Malta has huge ancient structures that are now dated as 9000 years old or older and are said by orthodox archaeologists to be the oldest stone ruins in the world. The oldest evidence of man’s presence on the island in Ghar Dalam – the Cave of Darkness, which, besides the evidence of the first human settlement, contained remains of animals and evidence from about 180 000 years ago. Ghar Dalam was discovered in the 30′s by an Italo-German paleontologist.  A long time ago there were dwarf elephants,  deers and hippos, who joyfully ran around this piece of land. During the ice age period, many animals got trapped in that cave, so, when discovered, this cave was like a box of wonders for the historians. When these remains were found, there were theories that the skulls of dwarf elephants were actually the skulls of long forgotten cyclopses – the hole in the middle of the skull was thought to be the 3rd/middle eye socket. The Ghar Dalam museum has an extensive collection of teeth, tusks and bones which were found throughout the times.

Dwarf elephant and dwarf deer skeletons

The cave itself is about 140 meters long, but you can only go as far as 80 m, they won’t let you go further. It has some nice stalactites and stalagmites, and some of them look pretty indecent.

The cave

Ghar Dalam outside

Right. So I’ll leave the readers to their wild imaginations and that will be it for today. I bet my 55 readers ( these are some loyal dudes ) will be very excited about my coming back.

Moving

We’re in the process of moving to Europe, and for the past couple of months we’ve been working hard packing a 3000 lbs container to ship it over to our destination. I’ve never done so much packing in my life, and now i can say that i am a professional packer able to produce my own custom made boxes, and my hands are still recovering from the staples, tape and paper cuts. Here’s a photo of one of the last days of packing:

Taking pictures

In between the moving business, i managed to take some photos of the fall in Virginia. This was the first fall i saw since 1999, so it was really exciting for me to remember once again that the trees can be different colors. Here are some photos and you’re welcome to check out my Fall set on flickr.

…and then we escaped the winter and went to Israel, where it’s still pretty warm, and got to go to the Dead sea where i took a couple of photos as well.

Making music

The long-awaited Encoder album, “Slivers of Time” came out, with my guest vocals on the first track, “When it rains” and 2 more remixes of it by Ethereal Sedition and Liquid Newt. I like Ethereal Sedition remix really a lot and i think they did a great job. I’ve posted the original song here before, so here’s the Ethereal Sedition remix:

• [See post to listen to audio]

Lord Kaiaphas / Zhyin also made a guest appearance on the upcoming album of an American black metal band, Arcane Asylum. The song is called “Atrocity is Silent”:

• [See post to listen to audio]

He also has just played a Minimal Criminal live set at Moksha’s Hanuka party last weekend, and got a great reaction from the crowd:

Working

Yeah and on top of all that i’ve been doing lots of work, which you can check out in the updated portfolio of Elune Art.

So, i surely have lots of excuses of not writing much in my blog. I’ll be more organized in 2009

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Malta is a 7000 year old island, which is situated 93 km south of Sicily. Though it’s a small country, it has a very rich historical past. It has been invaded by several cultures – Sicilian, Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Turkish, Arabic, French, Spanish and British, hence the variety of styles in Maltese architecture and their peculiar language. Maltese language is considered a Semitic language, however it’s the only Semitic language which uses Roman alphabet.

The climate in Malta is great – when we arrived to Malta from Germany, we were wearing winter clothes, but we had to take them off immediately, since it was very warm and some people were even sunbathing on the roofs of the hotels. I was very happy about that, since i dislike cold weather very, very much. We stayed in Sliema, one of the cities on the coast. The day we arrived, we decided to go for a walk and check out Sliema, but by walking around for about 3 hours we ended up going through 3 cities – Sliema, St.Julians and Gzira. Malta is small but very beautiful.

Sunset in Sliema

Kinnie – a maltese drink

I like trying new food and drinks. So, one of the first drinks i tried in Malta was Kinnie. Some people may like it, but i thought it was pretty nasty. Kinnie is a non-alcoholic drink, made from bitter oranges and aromatic herbs, and it was too bitter for me. It was invented by Mr.Cisk, who produces Maltese beer.

Gzira – Immortal cat

They sure do have cats in Malta, and plenty. This particular one is obviously a fan of Immortal. And i think, it looks more evil than Abbath.

