishment to never eat pork, which was literally an unclean meat that could make diners quite ill back in those ancient times 

A religion that encourages you to think about God throughout your day and to follow hygienic rules can't be bad, right?

Certainly, some great heroes from my youth like Lew Alcindor (who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Cat Stevens still seem to be nice guys following their conversions to Islam, but unfortunately there are also some leaders who preach hatred.

Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives,
where Judas betrayed Jesus.

As peace loving Muslims, Kareem and Cat probably optimistically support the new nuclear agreement with Iran which is being touted to America as a peace agreement by President Obama's administration.

We are a secular country that respects all religions, but founded on Judeo-Christian principles.  Nonetheless, the USA is called "the Great Satan" by many Muslim leaders.

In presenting the same nuclear agreement to his people, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led the crowds in cheers of "Death to America" and promised Israel would not exist in 25 years.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre on
the site where Jesus was crucified.

Tiny Israel has been threatened with annihilation by its neighbors since its re-birth but somehow has managed to hold its own and even win, much like the story of David and Goliath.

I personally think Naziism rather than Islam is to blame for the hatred of the USA and Israel spread by Khamenei and his ilk, but some followers take it on faith when their Imam or Supreme Leader tells them they will be blessed and rewarded in heaven if they strap a bomb on their chests or fly planes into buildings to kill civilians, "because it is the will of Allah."

Yes, these three great religions often find themselves at war with each other, whether both sides actually seek to destroy the other or not.

Getting back to history, as the decades unfolded following the birth of Islam, the Christian Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, which had ruled the Holy Lands for centuries, gradually receded.

St. George statue at
Church of St. Catherine, built
on the site of a Crusader Church
which had been built on the site
of a 4th Century Monastery
in Bethlehem.

In the late 11th Century, Catholic Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to recapture Jerusalem.

Over the last 50 years or so, movies, novels and even textbooks have re-framed the Crusades as a reckless encroachment by Christians on Muslims.

The power of Hollywood in particular to influence popular opinion should never be underestimated, and while I won't deny there being multiple sides to every story, I think perhaps Crusaders have been overly vilified of late.

To put it in perspective, consider the middle three letters in JerUSAlem happen to be USA.

If the USA was overrun by people taking away our Constitutional freedoms, would we not want to re-claim our country?

As you probably know, Muslims conquered most of the region, and eventually the great Ottoman Empire arose as one of the richest and most powerful kingdoms ever.

Hagia Sophia (means "Holy Wisdom") was the
greatest church in the Byzantine Empire
from 537 AD to 1453. In 1453 it was
converted into a mosque.  In 1935, Turkey
re-opened this Istanbul highlight as a museum.

The name of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire's former capital, Constantinople (named after the Christian Roman Emperor Constantine), became Istanbul.

Constantinople's most spectacular church, Hagia Sophia, was converted to serve as a mosque.

As we all know, even within these great religions, there are differences.

Protestants and Catholics fought many wars over whose version of Christian religion was closer to what God would want, but not lately.

Other newer spin-offs of Christianity that feature latter-day prophets of a sort include Mormonism, Christian Science, and Religious Science, but they generally haven't killed each other as a matter of principle.

The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem

While Ultra-orthodox and Orthodox Jews may not fully approve of Liberal Jews like our guides, who work or even ride in buses on the Sabbath, they aren't trying to kill them.

With the new millennium, we have grown accustomed to seeing hatred within Islam between Shia, Sunni and Kurds, as played out in Iraq, continuing as it has for centuries.

Baha'i World Center and Gardens in Haifa, Israel

A spin-off from Sunni Islam is Baha'i, which is now headquartered in Haifa, Israel.

Baha'i expands on the basics of Islam, including its foundations in Judaism and Christianity, while adding the lessons of  Buddha, Krishna and essentially anyone else who has some positive words of enlightenment.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem Where Jesus
Was Buried and Resurrected.

In the 1800s, their new prophet, Bahá’u’lláh, proclaimed there is only one God, worshiped by different religions in their own rituals, and that there is a spiritual unity of all of mankind.

