12 underground tours around the world

Sometimes there’s more to a city that what you see above ground. Several cities around the world sit above underground labyrinths just waiting to be explored. Budget Travel has put together a list of some of the best underground tours around the world.

In Paris, you can tour the sewer system, in Berlin, check out a hidden world of bunkers and tunnels used during World War II and the Cold War, and see the remains of the older city (which the new city was built upon) in Seattle. Other cities with tours that take you underground include Vienna, Rome, Seoul, Portland, Naples, New York, Jerusalem, Edinburgh, and Istanbul.

And to Budget Travel’s list of spots with unique attractions below ground, I’ll add two of my own. Most visitors to Chicago don’t realize that the city has it’s own network of underground tunnels, called the Pedway, that connect many of the city’s government buildings and allow people to travel between them without suffering in the bitter winter cold. And in Logrono, in Spain’s Rioja region, the area underneath the town is actually larger in area than that above, thanks to an extensive network of tunnels that were once used for defense and are now used as wine cellars.

When we visit a new city we generally spend a lot of our time looking up, gawking at the tall buildings. But, it seems, maybe should pay a little more attention to the wonders just underneath our feet.

Clash at Jerusalem sacred site

Police and Palestinian protesters have clashed at the entrance to Al-Aqsa mosque, part of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem’s holy spot for both Jews and Muslims.

Details are unclear. Palestinian sources say the protesters threw rocks at a Jewish prayer group trying to enter the area in defiance to Israeli law, which reserves the top of the Temple Mount for Muslims. Jews are supposed to pray at the Western Wall on the other side. Israeli sources say the Palestinians threw rocks at a group of tourists who were dressed inappropriately.

We may never know what really happened, but the result was that several Palestinians and Israeli police were injured and a holy spot was once again marred by violence.

I’ve been to the Temple Mount several times and despite the palpable tension it’s well worth a visit. The eleventh-century Al-Aqsa mosque has attractive medieval stained glass and an elaborately carved minbar (pulpit). Of greater interest is the Dome of the Rock next door. Its golden dome is a Jerusalem landmark and covers the spot where Mohammad is believed to have ascended to heaven. The building is decorated with beautiful multicolored tiles. Nearby is the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, said to be part of the original Jewish Temple and a place of great spiritual importance for Jews.

Visiting the Temple Mount is a quick lesson in religious politics. Police crowd every entrance and signs warn members of opposing religions from worshiping at each other’s sites. On one visit during the Nineties I went with my girlfriend of the time, who was Muslim. The soldiers eyed us suspiciously and hovered close by as we waited outside for the prayer service to end. She wanted us to go in together but I wasn’t allowed in during services. Once the service was over, we entered and she did her prayers as I admired the building. Nobody objected to the strange sight of an agnostic and a Muslim visiting Islam’s third holiest site together, but we got plenty of curious looks. I wonder if we could have pulled it off today? I’m not sure I’d try. Too bad everyone can’t just chill out and accept that there are different types of people in the world.

No chance. I can’t even blog about Ottoman architecture without getting grumpy comments. Ah well.

Everglades to be put back on U.N. endangered list?

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is meeting with a task force charged with overseeing the restoration of the Florida Everglades this week. He intends to tell them that the Obama administration will ask the United Nations World Heritage Committee to put the national park back on its endangered list when the committee meet in Spain this week.

Two years ago, in what has been viewed as a controversial decision, the Bush administration requested that the U.N. remove the Everglades from the list. At the time, the Department of the Interior defended the decision by citing progress being made in protecting the region and the species that lived there, despite the fact that the restoration program had failed to meet milestones, and was billions over budget.

The current administration believes restoring the Everglades National Park to the list of endangered places will send a strong signal to environmentalists that they are committed to the protecting the environment. If restored to the list, the park will join the Galapagos Islands, the Old City of Jerusalem and Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Valley as the other World Heritage Sites considered to be in danger. The Everglades were originally added to the list back in 1993 when the area was damaged by Hurricane Andrew and the effects of prolonged exposure to water pollution became known.

Despite the issues effecting the park, the Everglades remains a popular tourist destination. There are more than 156 miles of canoe/kayak and hiking trails, with 47 designated campsites, inside the 2500 square miles of subtropical forest that define the parks boundaries. The Park Service reports that over one million visitors experience the Everglades each year.

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Two tours, two Jerusalems

BBC’s Tim Franks has written a fascinating article about taking two very different tours to the same place. His guides showed him the same sights and talked about the same things, but their interpretations were entirely different. It was like they weren’t talking about the same place at all.

That place, of course, is Jerusalem.

Franks went to the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. He took tours with Al-Quds University, the only Arab university in Jerusalem, and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, run by the Israeli government.

Both took him along the Western Wall, built by King Herod about 2,000 years ago, and through a tunnel dug alongside it. The Jewish tour guide pointed out a mikveh, a room for Jewish ritual cleansing. The Palestinian guide said there was no evidence it was used as such. The Jewish guide said the Western Wall (also known as the Wailing Wall for the anguished prayers of many of the faithful) is one of the walls of the ancient Jewish Temple. The Palestinian guide said there is no evidence for this. The Jewish guide compared this statement to Holocaust denial.

And so it goes, round and round.

Back in my archaeology days I did a field season in Israel and can attest to how quickly history gets turned into a political football. Start talking about archaeology, and sooner or later you’ll start talking religion and politics. Usually sooner. With so many religious sites piled literally on top of one another, there’s bound to be arguments. If you look at the picture of the Western Wall above, you can see the dome for Al-Aksa Mosque right above it, and the Dome of the Rock is just off the picture to the left. Both religions consider this same spot to be sacred.

While we read about this all the time in the news, it’s much more interesting to witness firsthand. So if you are headed to the Holy Land and want to see just how contentious history can be, why not try out both of these tours? Or if this whole thing is just making your head hurt, you can always go to the local Hooters.

Tourist returns ancient piece of Jerusalem

The Israel Antiquities Authority got an interesting package from the U.S. recently, Archaeology News reported. It contained a piece of early medieval stonework and came with a note.

The note said that the sender, who apparently remained anonymous, had been an archaeology student 12 years ago and stole the stone from the excavation he was on so that he would have a memento with which to “pray for Jerusalem.” Instead, it made him feel guilty and so he decided to return it. Sometimes guilt takes a while to work.

At least this idiot had to pay a lot in postage. The stone weighed 21 kilograms (more than 46 pounds) and appears to be a portion of a marble column from the Umayyid Dynasty, a Muslim dynasty that ruled the region from 661 to 750 A.D. The Umayyids had the first major Muslim empire, ruling over a vast territory from their capital in Damascus. They were responsible for building two of the major Muslim sites in the holy city–The Dome of the Rock (pictured here) and Al-Aksa Mosque.

Israeli archaeologists believe the column came from a large palace complex built near the Temple Mount that served as the local seat of government.

As some travelers set off to volunteer at archaeological excavations this summer, this former archaeologist would like to remind them that stealing antiquities is not only immoral, but illegal, and could land you in jail. It will certainly get you an F in your archaeology class.