A group of us went to the oldest camel market in my country this week. It was about an hour outside my city and the camels are brought north up the 40 Days Road through the desert to this place to be sold for work and slaughter. Most of the camels we saw came from Sudan, Somalia, and Saudi Arabia. This Arkansas girl is a LONG way from home!

The Arab Way. Greet with a kiss. Smoke some sheesha. Have some tea.

A view of the market. There were HUNDREDS of camels there. Lonely Planet said it was not a place for the faint-hearted or for animal lovers...which we found to be very true. No mercy is shown to these animals! Most had open wounds on their back and knees (or maybe their elbows?) and many had bloody eyes and noses from being hit too many times with a stick. And, no, they are not all missing their front left leg (as I first thought) but the owners tie up a leg so they cannot run away, although many try anyway, and receive a rough beating for it.

One of the camel owners who wanted to pose for a picture. He is holding one of the "camel beater" sticks. I didn't ask him where he was from but I wondered how many of these men (because there were NO women there of course) actually made the trek through the desert with the camels to reach this point. Incredible.

And he even let me hold the rope! Now, I grew up knowing a lot about cows and horses so I was used to being around big animals but these camels were very large and very unpredictable and I was just a bit nervous standing underneath that camel! Can you tell?!