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Show The Holy Land 219 in what they regarded as the Holy Land. Not many diary entries by Madelyn during that part of their visit-perhaps she kept a separate record that became lost. They did record the journey in full with a movie camera. The notes she prepared for talks she gave when she showed this film later in Denver, Salt were made Lake City, and elsewhere furnish a fascinating account of her journey and its impact on her. Madelyn and Harold managed in roughly a month's time in their late spring visit to cover the entire Fertile Crescent-from Tehran to Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut, Amman, Petra, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and Cairo.' This chapter tracks their journey as it would have been recorded, place-by-place, emphasizing the significance of each location as Madelyn would have experienced it. Considering the problems tourists have had in visits to the Middle East in recent years, it is comforting to know that Madelyn and Harold were not prevented or discouraged from visiting any place they wished. There was complete freedom to visit every city, town, and village; every building with historical significance, whether public or private; and, except in Iran which was a police state, they were not stopped or questioned by guards or policemen. Their visit was during a time of com plete freedom to move about and raise questions. One other positive note. Not being part of a packaged tour, they missed the exploitation by guides who mixed tradition with particular scri ptural interpretation. The land, as Madelyn well knew, was rich in the history of religion. On the shores of Lake Urmiah, in the north of Persia Zoroaster was born. In Mesopotamia Enlil was worshipped by the Sumerians and Ishtar and Marduk by the Assyrians. Palestine and Syria contained the sacred places of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions. Along the Nile lived the fol lowers of Ra, Isis, and Osiris. Much of the land was desert, but the Fertile Crescent was bounded by or included the Kurdistan, Taurus, Lebanon, and Anti-Lebanon mountains. The oldest known villages were in the alluvial plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; from them emanated the cultures that marked the beginning of civilization.' Madelyn and Harold began their Holy Land tour from |
