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!!!

Smashing Magazine textures contest

I participated in Smashing Textures contest – i didn’t win, but i got featured in 2 galleries of the best textures the Smashing crew selected in the end of the contest, and i’m happy about that. Two of my textures got featured in Sand and Earth gallery and in Stone, Walls, Brick gallery. Here are some textures i submitted + the ones i was considering to submit, but since there was a limit of 5 only, i couldn’t include all of them:

You can download these textures here, if you like.

Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth show

We went to Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth black metal show at 9:30 club, Washington D.C.

It was a cool show, i enjoyed it – both bands played well and had a great image and stage show. The sound in the club was perfect. It was nice to hang out a bit with Nergal, since Zhyin has toured with him back in the Ancient days – so they had some fun stuff to remember.

Miami

We went to Miami for 1,5 days to check it out , since we’re going to be moving there soon, for a year. I liked it because i love hot weather and hate cold. Can’t say more than that, because it was only a 1-day visit, but it seemed nice. We even managed to find a very nice place to live already, which we didn’t expect. ( the following photo is not the place we found – it’s just a pretty view from the hotel we stayed at )

We also visited the World Erotic Art museum, which is a collection of approximately 4,000 objects and antiquities dating to as early as 200 B.C. and hailing from lands as distant as Asia, Africa and India. Among the sculptures, the museum has the original phallic prop from Stanley Kubrick’s classic A Clockwork Orange. The collection belongs to Naomi Wilzig. Unfortunately, no photos allowed, only in the shop.

Sanatorium Altrosa

I bought the limited collectors edition of Sanatorium Altrosa – the new creation of Sopor Aeternus. Besides the cd itself, this edition comes with lots of fancy things – a bag, a shirt, a book with photos, etc. Well, i liked the fancy things the most. And sadly, this would be the first time i am saying something like that about Sopor Aeternus.

]]> http://www.ladyomega.com/pieces-of-the-present-and-the-recent-past/feed/ 7 http://www.ladyomega.com/malta-mdina-dungeons/ http://www.ladyomega.com/malta-mdina-dungeons/#comments Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:59:01 +0000 omega http://ladyomega.com/malta-mdina-dungeons You should excuse my long absence once again, since i was moving back to the states and had to do loads of boring stuff like unpacking, rearranging my room, etc…Taking into consideration that i had more than 100 kg of luggage, no one can blame me for taking such a long time

As i have promised, this post will be about Mdina dungeons. Mdina is the old capital of Malta, which is about 7000 years old. Besides being an outstandingly beautiful place, one of Mdina’s attractions is the dungeon museum. The underground dungeons of Mdina recreate the dark parts of the history of Malta, starting with the Romans and ending with Napoleon. The wax figures in the Mdina dungeons portray the ingenuous cruelty of human minds expressed in torture – the dramatic scenes from the ancient past and the characters who were either the victims or the executioners.

Mdina dungeons – the entrance

The Roman period

From early times, Romans treated prisoners with great cruelty. Torture and punishment adopted by them took many forms, and consisted mostly of flogging, beheading or crucifying. St.Agatha, who is reputed to have dwelt in catacombs in Rabat, was atrociously tortured by having her breast cut off.

When the Roman empire got split up, Malta was assigned to the Byzantine part. In AD 637 a conspiracy took place against Emperor Heraclius, in which Teodorius, the Emperor’s nephew, was an accomplice. Teodorius was arrested and exiled to Malta, where on his arrival on the island he had his nose cut off and foot amputated as a further punishment.

The Arab period

The Arabs occupied Malta in AD 870. At this time it was recorded that Manas, Bishop of Malta, was imprisoned in Palermo, Sicily for having provided the Byzantine army with grain during the Arabs’ struggle for Sicily. The Moslems had their own punishments, one of which was pressing where the victim was crushed beneath a pile of stones after being tied spreadeagled on the ground

The illustrated examples refer to tortures supposedly inflicted on Christian slaves by Muslims in the Middle Ages. From the time of the Crusades onwards, Christians and Muslims enslaved each other without remorse.
The tortures illustrated reflect a 17th century christian fear of enslavement rather than realities of the Muslim treatment.
In the Muslim world, slaves were mainly used in domestic service, and the only widely practiced cruelty was emasculation to provide eunuchs for harems.

