Indonesian Muslims take part in the evening mass prayers called "Tarawih" on the first night of holy fasting month of Ramadan, at the Grand Mosque of Istiqlal in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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In Indonesia, Ramadan Means Joy — and Profit
Indonesian Muslims take part in the evening mass prayers called "Tarawih" on the first night of holy fasting month of Ramadan, at the Grand Mosque of Istiqlal in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 11, 2024. (Reuters)
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful fast from dawn to dusk, began at sunrise Tuesday in much of Asia, a day after many Muslims in the Middle East began their fasts.
In the Muslim lunar calendar, months begin only when the new moon is sighted, which can lead to variations of a day or two.
In Indonesia, where 90% of the population of 277 million practice Islam, celebrations ranged from colorful torchlight parades, to cleaning family graves, to preparing food for pre-dawn breakfasts and elaborate post-sundown meals known as "iftars." Each region in the archipelago nation has its own way to mark the start of Ramadan.
The government set the start of the holiday for Tuesday after teams from more than 100 regions failed to sight the new moon Sunday. Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas announced the timing late Sunday evening.
Mosques flooded with devotees offering the evening prayers known as “tarawih” on Monday night. In Jakarta’s Istiqlal Grand Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, tens of thousands of worshippers crammed together shoulder-to-shoulder.
It's also an exciting time for business. Hotels, restaurants and cafes all prepare special Ramadan promotions, shoppers to flock shopping centers for new clothes and home decorations for the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.
During Ramadan, Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse from sunrise until sunset. Even a tiny sip of water or a puff of smoke is enough to invalidate the fast. At night, family and friends gather and feast in a festive atmosphere.
The fasting is aimed at bringing the faithful closer to God and reminding them of the suffering of the poor. Muslims are expected to strictly observe daily prayers and engage in heightened religious contemplation. They are also urged to refrain from gossip, fighting or cursing during the holy month.
UN to List West Bank, Lebanon Sites as 'in Danger'
FILE PHOTO: Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, as seen from Metula in northern Israel, June 1, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
The United Nations looks set to list a Biblical site, Lebanese castles, an antelope migration path and the world's deepest lake as world treasures under threat, including from war or climate change.
The 196 members states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are to cast votes from Friday next week on new additions to its World Heritage and World Heritage in Danger lists when they meet in Busan, South Korea.
"We may not have the means to deploy peacekeepers... but we can send a message to the entire world," the director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, Lazare Eloundou Assomo told AFP.
"These sites are important, and everything must be done to prevent their destruction."
Safeguarding "heritage allows communities that have been traumatized, victims of conflicts, to begin to come back and rebuild," he added.
Some 1,200 sites around the globe are listed as part of UNESCO World Heritage.
Making the heritage list often sparks a lucrative tourism drive, and can unlock funding for the preservation of sites that can face threats including pollution, war and negligence.
A site being qualified as heritage in danger, Assomo said, was not a reprimand but a measure meant to help states "find funding, partners and attention" to better preserve it.
Three sites, so far unlisted, are expected to be fast-tracked and voted straight onto the list of endangered places.
These could include the archaeological site of Sebastia, identified as being Biblical Samaria, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.
The site itself is in an area of the West Bank under Israeli control.
But Palestinians in the adjacent village, which is under dual Israeli-Palestinian control, have long depended on tourist visits to the ruins for their income and fear Israel could completely cut off access.
Israel left UNESCO in 2017, but remains a member of the World Heritage Committee, which has the final say on which sites are inscribed on each list.
Also to be given priority are five castles in south Lebanon, an area under fire from Israel, one of which -- the Crusader fortress of Qalaat al-Chakif or Beaufort Castle -- Israeli troops captured in May.
UNESCO members are also to vote on directly listing the Boma-Badingilo grassland and woodland savannahs in South Sudan the as under threat from both war and climate change.
One million animals -- including antelopes and gazelles -- migrate through the vast wilderness located between the White Nile and the Ethiopian border every year, leaving scars on the grasslands that are visible from the sky.
Beyond these priority cases, some sites already listed as heritage spots could now further be labelled as endangered.
These include the remains of Roman baths and a second-century triumphal arch and hippodrome in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, which has come under heavy Israeli bombardment in recent months.
Also a potential candidate is the ancient Greek settlement of Tauric Chersonese in the Crimea peninsula that Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine argues it is under threat from unauthorized excavations, large-scale construction projects, and the relocation of artifacts after Russia's invasion of Crimea.
In Russia, the world's deepest lake -- Lake Baikal -- could also be labelled in danger as authorities struggle to contain damage from pollution, mass tourism, large-scale logging and lower water levels due to a dam upstream in Mongolia.
The vast Siberian lake contains 20 percent of the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserve, according to Russia. Known as the "Galapagos of Russia", it is home to a huge variety of flora and fauna.
But in a 2023 report, the UN agency warned that if the "unfolding ecological degradation of Lake Baikal" was not urgently stopped and reversed, it would be classified as in danger.
"Some actions are being implemented to address this," it added, but "the mission considers that they are not sufficient".
Other sites are also vying for a simple listing.
In France, the Normandy beaches on which the Allies landed on June 6, 1944 during World War II could finally receive UNESCO recognition.
Two theatres built in the Amazon forest in Brazil and the Tunisian village of Sidi Bou Said might also be listed.
