Hey! Its Elise agian and I'm here to tell you about our adventure through the climates of the Middle East. The Middle East has few types of climates, but they are almost opposites of each other. Deserts such as the Rub al-Khali have dry and arid climates. We experienced this while we toured through this land of sand. However, at night temperatures drop severely. Who would've thought that a scorching hot afternoon could go to an almost freezing night?
As you travel to the ocean, you may experience a more tropical climate. Temperatures are slightly cooler than those of the deserts and they are more steady. When we arrived in the Middle East by plane we landed in a costal city. The weather there was beautiful!
Some places in the Middle East have a climate like Iowa's; these places tend to get hot summers followed by cool falls and cold winters, and then it's on to spring. These places experience all four seasons, while other regions may only see summer and spring all year round.
As you can tell, the Middle East is a diverse place from its people to its climate. I hope you learned a little more about this through this blog post, and thanks for stopping by!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Mountains and Plateaus Part 1: An Elburz Excursion
Finding a slope that was at our skill level was difficult since the average height of the mountains is about 9,000ft. After some serious searching, we discovered a mountain that was just perfect for us. Mt. Damavand loomed overhead and I couldn't help but get a little scared of its extreme height. But instead of dwelling on that, Clare, Elise, and I hit the slopes and had some serious fun! Even though we were in Iran, a place where the average summer temperature easily reaches 97 degrees Farenheit, there was snow on the mountains. I guess it probably helped that it was at such a high altitude!
While we were resting in the ski lodge, we saw a sign with pictures of beautiful hot springs. Clare went to take a closer look and saw that these springs were on Mt. Damavand. She insisted that we find a way to get to the hot springs and take a relaxing dip. After I did a little asking around, I found out that there was a helicopter tour going up to the springs soon. We all returned our skis and snowboards and prepared to leave.
When the helicoptor arrived, we boarded it with some other tourists. The ride was pretty long and very bumpy, but the scenery was beautiful! The snow-capped mountains touched and broke through the clouds that were set in a perfect blue sky. It was an amazing site!
When we got to the springs, we bought some cheap swimsuits and ran out into the cold to the hot springs. Even though it was freezing on the mountain, the springs were warm and relaxing. A tourist who had actually planned to go to the springs told us that the springs were heated by the dormant volcano's hot lava that was still inside. It worried me a little that we were swimming in lava, but she said that it was only heated by the lava, like a pot on a hot stove. I was then able to relax and enjoy the theraputic qualities of the mineral hot spring.
Well I'm running out of time today, so I will sign out for now. Next time you will hear about our hike up the Iranian Plateau, so be sure to stick around. Happy blogging!
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Hi, its Clare here. Emily, Elise and I have just gotten back from a boating trip down the Euphrates river have made our way partly back the Tigris River. We have learned a lot on trip on the rivers and have made some interesting stops a long the way.
We started our trip by flying in to the city of Dayr az Zwar, a farming town on the Euphrates River. We got ready to go early in the morning and went down to the dock to start our tour. We were riding in a small shallow draft boat since it was the only way to navigate the rivers.
After about a day of riding down the river we were at the Syria, Iraq boarder where we would spend the night in one of the boating rentals camps. We had found that there are many animals living on the river. We had seen many frogs, snakes, birds, lizards and even a few gazelles. After a sleepless night on the marshes of the Euphrates we got back in our boat and headed down the river a little more until we came to the ancient city of Babylon. When we got out to see what was left of the empire all we saw was a mound of broken mud bricks, oh well, a little disappointing but still interesting. We learned that the town first flourished in the beginning of the thrid millennium BC. Also that the hanging gardens of Babylon was one of the ancient seven wonders of the world. We then got back on our boat to head back down the river and after another long day of boating we came to the Shatt-al-Arab to end our journey down the Euphrates river and start our trip up the tigris.
We spent the night with some villagers along the Shatt-al-Arab, restocked our food and supplies and started to go back up the tigris river. We were only allowed to go a forth of the way up the tigris river due to the war in Iraq. It probably wasn't good that we were in Iraq at all. Even though we didn't go very far I did notice that it was very hot and dry due to the arid climate and there was many sand storms. Elise had pointed out that the water quality in the river was very bad and still many of the people along the river drink that water.
After we had returned our boat we took a plane out of Iraq to get a good nights sleep and start our next adventure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon.
We started our trip by flying in to the city of Dayr az Zwar, a farming town on the Euphrates River. We got ready to go early in the morning and went down to the dock to start our tour. We were riding in a small shallow draft boat since it was the only way to navigate the rivers.
