The Album

Excavating the Roman Pool — Saad (right) and Samsam (left) on the bulldozers, 1970s.

The dig in motion — eight meters of soil to move before the stones appeared.

Saad at work in the excavation site of the Roman Pool.

Roman Pool excavation — bulldozer, dump truck and crew in the dust.

Samsam Al-Nimer on the loader, filling truck 599-509 at the Roman Pool dig.

Samsam Al-Nimer on the yellow loader, working beside the red Scania at the Roman Pool excavation.

On the dig site — the orange truck, the loader, and the men who ran them.

Samsam Al-Nimer at the Roman Pool excavation site.

Samsam Al-Nimer at the controls of the CAT bulldozer during the Roman Pool excavation.

Workers on the CAT D5N bulldozer during the Roman Pool excavation.

Loaders and a dump truck working the Roman Pool excavation site.

Abu Khaled by a spring during the late-1970s excavation works in Fasayel.

Silham Al-Nimer holding a hunting rifle in Fasayel — late 1950s.

Brothers — Samsam (left) and Saad (right) Al-Nimer leaning on truck 599-509.

Saad Al-Nimer in the cab of the red Scania truck.

Teenage Saad Al-Nimer leaning on truck 599-509 with friends and family.

Samsam Al-Nimer standing in the orchard fields of Fasayel.

Saad Al-Nimer as a boy with his little goat — Fasayel.

A farmer in Fasayel back in the 1970's.

Samsam Al-Nimer in the Fasayel wheat fields — late 1970s.

Abu Khaled — generous, tireless, family in everything but name.

Abu Khaled (right) with farmers— closest of all to the family.

Abu Khaled with his dog — a Fasayel kind of joy.

A shepherd with his flock on the Fasayel lands — the animal life of the valley, 1960s–70s.

Eggplant fields at dusk, the Jordan Valley hills catching the last sun.

Eggplant and cabbage fields at dawn — a worker tending the rows in the distance.

Eggplant rows running out toward the Dead Sea — Fasayel at dusk.

Saad Al-Nimer standing in the watermelon field, the Jordan Valley hills behind him at sunset.

Saad Al-Nimer in the watermelon field — the center-pivot and Medjoul palms behind.

Watermelon fields stretching to the Jordan Valley hills at sunset.

Saad Al-Nimer in the eggplant fields, the valley softening into dusk.

Watermelon harvest in full swing — the crew loading crates under the mountains.

Saad Al-Nimer in the watermelon field at sunset — Fasayel, today.

Watermelon land being prepared for planting — tractors at the edge, Medjoul palms and the Jordan Valley hills beyond.

The other side of the watermelon land before seeding — the center-pivot framing the sun over the hills.

Watermelons gathered in rows at harvest — the sun rising over the Jordan Valley hills.

Down the avenue of a Medjoul date orchard at first light — Fasayel, today.

Saad Al-Nimer walking the Medjoul orchard at dusk.

Saad among the palms — three generations of the same patch of soil.

Saad Al-Nimer checking the orchard, a young palm shoot in the foreground.

Acoustic sensor wired into a palm's crown — early red palm weevil detection protecting the orchard.

Young Medjoul palms in the red Fasayel soil — the orchard, growing into itself.

The New Holland 70-66S hauling young Medjoul palms out to the field — May 2015.

Newly planted Medjoul seedlings staked across the open Fasayel land — 2015.

A young Medjoul shoot taking hold in the Jordan Valley soil — 2015.

Medjoul palm seedlings unwrapped and prepared before planting — Fasayel, 2015.

Inside a mature Medjoul orchard — drip lines running between the rows.

Saad walking the land in the early years — young Medjoul shoots taking root in the Fasayel soil.

Fasayel — the land itself, before the green returned.

Fasayel landscape during the years of hard work — the New Holland combine resting in the fields, 1960s–70s.

Fasayel's open land in the era of Fahmi's sons — greenery returning to the valley, 1960s–70s.

Fasayel landscape — orchards and hills during the modernization era.

Looking down on Fasayel from the western hills — the valley opening below in spring.

The view from above Ras Al-Ein toward the Jordan Valley below.

The Ras Al-Ein mountains north of Fasayel — green pastures running up to the western hills in spring.

The Ras Al-Ein valley at dusk — the mountains north of Fasayel.

Ras Al-Ein spring running between the boulders at the head of the valley.

A lone tree above the green floor of the Fasayel valley in spring.

One of Qasem Al-Nimer's water channels passing beneath the trees at Ras Al-Ein.

The cliffs above Fasayel after the rains — green returning across the valley floor.