Mount Olympus, Home of Ancient Greek Gods, is a Candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Listhttps://english.aawsat.com/culture/5297298-mount-olympus-home-ancient-greek-gods-candidate-unesco-world-heritage-list
Mount Olympus, Home of Ancient Greek Gods, is a Candidate for UNESCO World Heritage List
Snow patches remain on the upper slopes of Mount Olympus in northern Greece, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Snow-capped for much of the year, Mount Olympus, mythological home of ancient Greece’s 12 Olympian gods, has captured the imagination through the millennia. Rising to 2,918 meters (9,573 feet) from a base practically at sea level, the ancient Greeks believed the throne of Zeus, king of the gods, stood on the highest of its craggy, often mist-shrouded peaks.
Now, modern-day Greeks hope their tallest mountain will be inducted into UNESCO’s World Heritage List as a mixed cultural and natural site. The nomination is to be discussed when the World Heritage Committee meets in Busan, South Korea from Sunday through July 29.
“Olympus is our life. It is the place we grew up in,” said Evagelos Geroliolios, mayor of Dion-Olympus, based in Litochoro, the mountain’s main town. “It is the place we see every day, but at the same time, it is also a place which carries with it myth, history, biodiversity, extraordinary beauty and a very great cultural weight.”
Few locations are as central to ancient Greek mythology as Mount Olympus. It was here that Zeus was said to have established his court after overthrowing his father, Cronus, in a 10-year war that ended the reign of the Titans.
Interest in Olympus may receive another boost with the theatrical release this week of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” a new adaptation of Homer’s epic, in which the mountain serves as the home of Zeus and the Olympian gods who influence Odysseus’ journey.
On one of Olympus’s lower peaks, excavations have uncovered an open-air sanctuary, with the oldest finds dating to the Hellenistic period, which ran from 323 B.C. to 30 B.C. According to Greece’s original UNESCO nomination, the sanctuary is believed to have been one mentioned by the ancient philosopher and historian Plutarch, who in the 2nd century wrote of processions to one of Olympus’s peaks for animal sacrifices to Zeus.
The mountain retained religious significance into the Christian era. Α chapel on the peak of Prophet Elias, at 2,803 meters, is believed to be the highest altitude chapel in the Christian Orthodox world. The mountain’s Enipeas Gorge holds the remains of a monastery founded in 1542, while a roughly 20-minute walk from there leads to the Holy Cave of St. Dionysios, a chapel built into a cave from where a small spring flows, believed to carry holy water.
The mountain’s slopes, which reach practically to the sea, also host a wealth of flora and fauna, including endemic species. It is this blending of culture, myth, natural beauty and biodiversity that locals hope will see their mountain declared a World Heritage site, The Associated Press reported.
Sunflowers bloom in Kalyvia Varikou, near Litochoro in northern Greece, backdropped by Mount Olympus, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
“It is a place we love. It is a place that many people from all over the world visit to see, to live, to experience. We want to protect it,” Geroliolios said. Its inclusion on UNESCO’s list would be “something very big that goes beyond not just local boundaries, but national boundaries. It is something that concerns the entire world. It is very important.”
Greece began the process to have Mount Olympus recognized as a World Heritage site in 2014, inscribing it on its Tentative List — the mandatory first step in any nomination. The Tentative List is where countries include sites they can then formally nominate over the next five to 10 years.
The nomination process includes a preliminary assessment followed by submission of a full nomination file, which is then evaluated over 14 months by advisory bodies, including the International Council on Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Recommendations by the advisory bodies are then discussed during the World Heritage Committee’s annual meeting, where representatives of 21 countries vote on nominated sites.
Greece's Mount Olympus nomination is far from certain. A draft of the Busan meeting's agenda indicates the committee will refer the nomination back to Greece and request further details.
A statue of Alexander the Great holding Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, stands near Litochoro in northern Greece, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, backdropped by Mount Olympus' highest peaks, Mytikas and Stefani. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Still, locals hope the mountain’s cultural and natural wonders will secure it a place and will play a role in securing more protection for the mountain.
The need for protection The mayor, Geroliolios, said inclusion on the World Heritage list “places some greater obligations on our part to protect this environment.”
Environmental protection is also foremost in the mind of mountain guide Babis Marinidis, president of the Alpine Club of Litochoro.
Including Olympus on UNESCO’s World Heritage list would likely attract more people to the mountain and the surrounding area, Marinidis said. “How many people can this mountain, this ecosystem, bear?” he asked.
Although much of Olympus was designated a national park decades ago and there are regulations in place, many are openly flouted, with Marinidis saying visitors regularly ignore “no swimming” or “no camping” signs.
The ever-growing number of visitors had led local authorities to consider imposing entrance fees and registering visitor numbers. “I used to be against that,” Marinidis said. “But now with so many people, I believe some limit must be imposed.”
Rare 19th-Century Panel Displayed at Red Sea Museum Features Complete Quranic Texthttps://english.aawsat.com/culture/5297103-rare-19th-century-panel-displayed-red-sea-museum-features-complete-quranic-text
Rare 19th-Century Panel Displayed at Red Sea Museum Features Complete Quranic Text
The meticulously crafted script begins with Surah Al-Fatihah at the top - SPA
A rare 19th-century Quranic calligraphy panel is on display at the Red Sea Museum in Historic Jeddah.
Created around 1859–1860 CE by Ghouth Mahboob Ghalib in Mysore, India, the single-page artwork features the entire text of the Holy Quran arranged within a detailed illustration of the Grand Mosque in Makkah.
Written in Diwani script using black ink and gilding, the manuscript places the Kaaba at its center, SPA reported.
The meticulously crafted script begins with Surah Al-Fatihah at the top, weaves through the architectural details of the mosque, and concludes with Surah An-Nas.
The artifact highlights the historical and spiritual journeys of pilgrims who traveled across the Red Sea to Makkah, carrying works of art that documented the cultural heritage and history of the Hajj.
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