One of my most popular posts is about Camel Knees. In the post I use pictures that I took while visiting Samaria last year. I had been thinking about Samaria today and was looking back through my pictures to see if I had taken a picture of a few items that I had seen there. I did not take the pictures that I wanted, but did run across my camel pictures again and decided that it was time to take a look at a different part of the camel. You can click on the following link to see the earlier post: Camel Knees

The camel in the pictures is a Camelus dromedarius. They are also known as dromedary or Arabian camels.

So here are a few pictures of the camel’s head.

Here is just a nice side view, but we get a nice look at the shape of the head. I think most of us would recognize the profile of a camel head. The one thing that I want to point out in this picture is the nostrils. During a sand storm the camel can close their nostrils. This helps keep the sand out of their nasal passages and also helps preserve moisture.

I like this straight on picture of the camel as we can see both of the eyes and how they bulge out to the side of the head. The position of the eye helps them with their peripheral vision and the large brow ridge helps shade the eye from the sun. The camel also has three eye lids on each eye. Two of them help protect the eye from blowing sand since they have long lashes. The third one moves from front to back instead of up and down and helps clean the eye. The camel can also see with the third lid in position, further protecting the eye from blowing sand.

I really like this picture that shows the camel’s teeth. You can also see the big thick lower lip of the camel. The top lip actually has a split in it, but is hard to see with the harness. You can barely see it in this picture if you know what you are looking for. The bottom lip is used to help grasp food, especially if it is trying to eat leaves off of a bush. The tough lips also allow them to eat thorn bushes. The teeth are really big and look really dangerous. I definitely would not want to have a camel bite me.

Not much to say about this final picture other than I just like it. The camel has an inquisitive look and it makes you wonder what it is thinking about. Why is this crazy tourist taking so many pictures of me?

I also really like the background in this last picture. All the stones, including the bases of a row of pillars, help show that this is an archaeological site. Samaria has a fascinating history, but that is the subject for other posts.

Steven