The next beautiful city we saw was Valletta – the capital of Malta. Valetta has amazing Baroque architecture and is also full of history. The city was found by the French Jean Parisot de la Valette in 1566, who fortified the city to maintain the hold of the Knights of Malta. The city was planned to be a refuge to care for injured soldiers and pilgrims during the Crusades in the 16th century. Most inhabitants of Malta preferred to reside in Valetta, since it was strongly fortified.
Nowadays Valletta is one of the main tourist attractions, with its amazing view of the Grand Harbour, the Barrakka Gardens, cathedrals and various places of entertainment. You can take a ride on a horse carriage around Valletta and feel like you are in the middle ages.

Valletta walls

Lower Barrakka Gardens

Lower Barrakka Gardens offer an amazing view of the Grand Harbour of Valletta.

The Grand Harbour

The Grand Harbour of Malta has been used since the Roman times.

Valletta street

Valetta is the “new” capital of Malta. The old one was Mdina. Mdina is truly a medieval town, with narrow streets and amazing architecture. Mdina has been there since 4000 BC, and was fortified by Phoenicians in 700 BC. Mdina is called “The Silent City”, therefore you are not allowed to make noise, especially after the sunset. It is an unforgettable experience to walk in Mdina at night.

Mdina walls and orange trees

Medieval horse ride

The horse may not see what’s around it, but it can still make faces at you.

A fountain

Mdina alley

Mdina walls

You can view almost the entire Malta from Mdina walls, since Mdina is in the centre of the island. Many brave young people go on top of the walls, lay there and relax, enjoying the great view.

Mdina, of course, is full of things to see – there’s chapels, cathedrals, a natural history museum, a benedictine monastery, and Mdina dungeons – the museum of medieval torture. We surely visited it, but that will be a whole new post

In Israel they usually don’t put cats into a pound. Instead, the Cat Welfare Society of Israel comes, takes the cats away, neuters them, gives them the necessary shots, and returns them back to where they were. The Cat Welfare Society also arranges adoptions of cats. Though some people might disagree about neutering the cats, but i think it’s way better than mass killing the cats, as it’s practiced in some countries.

Here are some photos i took of the kitties:

The little green box

These 2 kittycats were very cold and kept following me at night, so we got them a box to keep them warm, they were happy and stayed there every night since then.

I summon the demons

Another cute kittycat, i took care of him when he was sick and coughing.

Wilma Ferrell

Wilma Ferrell is her name She often has a look on her face like she has no clue about what’s going on. Now it’s the mating season for cats, so she’s the last one who got lucky ( i was the witness ), after that she was hiding for 3 days. Now there’s gonna be more Wilmas!

The reincarnation of the pet cemetery cat

This kittycat has a bad attitude, but he loves to eat!

Travelling in style

Many old people live in Arad, and when they’re gone, this is what happens to their transport.

The bush kitties

2 cute kitties in the bush, right in front of our house.

Whatcha lookin’ at, huh??

No comment.

I hath the wisdom

This is the Shaolin cat, living next to the pool we go to.

This!!! Is!!! Catland!!!

Another living-by-the-pool cat, it makes the longest meows i have ever heard in my life.

Feed me, the giant one!

I bet he was feeling pretty warm and happy

The process of cat-feeding

And that’s not all of them!

You can see more photos of the kittycats in my Flickr stray cat set

Akko

Akko is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, dating back to the time of the Pharaoh Thutmose III (1504-1450 BCE). There are still historical remains of Ottoman, Muslim and Crusader conquests in the city. Akko was once a leading port in the Middle East, in the same league as Alexandria and Constantinople. Today, it is home primarily to small fishing boats.

Khan-Al-Omdan
I consider this picture one of the most awesome pictures i have ever taken.

Khan-Al-Omdan is a large merchants’ inn near the port, which was used for international trade. Merchants who arrived at the port unloaded their goods at the storerooms of the inn on the first floor and stayed in the rooms of the second floor, which constituted a unique hotel.

Old Akko walls

Akko had walls built in the shape of a pentagon, but not all of them remained.

