The southernmost region of Israel at Eilat down by the Red Sea.  High rise beach-front hotels extend to the border of Jordan to the right.  People snorkeled through water along beach reefs to look for brightly colored fish. A hundred years ago the area of Aqaba to the right of this view was planted with a few thousand palms and small fruit trees between the palms.  It was ruled by a Turkish garrison until WW1 when the British routed the Turks.  The area was a crossroads with roads to or from Cairo, Jerusalem, Amman, Damascus, and Medinah intersecting here.  The area averages less than two inches of rain per year, rarely two or three times as much and in a bad year not much rain to speak of.

(Feb 2002)
 

Eilat with Red Mtns. in background (2002)