So, of course, he was forced into exile.  Early Baha'is were slaughtered, and present day followers continue to be persecuted in Muslim counties, including present-day Iran where the religion started.

I don't present this as an attempt to imply any status of absolute truth to Baha'i or to convert anyone.

Rather, I think it is a good modern day example of the challenges Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and their followers overcame spreading a gospel of love in an age long before the existence of mass communication that encircles the world in an instant.

Wes in Big Comfy Couch on Azamara Journey

Yes, this is a long-winded opening to the Holy Lands we explored on Azamara Journey, but if you think about it, compared to all the chapters of history that have unfolded during that time, this wouldn't even qualify as a Cliffs Notes version.

By the way, you can click on any of the photos to enlarge them to make them easier to see, and the hotlinks take you to pages I selected to share for anyone who wants to know more on that topic.

The Innocents Abroad

I finally finished my leisurely read of "The Innocents Abroad" by Mark Twain. It's available for free on Kindle and other e-readers, and in fact you can read it on your computer, if you like.

What I find most amazing is not the sentiments about travel, but the fact that 150 years later, so many of his sentiments reflect my own.

"It was worth a kingdom to be at sea again. It was a relief to drop all anxiety whatsoever—all questions as to where we should go; how long we should stay; whether it were worth while to go or not; all anxieties about the condition of the horses; all such questions as "Shall we ever get to water?" "Shall we ever lunch?" "Ferguson, how many more million miles have we got to creep under this awful sun before we camp?" It was a relief to cast all these torturing little anxieties far away—ropes of steel they were, and every one with a separate and distinct strain on it—and feel the temporary contentment that is born of the banishment of all care and responsibility. We did not look at the compass: we did not care, now, where the ship went to, so that she went out of sight of land as quickly as possible. When I travel again, I wish to go in a pleasure ship. No amount of money could have purchased for us, in a strange vessel and among unfamiliar faces, the perfect satisfaction and the sense of being at home again which we experienced when we stepped on board the "Quaker City,"—our own ship—after this wearisome pilgrimage. It is a something we have felt always when we returned to her, and a something we had no desire to sell."

As someone who sells cruises, I guess you could say I do have a desire to sell, but certainly not to sell my personal experiences any more than Mr. Twain. Of course, being Mark Twain, he includes lots of tongue-in-cheek humor, often lampooning the citizens of foreign lands and his fellow passengers.

In one such passage, his humor makes a good point about being on the right ship for you, as opposed to what might be right for someone else. He prefaced a newspaper article written immediately upon their return by saying he was surprised that some of his fellow passengers found it insulting, but he could not understand why.

Keep in mind that this is not the white haired man in a white suit you probably envision, but a man in his mid-twenties who in many ways was sort of the Tommy Bahama or Jimmy Buffett of his age, a man who enjoyed good cigars, adult beverages and pretty young ladies. I hope you enjoy his humor as much as I do. 

RETURN OF THE HOLY LAND EXCURSIONISTS—THE STORY OF THE CRUISE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:

