Old City Sana'a Photo by eesti . On the heels of the last post, I was entranced by this lush travel article in the New York Times (free registration required) about the Yemeni island of Socotra, off the Horn of Africa. It's not difficult to imagine traders on that Alexandria-India run porting here for one last pit stop before the big push across the Arabian Sea: Socotra is significantly inhabited, and has been for some 2,000 years. More than 40,000 people now live there: many in Hadibu, the island’s main town, the rest scattered in small stone villages, working as fishermen and semi-nomadic Bedouin herders. Nature and culture are longstanding neighbors. I especially liked this bit: Lying on the rocky ground, with the scent of frankincense fresh in memory, I felt as though I had stumbled into a chapter of the Old Testament. Well before dawn I woke to the sound of the family patriarch’s voice warbling a long, mournful prayer. He finished after a few minutes, and the ni
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/design/13anci.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=rome&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Once I got over the euphoria of the textures and shapes finally loading and began to click my way down the Via Flaminia, I was surprised to discover that I felt a bit melancholy! Not quite the same as quietly contemplating the ruins of Palmyra, I suppose.