Crocodile Rock

Israel feels familiar though I have never been here.  Perhaps it is Canaanite ancestral memory, perhaps it is because some parts look like inland California and in some parts the golden stepped geography looks similar to Luxor (where I spent four archaeological field seasons years ago).  We are only a few miles from the Egyptian border.

So far I have just had established a broad overview of Timna Park, the first site where I will be recording audio, photos, and 360-degree video.  I have taken photos of Ramesside petroglyphs, copper mining archaeology, and of course the Hathor chapel.

I am enthralled with the acoustics of sounds bouncing off the giant stone faces.  I am also enchanted by the different sounds produced on walking on the different geologies of Timna Park. The soft sands swish, the course sands crunch in multidirectional sound rays, the slag near the copper mines jangles.

Anyone who visits Timna who is not enchanted with the rock formations must not have a pulse.  I see where ancient peoples surely must have found animal forms in the stones and created stories, just like  Native Americans did.  I see a crocodile in this rock:

I also appreciate this rock of a female lion's head.  I am always on the lookout for cougars when I trail run in California, so I am attuned to this shape. (The nose is near the lower middle.)

As for the sophisticate in me, I savor sensuous shapes like this one:  

And then there are exciting compositions of balance, tension, and potential energy:

I also tried my hand again at some underwater video at the IUI marine research center where the rest of the team is working.  I need more practice not to make my audience sea sick.  I did a good job with this in Greece 2 summers ago, so maybe the water was just too choppy the day I went out, or maybe I need to get more in harmony.  But the variety of fish just feet from shore is stunning.