PazzaPazza

Monday, November 15, 2010

AUTUMN COLORS IN ISRAEL - HUMBLE BUT BEAUTIFUL

As I have already mentioned we do not have flaming fall colors here in Israel. Our autumn can not be compared to the trees and forests in Europe or in America. What I saw in New England, Maine and Utah can scarcely be topped. And I remember very well the marvelous colors of fall - die Herbstfarben - in Germany. But we do have some gentle and sweet changing of the foliage at this time of the year, and the vine yards even excel, they surely rejoice, look!

And the hills at the Hermon display their beautiful fall foliage as well!

Photos by Uri Eshkar

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A BEAUTIFUL BUILDING

This mosque at the Golan Heights was damaged during the 1967 war. We passed it many times on our excursions to the Golan and I always admired the still evident modest beauty of the building. This Friday I asked my husband to stop, so we could have a closer look at it.

The walls inside are covered with Graffiti - some very gruel outbursts were written on them. But this one which my husband photographed secretly I noticed only at home when he showed me the picture. It says: Ani ohev otach Yaela - אני אוהב אותך יעלה - I love you Yaela!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

DOLMENS

What is a Dolmen? Basically two large upright huge stones with a third horizontal stone covering it - like a giant table, depicting a rectangle or trapeze. Sometimes more than two vertical stones support the capstone.
Dolmens can be found all over the world - in Europe, the Middle east and in Korea.

They are called in German Huenengrab, Huene, meaning "giant", which in itself could be interesting to research.
There is a bit of disagreement about the origins of the word dolmen. It seems to be of Celtic/Bretonic roots, "men", meaning stone and "tol", which could mean "table", but also "hole". There is not much knowledge of the purpose of these megalithic structures. Ritual facilities? Prehistoric tombs? Astronomical grounds? Spiritual places?

Here in Israel hundreds of dolmens have been found in the Golan Heights. Many have collapsed but a lot of them can be seen exactly the way they were erected about up to 4000 years ago, starting roughly at the Bronze Age through the Neolithic and Iron Age.

At the Golan the dolmens are built from local large slabs of basalt stones and they are thought to have covered burial chambers for nomadic tribes that wandered the region, although no skeletal remains were evident. Some of them are encircled by rocks, others are covered by piles of earth and stones (tumuli), most of them stand free.

There are several clusters of dolmens throughout the Golan. We visited yesterday the one east of ancient Gamla. Between the Wadi Gamla and the Wadi Daliyot more than 150 Dolmens can be seen on both sides of the road.

Dolmens have a very mystical flair about them and they attract not only scientists and historians, but also spiritual people...
Photos by Uri Eshkar.

I did explain the barren ground in the region around Gamla at comments, have a look.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

MEIN KAETZCHEN

I always had cats in my life and sometimes they enchanted me so much I would make a poem - hm, a long long time ago... This one is from 1978 and it sounds like I wrote it for Golda. Since English is not my mother language I wouldn't dare to translate it - so this is to enjoy - I hope - for my German friends!