Jordan 15-18.05.07

This part of our trip has been so action-packed I haven’t had the time or opportunity to do any blogging.  Here are some highlights so far:

 

• Amman Citadel (including museum with Dead Sea Scrolls).

 

• Jerash is about 50 km northwest of Amman, and is one of the largest and most well preserved sites of Roman architecture outside Italy.

 

• Sunday Mass at the Greek Orthodox Church of St George, Madaba, south of Amman.  We entered the church as worshippers, came out, waited 15 minutes, then paid to go back in as tourists.  During the 15 minutes’ wait, a carpet (where everyone had been walking) was rolled back, to reveal a mosaic dating to around 560AD, of an area including Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the River Jordan and the River Nile.  The map is described as being geographically very accurate, although this was hard to tell from the bits we saw.  The fish on the right has apparently reached the Dead Sea, and is swimming back again because the water is too salty!

• Mt Nebo (not the Queensland one).  This is where Moses is said to have seen the promised land before he died.  Moses must have had a better day than us, because on a good day you can see from here Hebron, Bethlehem and Jericho.  However, what you can see in this picture is the River Jordan, the dark strip across the middle.

 

• Kerak Castle, or Kir Heres as it was known then, is mentioned in the Bible (2 Kings 3) as being besieged 29 centuries ago.  The besiegees would have had good views.

 

• Beside the roads in Jordan we saw donkeys, camels, goats, and sheep. 

 

• In summer, the Bedouin put up tents beside where they look after their sheep, while in winter they return to their houses.  I’m not sure what the sheep do.

 

• It’s hard to choose just one picture, to represent Petra, the whole reason for our journey, so I’ll choose two.  This is the Siq, the kilometre long natural cleft in the mountain that you walk through to enter Petra.

 

• Al Khazneh, (the Treasury) is what you see as you emerge from the Siq.  Carved from the rock face in the 1st century AD by the Nabataeans, it is the “pride and joy”of Petra, and the reason for our trip.