The El-Bachar or El-Mina Mosque, formerly Sanan Pasha Mosque

The first Muslim house of worship in Akko that was mentioned in the writings of the Ottoman Period is the Sanan Pasha Mosque, which was near Khan El-Faranj. It is estimated that the mosque was built in the late 16th century.

The Terraces of the Shrine of the Ba’b

The Terraces of the Bah’¡’i­ Faith are garden terraces that form nine above and nine below the Shrine of the Ba’b on Mount Carmel within Haifa, Israel. The are also known as the Hanging Gardens of Haifa and described as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Baha’i faith, is a religion founded in Iran in the mid-19th century by Mirza Hoseyn ‘Ali Nuri, who is known as Baha’ Ullah (Arabic: “Glory of God”). The cornerstone of Baha’i belief is the conviction that Baha’ Ullah and his forerunner, who was known as the Bab, were manifestations of God, who in his essence is unknowable.

Baha’is believe in the oneness of humanity and devote themselves to the abolition of racial, class, and religious prejudices. The great bulk of Baha’i teachings is concerned with social ethics; the faith has no priesthood and does not observe ritual forms in its worship.

Kibbutz Sasa

We stayed overnight in Kibbutz Sasa on the mount Miron, 1km from the border with Lebanon. A kibbutz is an Israeli collective community. The movement combines socialism and Zionism. People that live in kibbutzim nowadays represent 7% of the country populaiton.

A view from kibbutz to the border with Lebanon

Tzfat

That’s where we went to the next day. Tzfat (Safed) is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Safed is one of Judaism’s Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Tiberias and Hebron, and a center for Kabbalah.

There is a legend that Tzfat was founded by a son of Noah after the great flood.

Many artists live in Tzfat and it’s also a place of a great interest for those who are into mysticism and occult. There are lots of art galleries and kabbalah stores everywere, the place is very authentic and has its’ own athmosphere.

Kabbalah bookstore

Oh noooooooooo! (a pillar next to one of the art galleries)

Yummy yemenite food

Nahal Ha-Shofet

Nahal Hashofet is one of the most uniquely beautiful landscapes in Israel – forested hills, rich, lush countryside with running streams and trees. It’s very pretty and relaxing.

Mount Bental – The Golan heights

“Golan” is the name of a city mentioned in the Bible as a “City of Refuge”. It has also come to denote a geographic region stretching from the biblical site westward towards the Sea of Galilee.

In the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Mount Bental was the site of one of the largest tank battles in history. Mount Bental is a key strategic point for Israel due to its advantageous observation point. Since there was a lot of iron remnants after the war, inventive israelis made funny and cute sculptures out of the scraps.

La Cucaracha

Bat out of iron

The view from the mount Bental is amazing, but, due to bad weather i didn’t get to take any decent pix…

Tabgha

After spending another night in kibbutz, we went to Tabgha. Tabgha is the traditional site of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in Christianity. The cults name is derived from the Greek name Heptapegon (“seven springs”).

The funny thing was, that, thought we got to Tabgha, we couldn’t get inside the church, because it was THAT SAME day when Jesus performed the multiplication miracle . So we just got to walk around and peek through the bars, as the priests and monks had a grand mass.

Tel Dan

Dan , formerly named Laish, is a town mentioned by the Bible, in which it is portrayed as the northernmost town of the Kingdom of Israel, and formerly as the main town of the Tribe of Dan.

Of the three sources of the Jordan River, the Dan River is the largest and most important. It is fed by the snow and rain which fall on Mount Hermon, the tallest mountain in Israel.

River Dan

Laish ruins

Prehistoric albino grashopper

Yardenit

Yardenit is a popular Baptism site. Here, the water flows into the Jordan river, eventually flowing into the Dead Sea located more than 100KM to the south. This site is believed by some traditions to be the actual site where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

Many Christian pilgrims stop at this site and perform baptism ceremonies, normally in small groups and accompanied by the group’s pastor.

The “Community Wall” welcomes the visitors at the entrance to Yardenit.
It describes the Baptism of Jesus Christ with the text taken from the new Testament in both ancient and modern languages.
This one i liked the most:

Mark 1,9-11 in Hawaiian

Holy ducks – they constantly get baptized by the holy waters of the river Jordan

Tiberias

Tiberias is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, Lower Galilee, Israel. It was named in honour of the emperor Tiberius.