Bubonic plague

Since the Medieval period, Malta has suffered numerous outbreaks of Bubonic plague, which were increased by lack of hygiene and undernourishment. Sometimes plague reached Malta through visiting ships.The victims’ corpses were loaded either on mule-driven death carts or on uncovered stretchers by criminals acting as corpse-bearers. Victims were administered Holy Communion by priests using long pincers to avoid contact.

Feudal Lords

During the Middle Ages the Maltese Islands were ceded to feudal lords, who were little better than tyrants, by the Sovereigns for services rendered to the crown or for monetary gain. In 1425, the islands passed on to Don Gonsalvo Monroy, the last Feudal Lord, who through iron-fisted rule reduced the populace to misery. Weary of his oppression, the inhabitants revolted and drove Monroy out of the island. In 1427 the Maltese were given their charter of liberty by King Alfonso.

The Slaves’ conspiracy

Following the failure of the slaves’ conspiracy in 1749, 38 of the presumed ring-leaders were tortured in the most hideous manner. Those condemned to death were transported through the main streets of Valletta where at intervals the executioner tore bits of flesh from the culprits with red hot pliers and poured boiling pitch on to the open wounds. 8 of the conspirators were branded with the letter “R”, signifying “Ribelli“, whilst 2 were quartered in the Grand Harbour.

The execution of Muslim leaders

Reproductions of contemporary watercolor paintings depicting the trial and execution of Muslim leaders involved in the assassination plot against Grand Master Pinto in 1749.

The Rosarians

The fraternity of the Holy Rosary was set up in Valletta in the church of Our Lady of Porto Salvo in 1575 and its members assisted comdemned prisoners in the last days of their lives. Members of the Confraternity walked the streets of Valletta in a white habit, with black rosary beads tied to their waist, collecting alms in a small tin box. Half the alms were given to the next-of-kin of those condemned whilst the other half were used to celebrate mass for the repose of their souls.

The Knights’ period

During the period of the Knights times were hard and so were the laws of the land. What today seems trifling, was then severely dealt with and some of the following offences were established by law. Blasphemy was severely punished, and those found guilty of the first offence had their tongues pierced with a needle. Slaves who refused work had their ears cut off. Criminals were liable to be punished by having their hands chopped off.

Cumbo’s horse

One of the most painful forms of torture was that of the Cavaletto. This consisted of placing the accused in a sitting position on a type of wooden horse with weights attached to the feet. The notorious 17th century judge, Giulio Cumbo, condemned some 120 criminals to death whilst holding office. At that time, the torture horse became popularly known as “Il cavallo di Cumbo“.

Jean Parisot de la Valette

Jean Parisot de la Valette was born in Gascony, France in 1494. In his early years he was notorious for his firey temper. He was temporarily unfrocked from the order at one stage and in 1538 for four months was imprisoned on the island of Gozo for having been foung guilty of attacking a private citizen. Elected the Grand Master of the Order in 1557 he achieved fame for his valour and leadership during the Great Siege of Malta by the Turks in 1565.

La Cassiere

In 1572 Jean Levesque de la Cassiere was elected Grand Master. La Cassiere was renowned both in the Knights’ Convent and the Courts of Europe. However, as a Grand Master, he turned out to be stern and intransigent. Great discontent arose in the Order and a group of rebel knights, led by Romegas, imprisoned him in Fort St.Angelo. After his reinstatement by Pope Gregory 13th, both La Cassiere and Romegas died in Rome.

