Far postcards are a weekly series in which the international NPR team shares moments in their lives and works in the world.
Over 1,500 years ago, an ancient Arab people built a Christian church in the Negev desert. Earlier this month, I was able to see what remains when I was invited to join a small group of archaeologists who were searches before dawn nearby.
You may know the Nabataean civilization of its fabulous city cut from Sandstone in Petra, Jordan. A film by Indiana Jones was partly shot there. The ancient nabatas were also formidable traders, Tredkining the deserts of the Arab Peninsulas and Sinai to deliver, among other goods, an aromatic excavation appreciated for its use in religious ceremonies. To support their long trips, they built caravanserate, cities and churches like this along their routes.
The rest of this abundant city of Oasis, called Mamashit, collapsed to its foundations, and the Nabataes have long disappeared as a distinct people.
So I was surprised to see how intact the baptism pools were, despite the punishing heat and the sand of the Negev. The smallest swimming pool was to baptize babies, explained archaeologists; The largest cross -shaped swimming pool to baptize adults – speaking to transition to Christianity that the Nabataes made, from the 4th century AD
Despite the sun early in the morning, I fought on my head, I stopped for a moment next to the pools. For me, they talked to the constant changes that people and societies are going through. And in a land crossed by many people during the millennia, it was a reminder that if things last a long time, they do not last forever.
See more photos from around the world:
- Greetings of Dubai airport, where a long stopover can also be a destination
- Greetings of Paris, where you can swim in the Seine for the first time in a century
- Greetings of Gujarat, in India, where a Banian is a place to rest, prayers and play
- Greetings of Khartoum, Sudan, where those who have the least offer the most to their guests
- Greetings of Moscow, Russia, where the tomb of Lenin attracts a new wave of visitors
- Greetings of New Delhi, India, where the monkeys which are the pleasure – and the ambivalence
- Greetings of Damascus, Syria, where a crowded bar welcomed revelers after the Assad
- Greetings by Alishan, Taiwan, whose red cypress forests offer timeless beauty
- Greetings of Odesa, Ukraine, where a black sea beach offers a respite from the war
- Greetings of Shenyang, in China, where workers sort the data of the AI in a “lord” way
- Greetings of Palmyra, in Syria, with its formerly large hotel named for a warlike queen
- Greetings of Mexico City, where these dogs set up a bus to and from school
- Greetings of the Galápagos Islands, where the Booby with blue feet shows its colors
- Greetings of Afrin, Syria, where the Kurds danced their hearts to celebrate spring
- Greetings of Dharamshala, India, where these Tibetan children had the best time