The steamer Quaker City has accomplished at last her extraordinary voyage and returned to her old pier at the foot of Wall street. The expedition was a success in some respects, in some it was not. Originally it was advertised as a "pleasure excursion." Well, perhaps, it was a pleasure excursion, but certainly it did not look like one; certainly it did not act like one. Any body's and every body's notion of a pleasure excursion is that the parties to it will of a necessity be young and giddy and somewhat boisterous. They will dance a good deal, sing a good deal, make love, but sermonize very little. Any body's and every body's notion of a well conducted funeral is that there must be a hearse and a corpse, and chief mourners and mourners by courtesy, many old people, much solemnity, no levity, and a prayer and a sermon withal. Three-fourths of the Quaker City's passengers were between forty and seventy years of age! There was a picnic crowd for you! It may be supposed that the other fourth was composed of young girls. But it was not. It was chiefly composed of rusty old bachelors and a child of six years. Let us average the ages of the Quaker City's pilgrims and set the figure down as fifty years. Is any man insane enough to imagine that this picnic of patriarchs sang, made love, danced, laughed, told anecdotes, dealt in ungodly levity? In my experience they sinned little in these matters. No doubt it was presumed here at home that these frolicsome veterans laughed and sang and romped all day, and day after day, and kept up a noisy excitement from one end of the ship to the other; and that they played blind-man's buff or danced quadrilles and waltzes on moonlight evenings on the quarter-deck; and that at odd moments of unoccupied time they jotted a laconic item or two in the journals they opened on such an elaborate plan when they left home, and then skurried off to their whist and euchre labors under the cabin lamps. If these things were presumed, the presumption was at fault. The venerable excursionists were not gay and frisky. They played no blind-man's buff; they dealt not in whist; they shirked not the irksome journal, for alas! most of them were even writing books. They never romped, they talked but little, they never sang, save in the nightly prayer-meeting. The pleasure ship was a synagogue, and the pleasure trip was a funeral excursion without a corpse. (There is nothing exhilarating about a funeral excursion without a corpse.) A free, hearty laugh was a sound that was not heard oftener than once in seven days about those decks or in those cabins, and when it was heard it met with precious little sympathy. The excursionists danced, on three separate evenings, long, long ago, (it seems an age.) quadrilles, of a single set, made up of three ladies and five gentlemen, (the latter with handkerchiefs around their arms to signify their sex.) who timed their feet to the solemn wheezing of a melodeon; but even this melancholy orgie was voted to be sinful, and dancing was discontinued.

The pilgrims played dominoes when too much Josephus or Robinson's Holy Land Researches, or book-writing, made recreation necessary—for dominoes is about as mild and sinless a game as any in the world, perhaps, excepting always the ineffably insipid diversion they call croquet, which is a game where you don't pocket any balls and don't carom on any thing of any consequence, and when you are done nobody has to pay, and there are no refreshments to saw off, and, consequently, there isn't any satisfaction whatever about it—they played dominoes till they were rested, and then they blackguarded each other privately till prayer-time. When they were not seasick they were uncommonly prompt when the dinner-gong sounded. Such was our daily life on board the ship—solemnity, decorum, dinner, dominoes, devotions, slander. It was not lively enough for a pleasure trip; but if we had only had a corpse it would have made a noble funeral excursion. It is all over now; but when I look back, the idea of these venerable fossils skipping forth on a six months' picnic, seems exquisitely refreshing. The advertised title of the expedition—"The Grand Holy Land Pleasure Excursion"—was a misnomer. "The Grand Holy Land Funeral Procession" would have been better—much better.

Wherever we went, in Europe, Asia, or Africa, we made a sensation, and, I suppose I may add, created a famine. None of us had ever been any where before; we all hailed from the interior; travel was a wild novelty to us, and we conducted ourselves in accordance with the natural instincts that were in us, and trammeled ourselves with no ceremonies, no conventionalities. We always took care to make it understood that we were Americans—Americans! When we found that a good many foreigners had hardly ever heard of America, and that a good many more knew it only as a barbarous province away off somewhere, that had lately been at war with somebody, we pitied the ignorance of the Old World, but abated no jot of our importance. Many and many a simple community in the Eastern hemisphere will remember for years the incursion of the strange horde in the year of our Lord 1867, that called themselves Americans, and seemed to imagine in some unaccountable way that they had a right to be proud of it. We generally created a famine, partly because the coffee on the Quaker City was unendurable, and sometimes the more substantial fare was not strictly first class; and partly because one naturally tires of sitting long at the same board and eating from the same dishes.

The people of those foreign countries are very, very ignorant. They looked curiously at the costumes we had brought from the wilds of America. They observed that we talked loudly at table sometimes. They noticed that we looked out for expenses, and got what we conveniently could out of a franc, and wondered where in the mischief we came from. In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language. One of our passengers said to a shopkeeper, in reference to a proposed return to buy a pair of gloves, "Allong restay trankeel—may be ve coom Moonday;" and would you believe it, that shopkeeper, a born Frenchman, had to ask what it was that had been said. Sometimes it seems to me, somehow, that there must be a difference between Parisian French and Quaker City French.

