Jordan-day 2: Um Qeis (Gadabbah) Aljun Castle, & Jerash

Early morning-7:30am, lots of driving...

Um Qeis-
Recently renamed from Gadara to Um Qeis in favor of a more Arabic name (Um Qeis means "our mother). Home to one of the few churches in Jordan and was a tribute to Jesus' supposed visit. The view of the Golden Heights, Israel should have shown us the sea of Gallie, but it was just a little too hazy. Many roman ruins from the ancient town. Back in the day it was a major hub for travelers and locals. It was pretty cool to be able to be able to walk where Roman carriages had been (you could see the grooves worn in the road from the wheels). I winder if thousands of years ago the people who built those roads imagined that tourists in 2012 would be walking in their steps? Kinda cool to think about...


After another hour drive we visited the ancient Islamic crusader castle of Aljoun. Built during the Bristish invasion if the area to protect the region, it was the most intact castle we visited. In general the way you would expect a castle to look-moat, slit windows, larger opening above the doors for easy access for pouring boiling pitch on uninvited guests...you know, just like homes today. Much of the castle had been restored, again, a lot of earthquake damage to most ancient structures, so it was nice to be able to experience the "whole" castle. There were beautiful arches and water channels through out (to distribute collected rain water) which showed the thought put in to building the "fortress". Castles were strategically built through out the area to prevent Syria, south of Jordan and the Holy Lands from uniting. King Saladin was mostly responsible for uniting the Arabs to stop the advances of the British, and is the current hopes of the region that a new Saladin will come to power and stop the fighting and wars. The region was again mountainous and well known for it's olive and olive oil production. The olives were just harvested a few months ago, so the oil was super fresh. Lucky us :)

After another quick lunch (mixed grill with the company of a cute stray cat), we hurried to Jeresh. HUGE ancient city which held an arena for gladiators, amphitheater, ancient temple to Zeus, shops, baths, and even a church. While it seems like we visited a lot of churches, there are only a few ancient ones in Jordan. The church was only partially standing like many of the sites we visited due to earthquake damage. Aziz told us that earthquakes large enough to damage buildings happen once every ten years or so! Luckily the government recognizes the value of such historic sites and puts forth the effort to restore them. This particular church was near the temple of Artimus, and had a partially visible mosaic floor. Again down the hill (this was all done in a SHORT time span because the sites close earlier in the fall than they do in the summer and our tour company did not allot for the time changes.)

Jordan-day 3: Mount Nebo, Madaba, & Shouback

So I was about 3/4ths of the way done with this post when I accidentally hit the cancel button instead of the "O" key and everything was lost. Oh technology, how we love you and hate you all at the same time! I am going to have to start over, but forgive me because my heart is not 100% in it :-/

After checking out this morning from our Petra hotel at 8am we drove for about an hour to Mt. Nebo. A historic Biblical site where God showed Moses the Holy Land but told him he could not go there. After hiking for 40 years in the Moab Mnts (beautiful, but def wouldn't want to hike there for 40 years in sandals), I can't even imagine how upset he must have been! It is written that he died there, even though no one knows the location of his grave site. From Mnt Nebo we were able to see the "border" of Israel. I say "border" because Aziz explained to us that when Jordan lost ownership of the west bank it was so it could become part of the future Palestine. However, because there has not been a formation of the Palestinian nation, it is patrolled by Israeli soldiers and until the creation of the Palestinian nation Jordan will not recognize it as Israel. While Mnt Nebo is a religious site for many, I think it will stay in my mind for the beautiful view of the mountains and the Jordan River, but also for the "Tebow on Nebo" (see pics).

After short 10min drive, we arrived at a mosaic school in Madeba. Jordan used to be worldly know for their beautiful mosaics (a theme for the day). The government has recently been encouraging locals to start creating again. This school is supported through the government to teach everyone, including those with disabilities, how to form mosaics. By "painting by number", small hand cut pieces for naturally colored stones are arranged face down to create an image. The stones are glued with a flour and water mix before being coated with a cement and shalack. The stone are placed in upside down so that the surface is always flat when finished. The pieces are very durable and will not fade with rain, sun, or snow because the color of the stones is natural. Due to it being the "off season" many in our group were able to strike fair deals with the artists. Personally I was pretty proud of being able to talk an artist down from 100JD for one 20cm X 20cm piece to 2 20cm X 20cm pieces :-) They were also selling beautiful hand made rugs and olive wood boxes inlaid with mother of pearl shell. Aziz told us that this art can cause asthma because of the dust from sawing the mother of pearl shell (apparently very though stuff). So while the boxes were beautiful, I didn't want anyone risking their lungs for my choski.




A 5min drive to the city of Madeba to visit St George's Cathedral, home to the world's oldest map of the Holy Land. A 3rd century mosaic of Israel, Jordan and Egypt showed the Jordan River, Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Gaza, Moa, and the Medeterranian. Apparently this map was accurate enough that archeologists were able to use it to find ruins of ancient churches. While most of it has been destroyed over the years due to earthquakes and flooding from heavy rains, it was still interesting to see the detail (for example, Gaza was a large city showing an amphitheater and gladiator arena).

Following Madeba, another QUICK 30min luch at a local establishment. April and I had the Jordanian nation dish, mansaf, slow cooked lamb, rice and a yogurt sauce; very delicious even though my stomach was a little sour afterwards. I think my body is rejecting the idea of eating in 30mins ;-)

After driving for an other hour we visited the castle of Shouback. Our agenda had us visiting Kerack, a crusader castle, but due to local protests we were unable to visit. Shouback was one of the largest castle ruin sites we had visited and there wasn't much of the castle left to see. Since it was late in the day, we enjoyed the STUNNING 360 views of the mountains and strolled around the rubble.

45mins later we entered the city of Petra. A small town of 65 hotels (obviously thriving on tourism) and checked into our "Bedouin" style hotel. While not a true bedouin style (no tents and carpets), it is a pretty neat place that reminds me of a villa. Our room is cement walls covered in plaster with accents of logs in the ceiling (see pics). They have a well priced Turkish Bath here, which I think I am getting talked into trying. Our dinner for the night was included and we dinned buffet style with the group. Many delicious foods and desserts, but over eating at EVERY meal is starting to get to us. Breakfast is at 7am, lunch at 2pm, and dinner at 7 or 8pm...its hard to be hungry! It's early to bed tonight because tomorrow is the BIG day in PETRA! We will leave at 8am and not return to the bus until 5pm. Aziz told us to expect to walk 9km and if we go to the optional monetarist visit we will have to take 90 stairs up and 90 stairs back (that Turkish bath is sounding better and better!). Sweet dreams :-) Tomorrow's Thanksgiving in Petra!