Festivals in Middle East

Hussein's Grandfather drew a nine inch blade from his boot and pulling back the chin with one hand, made a quick, deep cut across the goat's throat. Blood spilled onto the dry olive leaves of the family orchard. Grandfather Erol thanked Allah, thanked the goat, he asked that his grandson Hussein be blessed. Then he flayed it, removed the hide and draped over the stone wall to dry.

No sooner had we sat down in the semi-reconstructed Hippodrome at Jerash, Jordan's Roman city, a massive arena that once seated 15,000 spectators then, in the distance, I witnessed the appearance of a part of a Roman Legion, in a few minutes a re-enactment of the golden days of Rome came alive before us.

While the Spanish have bullfights, and the Italians cockfights, and the English go hunting with hounds, the Turks have camel wrestling.

One paragraph described the digger's leap from the landing boat and dash across the beach and up the hills to meet up with his unit. In his own words he described the landing as 'glorious fun'.