Tiberias was built at about AD 20 by Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great on the site of the destroyed village of Rakkat, and it became the capital of his realm in Galilee.

Famed as a city in the region where Jesus preached, as the capital of Herod Antipas, the seat of the Sanhedrin (jewish supreme court), and the place where the Jerusalem Talmud was written, is so rich in antiquities that archaeologists in Israel call it “the city of treasures.”

Tiberias port

The ruins

The tree worth hugging!
This is one of the weirdest trees i have ever seen – it’s covered with spikes.

On the way back, we passed Megiddo – according to some interpretations of the Christian Bible, this place will be the venue for Armageddon (that derives from the name’s place in hebrew) or the final battle between the forces of light led by Jesus Christ and the forces of darkness led by Satan or the Anti-Christ after the End of Days

Also, that’s where the poor dude from The Omen got his head cut off .

If someone actually had the patience/had nothing better to do and read the whole post to the end- you can find more pix on my Flickr

Everything started with this (which promised the safe journey):

In the morning, we went to Gethsemane garden – the garden where Jesus and his disciples had the last supper, the night before the crucifixion. The olive trees in the garden are around 2000 years old.

We also were lucky to witness an apparition of a lovely nun and a monk collecting olives from the holy trees, and, of course, many other fools like us were taking pictures of them:

And here’s where Jesus was arrested after Judas betrayed him -

The Gethsemane grotto:

We walked the Via Dolorosa and visited Church of the Agony, which contains a bedrock where Jesus prayed before the night of his arrest:

The church:

The bedrock:

After that we went to visit the Tomb of Virgin Mary:

The outside:

The inside:

We also checked out the Church of Mary Magdalene, which is a Russian orthodox church -

The outside:

Russian orthodox monk cat:

Due to the vow of silence it couldn’t respond to any sounds we made.

No fun allowed!!!!:

All of the above is situated at the Mount of Olives. And this is the view one can see from it:

The Gate:

The Golden gate of Jerusalem – the oldest gate – through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem on a white donkey. There is an ancient cemetery close to the gate, so these will be the luckiest ones to be resurrected before everyone else.

And then we went to Bethlehem, had some nice food there and visited the Church of the Nativity – where Jesus was born.

Church of the Nativity – the door:

Jesus’ manger:

This is the place where Jesus was born!!!

To get into that grotto (called the Nativity Grotto) we had to be surrounded and trapped by the Greek orthodox middle-aged women who wouldn’t stop singing in a boisterous manner, and at some point i thought i was going to have an attack of agoraphobia. We had to move very slowly and eventually we reached the spot. I do not want to imagine what happens at this place on Christmas.

The wall which separates Israel and Palestine:

Monger square – the main square in Bethlehem:

This guy can play with his foot:

Palestinian beer:

The birth is cool and everything, but we had to head out to the Holy Sepulchre. Palestine seemed like a nice place, and certainly, no one was running around with guns on this side of the wall as well.
So, the Holy Sepulchre – where Jesus died.

The outside of the church:

The stone of the Annointing:

This is where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial and annointed with oils. Some people want to kiss it, some to touch it, and some to annoint their plastic bags and towels.

The tomb:

This place is believed to be where Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb. The vase of candles marks the place where his head was. The banner behind it varies with the liturgical seasons: this one is after Easter and says “Christ is Risen”.

The plaque!:

It says – have mercy on your servant Kaiaphas.
( yay!!! they mentioned the name of my band!!!)

After that, we went through Jerusalem market to the Wailing wall, and from there, through the Dung gate, we left Jerusalem and went to where dung goes -out, down from the mountain and home.

Last week we went to the Lowest Place on Earth, took a dip in the Dead Sea and some pix.

The Dead sea is the saltiest lake in the world. The sea is called “dead” because its high salinity means no macroscopic aquatic organisms such as fish or water plants can live in it – Satan killed all the little fishies in the lake- though minuscule quantities of evil bacteria and demonic microbial fungi are present.

Though it’s pretty exotic, not everyone can like it -due to the unbelievable amount of salt, the water feels like hot oil on your skin. And it’s pretty HOT water most of the time, because it’s heated up by the hellish lake of fire from the depths below.

