Gaudi in Petra?

Finally, a portrait of Habibi and Habibibaba. Handsome, huh?

This was quite a warm day, but the Siq was cool. Hey it was awesome! :D

The scale. Absolutely not to be compared with the experience of walking between two office towers, unless Gaudi did some.


Guidebook note: In Hellenistic and Roman times, Petra was the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom (4th century BC - 106 AD) and became a major caravan centre.

The Nabataeans traded in the perfumes of Arabia, the silk of China and the spices of India, and carried these goods to Gaza and Alexandria. The Nabataean King Aretas III controlled Damascus.

(If you want any more, go visit and buy 'JORDAN, tracing 4000 years of history, publ. Plurigraf)

And the trough at the base of the rock face is a water channel which would once have held 'ceramic tubing [which] carried fresh water from Ain Musa to the city' (more guidebook). Wow. Still thinking Gaudi here.



Gaudi's House, Barcelona




















Is anyone else reminded of Imperial troops and anthropomorphic desert troop carriers in the Star Wars - er - sexology? - ?


When we were in Barcelona last summer, we went to Parc Guell, walked round the outside of La Sagrada Familia (fin-de-vacances cheapskates) and I spent a satisfying half day following the map from one Gaudi building to another. Of course, right now I don't know where I've tidied my Barcelona memorabilia, but in the course of Googling for non-copyright images - or at least, not for the ones that someone's trying to earn a living from - I found the chimney pots on Haabaa blogs. It's an interesting general interest blog with entries in English, Spanish and Polish - often translated from one to another, which is good for us flaky Spanish students!