An exhibition of
photographs by Pedro Barros and texts by Álvaro Figueiredo is currently on
display at the CANDLELIGHT FAIR OF
CULTURES in Lagoa (Algarve, Portugal), celebrating the Jewish, Christian and Islamic
heritage of Portugal.
Venue: Convento de São José, Lagoa,
17-19 April, 2014.
The Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan is a country of great geographic contrasts that are reflected in landscapes
of great natural beauty. With a long and complex history, Jordan belongs to the
so-called Fertile Crescent where the origins of agriculture and sedentary life
developed around 9000 B.C. Located in a region with enormous strategic
importance, between the world of the Mediterranean and Arabia, urban
civilizations developed here from around 5000 years ago, on a par with Egypt
and Mesopotamia. Also from an early date, the prosperity of its peoples derived
from long distance trade, attracted Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and
Persians. In the late 4th century B.C., the establishment of Hellenistic
kingdoms by the successors of Alexandre the Great, results in
a rapid hellenisation of the
territory and its people, evident in the foundation of the great urban centres
of the Decapolis – the league of “ten
cities” – such as Gerasa (Jerash), Gadara (‘Umm Qais) and Philadelphia
(‘Amman). Their immense wealth was mainly derived from control of the caravan
trade routes that traversed the plateau of Transjordan and connected
Arabia and the Red Sea, to the south, the cities of
Syria, to the north, and the Mediterranean, to the west. This was also the
period of consolidation and expansion of the pre-Islamic
Arab kingdom of the Nabataeans whose
politico-religious capital, Petra, is today the touristic and cultural jewel of
Jordan [...].
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