5th - 24th February 2020, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel

Baalbek (Heliopolis). The Roman Temple of Bacchus. Largely deserted as Middle East sites so often are following rain. We drove high up into the mountains behind Beirut to where this magnificently grand late second century ruin sits elegantly, surrounded by the eyesores of modern times, mourning its past.

The great Oval Forum and Cardo Maximus at Jerash. Roman remains at a site in Jordan which traces its origins variously to the Seleucids, the Ptolemies and Alexander the Great.

The immortal testimony of the Nabataeans: the Treasury at Petra. No treasure has been found here although many have searched. Good to visit as the sun rises when the site can be contemplated alone. Even better to visit many times as small variations in the time of day, the fall of shadows, the position and intensity of the sun can conjure a myriad of moods and colours; each viewing is a unique experience.

Seeing the Treasury for the first time, looming upwards between the cracks of the canyon.

The image of a trader carved into the living rock of the 1.2 kilometre Siq canyon which leads to the city of Petra. It showed the way, close to the rock-hewn channels which carried water into the ancient city, for the desert merchants.