Defeat in battle

In July 1570 Jean Francois de St.Clement in command of the flotilla of the Order’s galleys was surprised by an overwhelming force led by Lucciali, a Turkish general. St.Clement fled after losing the Capitania, the San Giovanni and the Sant’Anna – only the Santa Maria della Vittoria escaped. A general outburst followed and on his return St.Clement was tried, found guilty and stripped of his habit. Condemned to death, he was strangled in prison, and his body, enclosed in a sack filled with stones, was thrown into the sea.

Mattew Callus

With the coming of the Order of the Knights of St.John the privileges of the Universita, which represented the local Comune, were gradually eroded. Grand Master de la Valette removed further a number of privileges which led to widespread discontent among the citizens. In 1561 the prominent physician, Mattew Callus was bold enough to address the protest directly to King Philip II of Spain, but his letter was intercepted. He was then arrested, tried by a civil court, found guilty of sedition and hanged.

After the priests’ revolt

Following the abortive revolt of the priests in 1775, during the Magistracy of Grand Master Franceso Ximenes, three of the rebels were executed and their gory heads were stuck on long poles and displayed in public.

The Stocks

Stocks consisted of a timber frame with holes for feet, and sometimes hands, in which the offender was confined, secured in a seated position and forced to suffer the insults and ridicules of passers-by. Offenders were sometimes punished by means of “boccaglio“, a crude instrument of torture, which was placed over the head.

Witchcraft

Superstitions and witchcraft were among the most frequent problems for an Inquisitor in 17th century Malta. The deep-rooted catholic faith of the Maltese was undermined by such beliefs where sometimes people sought the help of women renowned for their healing powers. Fear of the evil eye remained strong amongst the population so the people resorted to talismans and amulets for protection. Muslim slaves were the most common source obtaining such potions and superstitious objects. Superstition was looked at by the authorities as a malaise to be held in check.

Masks of Shame

Those being punished had to wear these masks for public displays of their shame. There was a “Flute of Shame” for bad musicians, “Swine Mask” for men treating women poorly, the “Hood of Shame” for bad students, and many more masks of shame.

Abolishing the inquisition

In 1798 the French under Napoleon occupied Malta. The inquisition was abolished. But when the French confiscated property belonging to the Maltese Church, the Maltese revolted, and the patriots were executed executed by firing squad on the Place de la Liberte in 1799.

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

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.

- Zhyin got interviewed and played a dj set at Kol Ha Kampus 106FM Hafirot radio, Tel Aviv :

- We saw Mayhem play in Yaffo. It was pretty cool, they had Attila on the vocals this time, which is better, imho. Also, i liked that they came up with an interesting look for Attila – first part of the show he was wearing kind of a nazi outfit (which, of course, caused some “wtf” reactions from a number of israelis), the second part of the show he was wearing some kind of a pope/darth maul cloak. They had a globe on the table, surrounded by candles, and Attila was unleashing the evil energy upon the planet earth, until the energy ran out and he just burned it.

The only thing is that the show was way too short…

- We chilled at the beach, where i did some amazing pidgeon shooting ( I like pigeons because they have fluffy butts ) and walked around in the city. There are more pix of the beach and the rest at my Flickr.

- We went to the old part of Tel Aviv – Yaffo, walked around and had some trout at the restaurant

Yaffo is one of the most ancient port cities in the world – around 4000 years old. It’s very beautiful and its’ streets are named according to the zodiac signs.

- We also checked out the Global View Exhibition at the Rotshild street, where they had all kinds of globe designs, that was really cool, and i took pictures of almost all of them ( took more than an hour i think ). Check out the pix of all the globes i took here.

- And we went to the Dark Revolution party, where Dennis Osterman from In Strict Confidence played a dj set. It was a nice party. We also saw Peter Digital play in Sakaya bar, where Zhyin played previously.

Now we’re back in Arad, where camels are walking everywhere and you get thorns in your body.

AND I DYED MY HAIR again.

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

Thank you Julian for the award!!! It’s always cool to get nice surprises from friends!

They’re genuine photos of the headquarters of rmf fm, a Polish radio station based in Krakow.

More pictures from the source – Deputydog