I wish I knew more about what I’m writing about today, but all I have to go on is what I can see.

What I see is Althekra, a beautiful reproduction of what the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah apparently looked like before the current modern era. It’s a beautiful reproduction. The builders have done a magnificent job. The buildings look authentic, and the streets are narrow as they probably were in the days before automobiles. A few house businesses, but most are vacant.

What little information is available in the sim that might explain it is in Arabic. It was frustrating. I wanted to know more!

To one side of the town, there is an open square with two rows of stalls for vendors; you see one of them in the picture to the left. Just behind the buildings in this picture is, incongruously, a dance floor with a dance animation ball and strobe lights. The ruined building in the next picture stands on the other side of the square. There is doubtlessly a meaning to it, but without being able to read Arabic, I don’t know what it is, though a large smear of blood on the pavement stones nearby and some photographs suggests a connection with the terrible events in Gaza.

Be careful if you walk through this ruin. The town sits in the sky at about 350 meters high and there is a spot in the ruin where you can fall through. If you do, you’ll land in a shallow pool of water next to what appears to be a monument to the suffering of people in Gaza, though again because I don’t read Arabic, I can’t say anything more certain that that. If you want to show solidarity with Palesntinians, you can get free Palestinian tee shirts here. If you’re a Second Life membert and you want to visit Althekra, the reproduction of old Jeddah, click on this slurl to teleport there.