The people stared at us every where, and we stared at them. We generally made them feel rather small, too, before we got done with them, because we bore down on them with America's greatness until we crushed them. And yet we took kindly to the manners and customs, and especially to the fashions of the various people we visited. When we left the Azores, we wore awful capotes and used fine tooth combs—successfully. When we came back from Tangier, in Africa, we were topped with fezzes of the bloodiest hue, hung with tassels like an Indian's scalp-lock. In France and Spain we attracted some attention in these costumes. In Italy they naturally took us for distempered Garibaldians, and set a gunboat to look for any thing significant in our changes of uniform. We made Rome howl. We could have made any place howl when we had all our clothes on. We got no fresh raiment in Greece—they had but little there of any kind. But at Constantinople, how we turned out! Turbans, scimetars, fezzes, horse-pistols, tunics, sashes, baggy trowsers, yellow slippers—Oh, we were gorgeous! The illustrious dogs of Constantinople barked their under jaws off, and even then failed to do us justice. They are all dead by this time. They could not go through such a run of business as we gave them and survive.

And then we went to see the Emperor of Russia. We just called on him as comfortably as if we had known him a century or so, and when we had finished our visit we variegated ourselves with selections from Russian costumes and sailed away again more picturesque than ever. In Smyrna we picked up camel's hair shawls and other dressy things from Persia; but in Palestine—ah, in Palestine—our splendid career ended. They didn't wear any clothes there to speak of. We were satisfied, and stopped. We made no experiments. We did not try their costume. But we astonished the natives of that country. We astonished them with such eccentricities of dress as we could muster. We prowled through the Holy Land, from Cesarea Philippi to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, a weird procession of pilgrims, gotten up regardless of expense, solemn, gorgeous, green-spectacled, drowsing under blue umbrellas, and astride of a sorrier lot of horses, camels and asses than those that came out of Noah's ark, after eleven months of seasickness and short rations. If ever those children of Israel in Palestine forget when Gideon's Band went through there from America, they ought to be cursed once more and finished. It was the rarest spectacle that ever astounded mortal eyes, perhaps.

Well, we were at home in Palestine. It was easy to see that that was the grand feature of the expedition. We had cared nothing much about Europe. We galloped through the Louvre, the Pitti, the Ufizzi, the Vatican—all the galleries—and through the pictured and frescoed churches of Venice, Naples, and the cathedrals of Spain; some of us said that certain of the great works of the old masters were glorious creations of genius, (we found it out in the guide-book, though we got hold of the wrong picture sometimes,) and the others said they were disgraceful old daubs. We examined modern and ancient statuary with a critical eye in Florence, Rome, or any where we found it, and praised it if we saw fit, and if we didn't we said we preferred the wooden Indians in front of the cigar stores of America. But the Holy Land brought out all our enthusiasm. We fell into raptures by the barren shores of Galilee; we pondered at Tabor and at Nazareth; we exploded into poetry over the questionable loveliness of Esdraelon; we meditated at Jezreel and Samaria over the missionary zeal of Jehu; we rioted—fairly rioted among the holy places of Jerusalem; we bathed in Jordan and the Dead Sea, reckless whether our accident-insurance policies were extra-hazardous or not, and brought away so many jugs of precious water from both places that all the country from Jericho to the mountains of Moab will suffer from drouth this year, I think. Yet, the pilgrimage part of the excursion was its pet feature—there is no question about that. After dismal, smileless Palestine, beautiful Egypt had few charms for us. We merely glanced at it and were ready for home.

They wouldn't let us land at Malta—quarantine; they would not let us land in Sardinia; nor at Algiers, Africa; nor at Malaga, Spain, nor Cadiz, nor at the Madeira islands. So we got offended at all foreigners and turned our backs upon them and came home. I suppose we only stopped at the Bermudas because they were in the programme. We did not care any thing about any place at all. We wanted to go home. Homesickness was abroad in the ship—it was epidemic. If the authorities of New York had known how badly we had it, they would have quarantined us here.

