Jordan River

THE JORDAN RIVER

After walking for hours in the Syrian Desert we finally got where we had been waitting to get to... the JORDAN RIVER!!! We have been waitting for this for hours. Our guide led us to the river and he said that it was fine to get in the water. So we did. It was fun and while we were in the water he was telling us facts about the Jordan River. We didn't really care much but we still listened to what he had to say and he told us that: The Jordan River is 200 miles long North of Isreal. He said its the most important river and the worlds lowest river below sea level. The northern part of the valley is known as a Ghor and it inclueds the JordanRriver. (Which is why they also call the Jordan River the Ghor.) (Ghor in Arabic is Al Ghawr.) The Ghor is a canal known as the King Abdullah Canal. As it nears the Dead Sea its water saltyness increases. Agriculture in the Ghor dates back about 10,000 years ago.

Persian Gulf

Yay! We are finally here! We are in Saudi Arabia and on the coast of the Persian Gulf. I already like it here. We landed at about 6:00pm. It was still light out but we had to go check in to the hotel. We all unpacked and decided to stay in Saudi Arabia 3 extra days because it was so beautiful. By then it was about 7:00 and we decided to go to dinner. After that we found out that there was a festival so we went and that was cool. It was about 9pm when we left that and so we went to the hotel and went to sleep.

The next day we went to finally see the Persian Gulf. Abraham didn't want us to go in the water but we begged him to let us so he finally did. Then after about 5 minutes he told us to get out because he had a surprise for us. The surprise was a boat trip. So we got on and headed out. The sailor guy told us some interesting facts. He said that the Persian Gulf is about 615 miles long and 35 miles wide. He said that it is about 150 feet deep but in some places 300 feet. After all that he told us some more but I can't remember them. Then Abraham told us some more facts about the wildlife. He said that the Persian Gulf is notorious for crabs. He said that the temperature is high and high in salt content(40%). Then the sailor guy turned around and Phuong fell off. It was kind of hard not to laugh but Abraham and the Sailor guy ran to her rescue. After that incident Abraham started talking some more. He said that one side of the Persian Gulf is flat while the other is mountainous. We made it to the shore and we said thanks and headed to the hotel. Phuong had to change and then we were going to go to dinner. We ate and then went to the hotel. We stayed two more days and then left to go to see somewhere else.

Peace, Love and Hope

Phuong, Allison and Ciera

Sea of Marmara

Next stop......TURKEY! We took a boat to the sea of marmara to go fishing. We noticed the water looked a little dense & not too clean. Abraham told us that in 1999 more than 1500 tonnes of oil had spilled in here. It reaches 1355 meters deep. As the three of us were waiting for a fish to catch bait, we talked bout the sea. The Marmara is slighty bigger than the Black Sea. It is also connected to the Black Sea.We almost fell asleep when the fishing pole shook. Allison's line had caught a blue fish! Half a second later Ciera's line caught a macarel! We felt sorry for the fishes that we caught so we decided to let to swim free again. :) Our goal was to circle the whole sea before we left, but it was too big and we had a small boat. About 5pm I finally caught my first fish, Ciera almost fell out of the boat because of how small the size of my fish was compare to theirs. ;) lol.

Syrian Desert

SYRIAN DESERT OR SYRO-ARABIAN DESERT
After our trip from Mount Ararat our guide Abraham took us to the beautiful Syrian Desert that is also known as Syro-Arabian Desert. I dont know about my friends but I did not have a great time there because it was hot and sandy for miles and miles all you could see was sand. I asked our guide Abraham how much precipitation does the Syrian Desert get? And Abraham said that the desert only gets about 5 .85 inches. He also mentioned that its border on the east is the Euphrates. We learned that the desert has a combonation of steppe and true desert and it is located in the Northern Arabian Penninsula. Many oases exsist in the Syrian Deserts such as the Palmyra.
Landscape was formed by lava flows from the volcanic region of the Jebel Druze in Southern Syria.

Rub-Al-Khali Desert

We arrived at the Empty Quarter thinking we'd see animals or plants but it turns out that there was nothin but sand dunes even though there's 650,000 square kilometres of land. We called Abraham to come help us get out of this place. When he picked us up, we asked him why it was so quiet and there aren't any snakes or scorpian in this desert. "The Empty Quarter is different from other deserts because it doesn't rain here,but a problem we have is desertification." We found out that there were sand foxes & desert hares that adapt to the hot & dry conditions and they don't need too much water; instead they live off rodents & bugs. We were bored so we had an idea to get some sleds and slide down the sides of the sand dunes. "Weeeeeee!!" We had a blast! We went on top of a sand dune about 4 times higher then the average house! :D We noticed that the dunes all looked different because of the direction the wind was blowing and how strong the wind was. At the end of the day there, we were worn out from all the sledding. So we decided to move on to our next destination.

Plateau of Iran

We landed and It was like a breath of fresh air only because we was a little scary in Iraq with the war and because we were on a plane for longer than we expected. It was about noon when we arrived and since I didn't eat anything on the plane I was hungry but Phuong and Allison ate pretzels and little crackers so they weren't. We kinda went our separate ways and I went to get something to eat and they went to check into the hotel. After I was done eating I headed to the hotel. I got there at about 3:30 and had nothing to do so we all went to the local mall. I got a scarf and some cool clothes. Phuong and Allison got scarves. Then we went to the hotel and it was about 7:00 and we went back to the hotel and watched some television. It was kind of hard to watch it though because it was in a different language.


The next day we went to the Plateau of Iran. We had to get a tour guide to get info and to find our way there. Then went to the main office and hired a guide. His name was Abraham and he was so cool and nice. Then he led the way to the Plateau of Iran or the Persian plateau. On the way there he told us some info. He said it was formed from the movement of the Arabian plate and the Eurasian plate. He also said that they extend 1,500 km. We walked and ended up at the Plateau at about 12:00 and ate a traditional Iranian meal. It consists of rice and a soup with pomegranate. Then we had some meat, I think it was lamb. I personally didn't like. We started taking pictures of them and Abraham told us that the highest peak is Damavand and is 18,406 feet. After we finished taking pictures and got all the info we left and went back to the hotel. I was so tired. By the time we got to hotel it was 7:00 and we went to sleep. That was the end of the Plateau of Iran.

Peace, Love and Hope
Allison, Phuong and Ciera.

Mount Ararat

MOUNT ARARAT

After we left from the Taurus Mountains the guide Abraham had tooken us to Mount Ararat and while we were there we also learned many intersting facts about this wonderful place. We also had fun climbing it exept that I was out of breath so we had to go back. I felt bad for spoiling the whole trip but at least we learned many other facts that we didnt know about Mount Ararat.

-We learned that Mount Ararat is a snow-capped dormant volcanic cone in Turkey.

-We also learned that it has 2 peaks. (Greater Ararat and Armenien Plateau)
-Mount Ararat is located in the Igdir Province.

-The Ararat Plain runs along the northwest to the western side.

-Mount Ararat holds great Biblical signifinces.

-For years people believed that Noah's Ark had settle on the Taurus Mountain.

-The discription in the Bible was ''Mountains of Ararat''.

We all wondered if Noah's Ark really is or was located on the Taurus Mountians. We all thought that this mountain (Mount Ararat) was AMAZING and very mysterious because nobody really knows about whatever happend to Noah's Ark.