Translate page with Google

Story Publication logo May 27, 2016

Blessed. Cursed. Claimed.

Country:

Author:
Media file: Salopekhorizontalphotorepresentation-1.jpg
English

As Paul Salopek journeys around the world on foot, he will follow the migration pathways of our...

SECTIONS
Media file: bethlehem-salopek.jpg
Striding toward Bethlehem, in the West Bank, Salopek is detoured by a herder’s tattered fence, one of the first human-made barriers—other than checkpoints and border gates—he’s faced in some 2,300 miles since he started out in Ethiopia. Image by John Stanmeyer/National Geographic.

Jerusalem is not a city of war. Avner Goren is stubborn on this point.

We are on foot, walking under a cloudless morning sky in the Levant, following a river of raw sewage that foams in torrents from East Jerusalem—12 million gallons a day, Goren informs me—a foul discharge that runs for 23 miles down to the Dead Sea. We are trailing the waste as a form of pilgrimage. Goren, one of Israel's leading archaeologists, thinks like this.

"There have been 700 conflicts here since Jerusalem was founded," he says over his shoulder, wedging his way through religious tourists in the Old City. "But there were long times without war too. And people lived peacefully together."

To read the full story in National Geographic click here.

Visit National Geographic to follow the Out of Eden Walk in real-time online.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED TOPICS

teal halftone illustration of a family carrying luggage and walking

Topic

Migration and Refugees

Migration and Refugees

Support our work

Your support ensures great journalism and education on underreported and systemic global issues