The grand pilgrimage is over. Good-bye to it, and a pleasant memory to it, I am able to say in all kindness. I bear no malice, no ill-will toward any individual that was connected with it, either as passenger or officer. Things I did not like at all yesterday I like very well to-day, now that I am at home, and always hereafter I shall be able to poke fun at the whole gang if the spirit so moves me to do, without ever saying a malicious word. The expedition accomplished all that its programme promised that it should accomplish, and we ought all to be satisfied with the management of the matter, certainly. Bye-bye!

MARK TWAIN.

The Great Wall

The words "Great" and "Wall" currently bring to mind President Donald Trump, who famously won the highest office in the world with the catch phrases "Make America Great Again" and "Build the Wall."

The original Great Wall, however, began as fragmented fortifications almost 2,900 years ago in what is present day China.   The Chinese states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan and Zhongshan fought among themselves and also against Asians from the north.

Through military conquest, Qin Shi Huang united all of China under his rule, similarly connecting the fragments of wall together for the first time.  Qin employed forced labor to protect his new empire from the Mongolians and other possible invaders from the north, completing the rammed earth project in 212 B.C.

Beyond the unifying metaphor of the Great Wall that solidified the northern border, Emperor Qin united his empire with a standardized common language and a system of government based on Legalism, replacing feudalism with bureaucratic rule.

On the one hand, Legalism assumes people need laws to act properly, so we might infer that an underlying premise is that people by nature are evil, but it also means equal treatment under the law for all people, regardless of social status.

This populist concept of legal equality for aristocrats and peasants might not sound like a radical breakthrough to Americans ingrained with the phrase "with liberty and justice for all," but even in our enlightened country, we know government leaders often can be "above the law," from "fixing tickets" to leveraging influence to become super wealthy as "public servants" to literally getting away with murder.

Generations before China united, Qin Shi Huang's ancestors understood that the underlying strength of their smaller kingdom in general and the military in particular came from the strong backs of peasants, not privileged aristocrats wielding arbitrary power.  That early test of meritocracy on the smaller state scale proved successful in not only winning battles but also increasing tax revenues, laying the groundwork for the first Empire.

It wouldn't be a large stretch to believe that peasant troops fighting under such a system would respond with greater loyalty, providing the margin of victory that allowed Emperor Qin to unite China under his rule.

In some ways, that was the story of our American Revolution.

It's no wonder the Qin Empire is revered as one of China's greatest.  In fact, the name Qin is pronounced "Chin" and is the root of the country's name, China.

His unprecedented power would not enable Qin to live forever.  Ironically, he ruled as Emperor for only 11 years before he died from ingesting an Elixer of Life containing toxic mercury, which his physicians said would make him immortal.

His successors abused the power Qin had amassed, and the Empire devolved into four years of revolution until the Han Dynasty "claimed the Mandate of Heaven" to rule China.

The Han reinstituted order with Legalism, but they also embraced kinder Confucianism for education.

Under the Han Dynasty, China became an international economic powerhouse by opening trade with the world.

Gold, silver, ivory, cotton, wool and other goods flowed into China from the Middle East, other parts of Asia, Europe and Africa.  In return, China exported what it produced best, including salt, sugar, tea, spices, porcelain and silk.

"The Silk Road" was a phrase coined by 19th Century Europeans to describe the routes of this free trade that benefited all, but none benefitted as much as the city successively known as Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul, in modern day Turkey.  This capital of the Eastern Roman/Byzantine and then Ottoman Empires was at the hub of trade, enabling it to take a small piece of all the action to become incredibly wealthy.  The Silk Road came to represent free trade.

In many ways, the United States has been at the center of a new Silk Road for decades, with US companies and consumers reaping the rewards of specialization of labor and resources.