It even has female and male hormones in the water (not sure where they came from and don’t want to ponder on that – Dead souls?!?!).

Also you can never get a sunburn there because of too much athmosphere on top of you- Dead sea is a passage between Heaven and Hell, so that’s where you can witness the perpetual fight between good and evil – heaven doesn’t let you get burned from above, but satan still uses his trickery when you go into the water.

And if you get a drop of water into your eye, you have to go to the clinic immediately, unless you want to have an eye patch for the rest of your life.

Also, naturally (!), the place is provided with Hot Sulphur pools, where you can soak as long as you can stand the smell + afterwards you carry the pungent smell with you for a couple of days, and, certainly, there’s no need to explain anything about hot sulphur.

And we surely did put the dead sea mud on ourselves.

The lowest point on Earth:

at 416m (1,378 ft) below sea level.

If you knock on the ground and listen carefully- Satan will knock back.

Do not leave the path!!! Deep mud!

If you leave the Path, your foot will sink into the mud, Satan will grab you by the ankle and there will be no return.

The Path:

If you leave the Path, your foot will sink into the mud, Satan will grab you by the ankle and there will be no return. Seriously.

The Mud:

The salt land is cracked, because Satan constantly tries to get out.

The Cacti:

There are some vital signs of nature, – but every rose has a thorn, and this is also Satan’s trickery.

Shower and Dead Sea:

It’s smarter not to take your clothes off, in case you have to run for your life.

No Littering:

Satan’s servants are watching you when you litter at the entrance to the master’s realms.

Check out my flickr to see more.

Tomorrow we’re going to Palestine -Bethlehem, and Jerusalem to wash away our sins and walk the way of Jesus.

So far, we have been to Eilat, a city at the Red Sea, between Jordan and Egypt. Eilat is considered to be one of the best and most beautiful places to go scuba diving, since the variety of corals and underwater creatures there is amazing. We stayed ( of course ) in the most awesome hotel, called Orchid, it is a Thai-style hotel almost right on the border with Egypt. We did loads of stuff in Eilat – went to the underwater observatory, which has sharks, stingrays, fluorescent weird fish and what not – most in their natural habitat – you just go downstairs and see the bottom of the sea with all it’s wonders; had a jeep ride in the desert, where some rocks are over 80 million years old, ate with bedouins; saw lots of dolphins swimming around at the dolphin reef beach; rode camels and ate some great food, etc.

Also, Zhyin played 2 parties here already – PsySpirit party in the forest near Jerusalem and Moksha party at Sakaya bar, alongside with Markus from X-Dream. I enjoyed both of the parties, the party in the forest was underground, with a great crowd, everyone loved the sets of dj Zhyin and were freaking out alot. There were also wild animals in that forest, when we were driving to the place at night we heard many coyotes’ howling (was kinda scary lol), and lost sheep, that were wandering around trying to steal ppl’s food and stashed goodies . On the way back, in the morning, we totally got lost in the forest and almost got a blair witch experience going in circles, but, after a couple of hours, we found our way out, feeling happy and ready to be tour guides in this place.

The party in Sakaya bar was in Jaffo – an old port of Tel Aviv ( also, one of my favorite places), right on the beach. The place was unbelievably stuffed with people (no way of showing any of your funky dance moves or getting to the bathroom ), but it was lots of fun! People really loved Zhyin’s set and were screaming and freaking out properly, the way it is supposed to be. Zhyin played after Markus (X-Dream) so it was pretty cool to meet the guy, cuz we love X-Dream alot. We got a super V.I.P. service from some dude in a red shirt ( thank you, dude in a red shirt!), he was constantly giving us drinks, cigarettes and what not, and he also got me a rose in the end of the party. We found out that the guy doesn’t work in the bar or anything, so, wherever the miracle man came from and how he managed to get all the stuff for us, thanks to him again!

Monday Zhyin has an interview at a radio station in Tel-Aviv and, i guess, more gigs and more fun will be coming up, so, there will surely be lots of stuff to write about.

Here are some pix we took , for the ones who r interested – you can scroll down and see my Flickr sets…

And, to the ones who think that Israel is a war zone, they can lick my A and go check out ukraine

Eilat pix

PsySpirit party pix

Sakaya bar party pix

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