Our last stop today was Sakākā, an oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It lies on an old caravan route from the Mediterranean Sea coast to the central and southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Sakākā lies north of the desert of Al-Nafūd and northeast of the Al-Jawf oasis. Nowadays, it...
Jazan, formerly Al-Tihameh, is a town and port in southwestern Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea opposite the Farasān Islands. Defined by the 1934 Treaty of Al-Ṭāʾif as belonging to Saudi Arabia, Yemen has claimed the town since the 1960s. The surrounding area is well cultivated because of...
Around Al-Baha are many heritage villages, castles, and historical monuments. Al-Malad castle is located in a picturesque village in the Al-Sarat Mountains that lies three kilometers south of Baha city on the road to Baljurashi. Two brothers built Al-Malad for military observation...
Bakhrosh bin Allas al-Qurashi al-Zahrani (1757-1815) was a knight and military commander from the Zahran tribe in the Hijaz who fought alongside the first Saudi State against the Ottomans. In his times, he was called the Arab Tiger and was one of the wisest Wahhabi leaders. Arabs have...
We departed from Halabja early in the morning and drove slowly towards the Federal Iraq border. At Kalar, we made a short stop at Sherwana Castle, built in the 18th century by a Kurdish pasha serving the Ottoman Empire. And then, we quickly visited the nearby Garmian Civilization Museum...
Khanzad Castle, also called Banaman Castle, is located on the road between Erbil and Shaqlawa. It was constructed during the time of the Kurdish Soran Emirate in the 16th century under the rule of Princess Khanzad and her brother Prince Suleiman Beg. For seven years, she ruled over two...
Telavi, the largest town in Kakheti, is a popular base for exploring the region’s viticultural, historical and architectural riches. It is set in the vineyard-strewn Alazani valley, between the Gombori Mountains and the Great Caucasus. We have parked next to the Batonistsikhe...
Ananuri is a classic example of Georgian architecture, enhanced by its superb location overlooking the Zhinvali Reservoir. The fortress historically belonged to the dukes of Aragvi, who ruled as far as the Tergi valley from the 13th to 18th centuries, and is today a popular stop on the...
Our first stop in southwest Georgia, not far from the border of Turkey, was a little town with a millennium-long history – Akhaltsikhe. It is situated on both banks of a small river, Potskhovi, which divides the city between the old town in the north and the new one in the south...
Uçhisar is a village in Cappadocia situated on the edge of Göreme National Park. The town was first mentioned in a 14th-century chronicle by Aziz ibn Ardasir although the general area had been occupied much earlier, perhaps from Hittite times. In the seventh century AD, the Byzantines...