This globalization also has benefited formerly impoverished countries, including China, where wages still lag far behind those of the United States and environmental regulations remain lax.

International companies based in the United States outsourced so much of their manufacturing to China that tens of millions of working-class families lost their livelihoods when factories in the heartland of America were shuttered.

One of the major issues Donald Trump rode to the Presidency was the populist belief that China and other countries were "ripping us off," a claim establishment politicians, business leaders and economists poo-pooed.

Former steel workers, coal miners and factory workers, however, knew exactly what Trump meant.  It wasn't some secret whisper to racists who hated foreigners, but rather a shout out to blue-collar workers wanting to regain their self-respect.

Looked at in a non-establishment way, Trump and his followers are right.  China flaunts environmental and worker safety norms we take for granted in the US, which in conjunction with very low wages would be enough to undercut American factories.

In addition, China and the European Union enforce stiff tariffs to restrict  their consumers' access to certain US products in order to protect their domestic industries while at the same time exporting to us almost barrier-free.

The Dawn of the Trump Era could reverse these trends, though powerful forces do not want this to happen.  The establishment has launched counterattacks on other fronts to stop President Trump's policy implementations.  Only the future will tell who wins.

Back to the Great Wall, it took on increased significance under the Han Dynasty by protecting their essential trade routes.


For a quick history of Chinese dynasties, I highly recommend the video below.

After centuries of neglect in some regions and building entirely new fortification north of the wall in others, the Ming Dynasty, known throughout the world for elegant vases, rebuilt the wall stronger than ever beginning in the 14th Century A.D.  The Ming Dynasty used modern construction techniques with bricks and stones instead of simply rammed earth.  They added 25,000 watch towers along the 4,000-mile Wall that divided China from the Ordos Desert, which they had rationally conceded to the fierce, nomadic Mongolians who had defeated them in key battles.

The section of the Great Wall near Beijing has become a major tourist attraction and is maintained in good repair.  In other areas, it is reportedly no longer recognizable, with building materials often having been pillaged by villagers for other purposes over the decades, particularly after Communists, who have little regard for historical monuments, came to power.

Our bus driver was not allowed to drop us at the intended parking lot due to construction, so we had to go to the busier section at Juyongguan Pass.

In retrospect, perhaps we should have backtracked to the other side where we were supposed to hike, but instead we walked the wall among throngs of other tourists.

Don't let anyone tell you that this is anything short of a grueling climb, especially on a somewhat hot, smoggy day with the steps clogged by people going up, down or sitting to rest, but it is something you would definitely want to do if you visit China.  Its vast scale from an era before motorized heavy equipment is truly impressive.

Many souvenirs were sold that day, my friend.

I was tempted to buy a Great Wall hat, but Julie and I only bought a Chinese knock-off of a Dove Bar.  That dark chocolate-coated vanilla ice cream tasted particularly great after the long climb up and down the Great Wall.

On the bus ride back, we were supposed to stop for photos at the Olympic Village, but we apparently had used up time intended for that with a long bathroom break when we were supposed to be leaving the zoo, extended shopping time at the jade store and a rather leisurely lunch.


We did drive past the Bird's Nest National Stadium and other Olympic sites on the freeway, or so Julie tells me and has a photo to prove, but I had fallen fast asleep in the traffic jam.

That evening, we had another big event, the Beijing Duck Dinner.

Neither Julie nor I thought we liked duck, but the meal proved to be quite excellent, and it turns out I love Beijing Duck.

In America, we usually call this dish Peking Duck.


Peking is close to the Cantonese pronunciation of Beijing, which is apparently why Europeans and subsequently Americans used Pékin, Pequin or Peking, but Beijing means "North Capital."

When the Communists took over, they did away with the European misinterpretation of the name, reclaiming the traditional "Beijing," which is how most Chinese thought of it all along.

Once again, there were lots of other dishes, so even people who didn't want duck were well-fed.

I nodded off on the bus again on the ride back to the hotel.

Needless to say, I was happy to climb into my comfy bed once back at the Mercure after our very full first day in China.

