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Like the title says, the cradle of civilisation. Trust me and I've travelled a lot, there is nowhere quite like the Middle East. Desert sand and holy lands. The source of the world's major religions. Petra, the pyramids, Jerusalem. Here's some of the things I saw.

To the right is the Hagia Sofia dominating the sky line of Istanbul, Turkey, one of my most favourite countries. It is acknowledged as one of the greatest buildings of the world and sometimes considered the Eighth Wonder of the World.

To the right is another famous skyline, or perhaps infamous. There is just nowhere in the world quite like Jerusalem. I'm far from a religious creature, but there was something in the air here. The golden dome in the background is the Al-Aqsa Mosque and just before that is the Wailing wall.

There's very little to see in most of the Gulf states, but in the photo to the left you might recognise this famous luxury hotel in Dubai, built in the shape of a sail, it's called the Burj al-Arab. You might also notice that there are not one, but two wombats (I am on the left). On the right is a friend of mine, I met on the road.

Most people haven't heard of Petra by name, but recognise it's famous stone facade from the Indiana Jones movie. Petra means 'stone' in ancient Greek. The city has several huge facades carved out of stone cliff faces. I got a picture at the two most famous ones.

One of the last place I visited was Iran or officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, but that sounds far too scary for such a nice place. Don't believe what you hear or see on TV. Iranians are some of the nicest people on earth and it's very safe to travel. Being an Islamic Republic it is law for women to wear a head scarf (hejab), but being a male wombat, I didn't have to bother with that. The only problem for an Australian like me, is you can't buy a beer anywhere, it's banned.

Iran has so much to see, including many beautiful mosques and ruins. Perspolis is the most famous ruins, destroyed by Alexander the great 2500 years ago (hence the Greek name), it was once the hub of a huge empire. That's me in front of the remains of the gate on my very own Persian carpet. So that's the Middle East. I've been to Egypt, but my photo in front of the pyramids never came out (broke my little heart), still I do have this picture of me at the impressive temple of Abu Simbel right down in the bottom of Egypt, not too far from the Sudan border.

One of my most, if not the most dangerous photo opportunities was in Morocco, where else but Marrakech. I figured there weren't that many great photo opportunities in the country so when I saw the numerous snake charmers I figured that was  my gig! Next snake I saw I jumped right in there and soon it was dancing to my tune. Check me out in the very tangles of the cobra on the left.

Libya, is most famously know for Colonel Qaddafi, and you can see his faces all over the country on big posters. So when I was in Tripoli I got a photo by the city's median with a poster of him probably telling his citizens to beware four pawed strangers from foreign lands and number 32.

I've seen many other parts of Africa too, but there are very few famous sight photo opportunities.

Table mountain is one exception, only it was so overcast when I got there, you couldn't make it out so I didn't bother with a photo of a grey background. Nevertheless when I was in a place called St. Lucia, up near the Mozambique border in South Africa, where there are a lot of hippos, I did get a picture, that you can see to the left.

I think the rest of North Africa is next on the list, but it's a very long list!

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