After about a day of riding down the river we were at the Syria, Iraq boarder where we would spend the night in one of the boating rentals camps. We had found that there are many animals living on the river. We had seen many frogs, snakes, birds, lizards and even a few gazelles. After a sleepless night on the marshes of the Euphrates we got back in our boat and headed down the river a little more until we came to the ancient city of Babylon. When we got out to see what was left of the empire all we saw was a mound of broken mud bricks, oh well, a little disappointing but still interesting. We learned that the town first flourished in the beginning of the thrid millennium BC. Also that the hanging gardens of Babylon was one of the ancient seven wonders of the world. We then got back on our boat to head back down the river and after another long day of boating we came to the Shatt-al-Arab to end our journey down the Euphrates river and start our trip up the tigris.
We spent the night with some villagers along the Shatt-al-Arab, restocked our food and supplies and started to go back up the tigris river. We were only allowed to go a forth of the way up the tigris river due to the war in Iraq. It probably wasn't good that we were in Iraq at all. Even though we didn't go very far I did notice that it was very hot and dry due to the arid climate and there was many sand storms. Elise had pointed out that the water quality in the river was very bad and still many of the people along the river drink that water.
After we had returned our boat we took a plane out of Iraq to get a good nights sleep and start our next adventure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Scuba Diving in The Persian Gulf
This is a picture of me with my 2 favorite dolphins, Filly (on the right) and Callay (on the left)Hey, its Elise. Today we went on a tour of the Persian Gulf, now this tour was anything but usual, We took a Eco-friendly scuba diving tour with our guide, Ali. Ali knows every thing there is to know about the Persian Gulf. She told us about how the plants and animals are dying because of frequent oil spills, and about the Gulf War. Also about the naming dispute and how some people wanted to name it The Arabian Gulf, but it was officially known as The Persian Gulf. She also mentioned how very important the oil is to the people here. We passed an oil plant, and she said it was part of the oilfield Safaniya. It's the largest offshore oilfield in the world.
As we scuba dived we saw tons of animals. We even got to swim with some sea turtles. Ali said that if we want to come here again to see the sea turtles, it better be soon because frequent oil spills are threatening sea life. I asked what action was being taken to prevent this, she said little to nothing. The sea turtle swam off, and we moved on to one of the many coral reefs there. They are beautiful. And every time I saw a fish or other sea animal swim by us, I thought of how long they had before an oil spill got them. We saw fish, turtles, dolphins, and more.
Well, its late and tomorrow we are going on another adventure, so I better sign off. But next time I get a chance I'll write about more adventures. I hope enjoyed. Bye!!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A Trip Through the Rub al-Khali
Hey it's Emily writing to you from the world's largest all-sand desert, the Rub al-Khali. Clare, Elise, and I decided to take a guided tour through just part of this vast desert (traveling through all 650,000 sq km of it would be just about impossible!) and I wanted to document our trip for you to read.Before we could start the tour, we had to learn how to ride camels, just like the Bedouins. The Bedouins are a group of nomads who live in the Rub al-Khali. Learning to ride camels was harder than it looks. I've only ridden one at the zoo before! But once we got the hang of it and our guide, Amar, approved our newly-found skills, we were ready to start the trip.
On our tour we saw countless sand dunes, some reaching about the height of the Eiffel Tower (1,000 ft). I've never seen a sand castle that before! Amar told us to always follow him because we could easily get lost in such a vast land of sand. He knew exactly how to navigate through and around the dunes.
After a surprisingly short time, our group came to a large oil field and processing plant. There were pipelines and trucks and people everywhere. Amar told us that we could stop and rest if we chose, and we decided that that would be good for us and the camels. While there, we learned that Saudi Arabia produces 25% of the world's oil. That's about 264 BILLION barrels of crude oil a year! We also got to see how everyone works together to harvest the oil, though they get paid very little. After a little while, Amar said that we should get back on the camels and journey a little further into the desert before turning back.
There weren't many plants or animals in this desert because of the lack of water, but we saw some cacti and small rodents. Amar showed us how to break open a part of the cacti to get to the water it stored inside. He also showed us where to find dew that collected in the morning and how to dig under the sand to find water for the camels and for our water pouches. I was surprised that anything could live in a place where water was so hard to find. Not only that, but the sun was scorching and the ground was incredibly hot. Amar said that temperatures can reach about 131 degrees Farenheit at noon in the summer (you could definatly fry an egg in those temperatures!), but can drop to comfortable or even chilly temperatures at night. He also said that most of the animals that live in the Rub al-Khali were sleeping underground at this time of day so they could come out at night when it was cooler.
Well it's time for me to go get ready for our next adventure. Thanks for visiting our blog, and we will keep you posted on our journey through the Middle East!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)