"Better service leads to better trips!"

Istanbul's Topkapi Palace

The Mandatory Last Stop of Our Tour

Surrounding Istanbul's many mosques and other historic sites is a modern, secular city.

Most men in Turkey dress in a way that would make them indistinguishable from the average resident of New York or Los Angeles.

Unlike the town of Dikili, where it seemed like women must either refrain from or not be allowed to go out in public, in Istanbul as much as 40% of the population out-and-about is female, depending on the part of the city.

In tourist areas like Topkapi Palace on a hot, sunny day, most of the women also wear American-style clothes, and those wearing Hijabs generally did not wear Khimars (veils) over their faces.

Tourist Area Near the Blue Mosque

Away from the tourist areas, more women wear traditional Muslim garments, but almost none were dressed in the extreme head to toe Burka or Abaya, or showed only their eye's behind a Niqab.

Still, you would not confuse the dress code for that found in Redondo Beach on a sunny day.

Traditionally Dressed Sitters at Topkapi Palace

When entering mosques, you are not allowed to expose your knees or shoulders, so despite being a hot day, most everyone wears long pants or skirts.

Like many other women, Julie brought a scarf to slip on in mosques, but it's not necessary to swelter under wraps all day as in some Muslim countries.

View From Above Our Restaurant

Beyond wearing long pants on a hot day, I never felt out of place, except a brief time on our way to lunch when I took too long trying to jockey for a photo of the Bosporus Strait.

I didn't feel unsafe among the crowd, but I worried I might never find my group again after everyone continued beyond the range of my ear piece to hear my guide.

Like Quinn trailing someone from a distance on the TV show Homeland, I had to make a quick choice: head further down the street and around the corner, or down a flight of steps to where hundreds of others were already eating lunch on a terrace.

Down the stairs I bounded.

Quickly scanning the outdoor seating, I saw no one I recognized, so I headed inside the restaurant.  A crackling sound in my ear alerted me I was heading in the right direction.

Julie and Our Table Mates At Lunch

The lobby area was jammed, so I cut down a server's hallway and came into a banquet area just as Julie walked in and the guide's voice clarified in my ear.

We sat at our window table with a view of the Bosporus Strat and enjoyed a delicious, multi-course lunch of regional foods.

First Course Included Great Hummus and Other Med Treats

Okay, it wasn't exactly edge-of-your-seat drama, but the thought of meeting Julie back on the ship that night and explaining how I could be so careless as to get lost in a city of 14 million people where I don't speak the language had my heart racing.

The city, however, doesn't feel menacing.  It is very clean, which in turn makes it feel safe.

Topkapi Palace Building With Identifying Sign

You don't see graffiti or slovenly dressed individuals.  Everyone seems quite polite.

It would be great if Istanbul would be used as a role model for other Muslim nations.

It should be noted that unlike in some countries, women officially have equal rights in Turkey, including the rights to be educated and to drive cars.

Julie at Entrance to Topkapi Palace

The modern, secular perspective. however, is put in historical context by the huge building that once housed the Ottoman Sultan's Harem, where the Sultan and his sons visited dozens of concubines with no other men allowed except black eunuch slaves who were guards, spoke for a different era under the Ottoman Empire.

Topkapi Palace Wall

Our tour did not include admission to the Harem, but our guide piqued our interest with a few words.

To be selected to join the Harem was deemed a great privilege.  The women of the Harem lived in relative splendor and received an education to read, write, play instruments, dance, sing and sexually please the Sultan.

Hagia Irene, a Byzantine church enclosed within Topkapi
Palace Walls, was used as armory, storehouse and then
museum by Ottomans.  Now, it's a classical music venue
Over Byzantine history, the church was re-built after
mulitple disasters  and also expanded from the original
basilica dedicated by Constantine I in the 4th Century.

Their job was to please the Sultan in any way possible, and their education was geared toward that objective, but during the 19th century, educational opportunities for other women began to open.

