Ethnic groups in the Middle East

Tending to his camels in Petra, Jordan's spectacular archaeological marvel hidden deep in a desert canyon, Hussein Bdoul is all smiles: The tourists are back.

After years in which the COVID-19 pandemic turned the storied "Rose City" into a ghost town, the father of seven is back at work, offering visitors rides on his decorated animals.

Israeli archaeologists have unveiled a 1,200 year-old mansion, broadening knowledge of the southern desert region where a mosque was recently discovered.

Described as a "luxurious rural estate" by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the home boasted a marble-paved hallway and walls decorated with frescoes.

When Eden Cami closes her eyes and starts singing ancient tunes in Arabic and Hebrew, Jewish-Israeli bassist Or Rozenfeld plays the contrabass, and Syrian band member Wassim Mukdad creates sparkling sounds on his 12-string oud, they take their audience on a musical journey through the Middle East.

The ceremony took place at the St. Ephrem Syriac-Aramean Cathedral

The small motorboat chugging through southern Iraq's marshes is similar to those tourists use to explore the vast swamplands, the reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden.

As part of plans to keep foreign population at certain levels within local communities, officials are not allowing 16 provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, to admit additional refugees for settlement.

A high-stakes camel beauty pageant in Saudi Arabia has been hit by a cheating scandal after 43 entrants were disqualified for botox injections and other cosmetic enhancements.

The King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is an annual Bedouin event held in the desert northeast of Riyadh that lures breeders from around the Gulf with prize money of up to $66 million.

After nearly four decades, Jews in Turkey came together at the Ankara Synagogue to "revive their memories."

Isaak Haleva, the chief rabbi of Turkey's Jews, as well as several members of the Jewish community, joined the event in the capital Ankara.

In a speech on the occasion, Haleva said the preservation of synagogues is important for his community in Turkey.

Within the scope of new projects, Mardin's historic Dereiçi neighborhood, which is considered one of Turkey's symbolic places depicting multicultural life where many TV dramas and films have been shot, will be brought to serve tourism.

The 19th-century exile of Circassians from their Black Sea homeland remains a painful tragedy, said Turkey's president on May 21. 

"On the 157th anniversary of the deportation of our Circassian brothers from their homeland, I feel a great pain in my heart, and I wish Allah's mercy to those who lost their lives," Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Twitter.