Category Archives: Photography

Abandoned

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Seeing decrepit and abandoned buildings does something to my soul. It’s not every abandoned building, mind you, but some are interesting. It’s often the mix between old and new, deserted and party sites, graffiti and trash that move me. One such place is an old abandoned army base called Beit Zeit Camp. It is situated between the town of Beit Zeit and Ein Karem in the Jerusalem forest. Easy to get there, and beautiful.

In the early 1950s this was an army base built as a huge emergency storage facility for the Jerusalem brigades in cases of a Jordanian incursion into Jerusalem or its environs. The equipment was all removed during the 1967 Six Day War. Later on the base became a general emergency storage facility and was used by the Logistic Brigade until it was finally abandoned around 2012.

24mm, 1/250, f 8

A mixture of half-destroyed buildings, trash, and graffiti.

As you take the winding road, you will pass many heaps of the buildings on your right. Keep going, after about 1km, you arrive at the area where the army did not demolish the building.

28mm, 1/250 @ f 11, HDR
70 mm, 1/200 @ f 11, HDR
Even Frisbee enjoys the ruins
70 mm, 1/125 @ f 11, HDR

As one moves further down the road, the buildings are still standing. They are a mixture of decrepit and abandoned structures and hang-outs.

38mm, 1/8, f14, HDR

If you want to venture in and take a peek, these are very long buildings, built into the hillside, and are sort of bunkers. Inside, you will find a mixture of different things. You have some tables and sleeping areas, apparently inhabited by passers-by.

41mm, 1/50 @ f 14, HDR
For some of the buildings, the graffiti is beautiful and intense.
45mm, 0.6 sec @ f 14, HDR
If you want to venture in, you can see that people have recently been here. There are paper cups, matches, bottles, and some clothes scattered around.
53mm, 0.4 sec @ f 14, HDR
30mm, 1/10 @ f 14, HDR

These long, cavernous bunkers are filled with interesting art, and apparently some interesting installations.

28mm, 0.8 sec @ f 14

And for some reasons, heaps and heaps of bottles.

31 mm, 3.2 sec @ f 16

All of these structures fit organically into the beautiful landscape. It’s a mixture of beauty and filth, old and new, utilitarian and stoner-heaven. Definitely worth a visit.

Oh, the irony!

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Sometimes life is more ironic than fiction. This is certainly true about today’s walking tour. Today we’re visiting the Muslim cemetery in Mamillah. Mamilla is a stone’s through from Jaffa Gate in the Old City and has been of use to Jerusalem residents since biblical times.

The cemetery was founded in the 13th century and remained in use until 1927. The word “Mamillah” is actually the mispronunciation of the Arabic “maman Allah” – “comes from Allah.”

1/15, f/11

1/15, f/11

Despite the fact that most Jerusalemites have walked through the cemetery at some point, very few actually know the story of the area.

According to tradition, the first people to be buried in the cemetery were soldiers who fought against the Crusaders. Perhaps the most famous was Sheikh Dia A-Din Abu Muhamad Al-Alami who commanded the siege of Acre in 1291.

Today, the cemetery is absolutely filthy, it is a repository for trash and is neglected by all. How embarrassing. If anybody around the world would treat a Jewish cemetery this way, all Hell would pay.

150, f/11

150, f/11

A beautiful tomb is that of the governor of Safed, Al-Kubki who was buried here in the 13th century.

1/60, f/11

1/60, f/11

1/15, f/11

1/15, f/11

Built in the traditional Muslim style, it is covered with graffiti, and as I tried to look in to the tomb, I saw that it was filled with trash. Shame!

2.5 sec, f/11

2.5 sec, f/11

Over the last century, there were lots of different plans to build here. Actually, the cemetery was much larger, and at some point (1927) the Mufti Amin Al-Husseini wrote a fatwa making burial in the cemetery forbidden. Haj Amin wanted to change the purpose of the area to allow for commercial development, and the Waqf sold part of the land to the city. If you cross the street to Hillel street, you will see a lone tomb in the street.

1/80, f/11, ISO 100

1/80, f/11, ISO 100

But, we still haven’t gotten to the most ironic part of the story. The city of Jerusalem has been actively trying to develop this land. It’s expensive real estate, after all. Smack in the center of the city.

Some genius got the idea that it would be a good place for a museum. A museum for what you may ask? What sort of museum could one build on a Muslim cemetery? Wait for it —

1/20, f/11, ISO 100

1/20, f/11, ISO 100

That’s it! Who would build a “Museum of Tolerance” on a Muslim cemetery??

Really, you can’t make this stuff up.

Mark Twain and Herman Melville in Jerusalem

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This week I took a day hike through the Old City looking for the two primary hotels used by travelers from the in the 19th century. Of note, Mark Twain was in Jerusalem in 1867 and he wrote about his experience in “Innocents Abroad.”

Finding Mark Twain’s hotel was easy, as it is an infamous building just inside the Damascus Gate. Twain stayed in the Mediterranean Hotel for only two days. The building was then purchased from a Christian owner in the 1880s by Moshe Wittenberg who renamed it as Wittenberg House. In the 1980s Ariel Sharon purchased one of the apartments – a thorn in the side of the local Palestinian residents as he didn’t actually live there – it was simply to create a provocation to have a settlement in the Arab section of the Old City. The apartment was eventually sold to the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish group, Ateret Cohanim.

I specially like the windows in the building. It took me a few minutes to find a good angle.

1/1000 sec at f/5.6

1/1000 sec at f/5.6

Actually, there were three versions of the famous Mediterranean Hotel. Twain stayed in the one near the Damascus Gate. Herman Melville stayed in the one at the Patriarch’s Pool not far from Jaffa Gate. It is almost impossible to get a shot of the front of the building of the one at the Patriarch’s Pool, as the road in front of the building is narrow. But the angle makes for an interesting shot. I still haven’t found the third incarnation of the hotel. But I will!

1/800 sec at f/4.5

1/800 sec at f/4.5

However, the back side of the building faces the Patriarch’s Pool. This ancient reservoir has many names: Hezekiah’s Pool, the Pool of Pillars, or the Pool of the Patriarch’s Bath. It is 73 m by 43 m and can hold about 11,356,235 liters! Today, it is impossible to get to the pool, except through the good graces of Al Quds University.

Walking to the pool, we enter a beautiful courtyard and walk through a sort of ante-room, with a beautiful vaulted ceiling.

1/80 sec at f/7.1

1/80 sec at f/7.1

1/500 sec at f/4.5

1/500 sec at f/4.5

You’ve got to love the couches!

1/25 set at f/4.0, ISO 640

1/25 set at f/4.0, ISO 640

1/640 sec at f/5.6

1/640 sec at f/5.6

Unfortunately, it is a filthy! Here in this shot you can see the back of Melville’s Mediterranean Hotel. I hope that for him it wasn’t so disgusting.

But, there’s still a great view of the city from the pool (looking north – west).

1/1600 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

1/1600 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200