To be selected as a concubine was an honored position.  If she played all of her cards perfectly, gaining the highest favor of the current Sultan, she might rise to become the future Valide Sultan, or mother of the next Sultan, and be in charge of the Harem.  This was the highest position attainable for a woman in the Ottoman Empire.

While definitely Muslim at its heart, the Ottoman Empire in many ways carried on traditions of the Byzantine Empire.

Ornate Ceilings are Topkapi norm.

Constantine-conqueror Sultan Mehmed II and his successors didn't needlessly destroy buildings which could be re-purposed, and they took the same approach to conquered people.

Early on, Ottomans accepted soldiers from conquered kingdoms into their own military and rewarded top performers with a great deal of responsibility as officers.

Eventually, some Christians and Jews earned positions in government administration, and as long as they were essentially monotheistic (notwithstanding the Roman Catholic tradition of the holy trilogy which was a point of contention in the Eastern Orthodox Church), the Muslims were for the most part tolerant.

Polytheists, like Arabs committed to regional religions that existed prior to Mohammed's revelation, were not acceptable to the Ottoman new world order, and they were chased away from civilized regions into the barren desert wasteland we now call oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Prior to the rise of Islam, Arab tribes were in constant conflict with each other.

Raiding and taking plunder from other tribes was a way of life.

Mohammed declared that this practice of plundering fellow Muslims to be a sin, and cutting off this method of redistribution of wealth, the Muslims warmly embraced the honored alternative of raiding and plundering infidels of foreign lands.

The territory captured was to the glory of Allah, so the military found motivation in heavenly as well as earthly reward, as did the Sultan.

By the time the Ottoman Empire began in 1299, the Byzantines and Persians (latter day Iran) had been significantly weakened by centuries battling each other.  Intrigues in Europe derailed a new Crusade, and the Ottoman Empire grew rapidly.

The Ottomans eventually controlled most of Eastern Europe, closing in on the border of present day Austria.

As you may recall, the Muslim Moors had previously conquered Spain in 711, sweeping through the Iberian Peninsula.  They challenged France with designs deeper into Europe, but Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) stopped their advance at the Battle of Tours in 737.

As a side note, Charles Martel was the first Carolingian Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (western Europe) and the grandfather of the enlightened Emperor Charlemagne.

The Spanish Reconquista did not drive the Moors from Europe until 1492, the same year Spain financed the first exploratory voyage of Christopher Columbus.  That was 39 years after Ottomans captured the capital of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), Constantinople, which is now called Istanbul, on May 29, 1453.

Sultan Mehmed II set up court in the Great Palace of Constantinople, but he found it in ill repair, so he sought a new location, settling on the site of the Byzantine Acropolis.  He laid out the palace behind new high walls in a pattern that would be preserved for the ages.

The powerful Ottoman Empire became incredibly wealthy through control of trade and conquest of new territories.

The overused adjective palatial doesn't adequately describe Topkapi Palace, with its opulent buildings among sprawling grounds.  The total area is about 50% larger than Vatican City.

Perhaps even more impressive than the palace itself are the treasures housed within it, including decorative and deadly weapons, intricate clocks and a Pink Panther-enticing trove of shimmering jewels, which were received over centuries from kingdoms and other wealthy traders in tribute to the Sultans whose lands and waters they traversed.

One brooch holds the 86 carat Spoonmaker's Diamond, which is surrounded by 49 smaller but sizeable diamonds.

Photography is not allowed inside the museums, but check out the video below for some indication of what we saw.

It's truly astounding to see all of these symbols of wealth on display.

I couldn't help wondering how these collections managed to remain preserved through the fall of the Ottoman Empire, occupation by the British and subsequent founding of the Republic of Turkey, when financial demands could undoubtedly have been used as justification to sell most if not all of it.

Hagia Irene in Foreground with Blue Mosque in Distance

In the final analysis, Topkapi Palace, like other castles in Europe, makes a wonderful tourist attraction.  It continues to yield rewards to the Turkish government treasury while preserving precious artistry and gems of the past for future generations.