All posts tagged Featured

THE THING ABOUT PALESTINE

By | August 30, 2014 | Pax Islamica, Politics | Comments Off on THE THING ABOUT PALESTINE

By Mahmoud Taji

There are times in one’s life when the official rhetoric no longer satisfies your quest for truth. The overwhelming feeling that you are being duped, tricked, and lied to becomes too insistent to register as merely your day to day paranoia.

As a study of this phenomenon lets take a closer look at the recent “Clashes” between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The word “clashes” in and of itself is misleading. It would give you the impression that these are two armies of equal or near-equal strength deciding to go head to head in a ‘fair’ fight that eventually one of which will emerge as the victor.

Except the Palestinians we are talking about have been under siege in their little 25 mile strip of land by the Israeli government with no Aid, no port, no airport and no permission to go to and from the other part of Palestine, the West Bank. Read more…

EUROPE TO HOST FIRST-EVER INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HALAL TOURISM

By | July 17, 2014 | Reviews | Comments Off on EUROPE TO HOST FIRST-EVER INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HALAL TOURISM

Recently I have been getting a significant amount of press releases to my inbox, mostly they are related to some award or the other, or some new product or service that is launched by a hotel or that relates to F&B. I usually rummage through them and set them aside, the reason being is that Al Rahalah is not a magazine, and was not intended as one. However, one of these press releases did grab my attention enough to have me post it right here. It falls right within the core of this site: Halal Tourism, and I thought I would share.

It’s about time Halal Tourism got the focus it deserves.

Read more…

UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK VIII

By | June 24, 2014 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, History, Unseen Egypt | 2 Comments

Deserts have always had a mesmerising, almost terrifying, effect on men. It’s vast, well-nigh endless, and very confusing. It is alien in its features, eerily quiet and when a sound ruptures the silence you would think it is screaming at you from all directions at once.

But they are also magnificently serene, and it is hard to beat a desert’s night sky for its glory.

Read more…

LAND OF EXTREMES: SURVIVE IN THE DESERT

By | June 11, 2014 | Be Prepared, Survival | Comments Off on LAND OF EXTREMES: SURVIVE IN THE DESERT

Deserts are some of the most unforgiving habitats on the planet, they are barren wastelands where only the hardiest of creatures can have a hope of surviving. They are harsh and cruel, exceptionally hot during the day, and very cold during the night. During colder periods of the year, temperatures can plummet below freezing come night-time. Distances are another dilemma in the desert, they are dangerously deceptive; objects in the distance seem very close that you can touch them, while in reality they are far enough you could probably perish before reaching them.

Read more…

UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK VII

By | June 4, 2014 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, History, Unseen Egypt | Comments Off on UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK VII

Not all who visited Egypt, whether in ancient or relatively modern times, were impressed with the ancient architecture of the early Egyptians. Some, like Herodotus and Diodorus of Sicilia, didn’t think very highly of the pyramids builders, especially Kheops and Khefren, they thought they were tyrants and heretics. Others, like French writer Pierre Loti who visited Egypt in 1907, thought the sight of the Pyramids, the Sphinx and the surrounding desert, looked apocalyptic, awful, and surreal! Read more…

BE PREPARED

By | May 31, 2014 | Be Prepared, Survival | Comments Off on BE PREPARED

Be Prepared. If ever a motto was needed in this age of couch potatoedness (I just made this one up!), it has to be the Scout motto. Humanity has advanced so fast over the past five or six decades and has become very dependant on the latest of technologies and gadgets to make our lives even easier than it already is. There’s almost an App for everything! The more advanced (read higher standard of living) the society we live in is, the more complacent we become. We take things for granted, things that our great grandparents couldn’t even dream of, let alone experience.

Skills we learned and developed over thousands of years—turning them into instincts to live by, have now become skills that, we hope, our kids might learn in summer camps, only for some of them to forget after the first stint in front of the television. Read more…

UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK VI

By | May 26, 2014 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, History, Unseen Egypt | Comments Off on UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK VI

A confession… Irregularity has become part of the publishing process on this blog, a trend that we’re working hard to reverse! We can blame it all we like on the events taking place in Egypt, and though they can deflate the most enthused of writers, they’re not completely to blame for the randomness of postings. Insha’Allah a noticeable change is on the horizon, so we would like to extend our gratitude for staying with us all this time.

In 1867 One of the greatest literary minds in American history along with a group of Americans toured Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Holy Land (Palestine). The writer is non other than Mark Twain, and the trip was aboard a retired Civil War ship called Quaker City, the trip lasted for five months and his humerus chronicles would eventually be published in 1869. Read more…

FROM HURGHADA TO MASA ALAM ON PEDAL POWER

By | May 13, 2014 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel + Leisure, Travel Chronicles | Comments Off on FROM HURGHADA TO MASA ALAM ON PEDAL POWER

By El-Qamar
Photography by El-Qamar and Michael Manoly

Back in March we had a couple of excellent guest posts about cycling trips from Hurghada to El Quseir (here and here), now here’s the latest instalment in the series: from Hurghada to Marsa Alam, a 284 km (176.5 mi) road trip on two wheels over two days. Enjoy. Read more…

CRAFT OF THE TWO HANDS

By | April 15, 2014 | Egypt, Retail + Shopping, Reviews | Comments Off on CRAFT OF THE TWO HANDS

Few arts have been associated with being lady-like as embroidery, crocheting, and cross-stitch. It was considered a sign of refinement. And while there is no decisive evidence of crocheting before its popularity in Europe during the 19th century [source: Wikipedia], embroidery and cross-stitch have been around for a very long time. Embroidery has been dated as early as the 5th century BCE, and Cross-stitch is considered the oldest form of embroidery and can be found all over the world.

In Egypt, as in the rest of the world, these crafts have been traditionally passed down through generations, unfortunately, at some point this tradition almost all but died out, the faster the pace of life become, the less patience younger generations had for learning such delicate arts. Which brings us to the bright point of this post: Coralique, a grandmother/granddaughter team that is reviving this lost art in Egypt. Read more…

UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK V

By | March 29, 2014 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, History, Unseen Egypt | Comments Off on UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK V

Long before the relocation of Philae, the temple would get flooded, especially in times of a high inundation levels. Travellers would sail through the temples in boats, which is very evident in their inscriptions high up on some of the columns. The temple and the island of Philae have been a source of wonder for millennia; Philae is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Strabo, Diodorus, Prolemy, Seneca, and Pliny the Elder.

They would not be the last of the travellers to marvel at its wonders. Read more…