Jordan was my favorite spot for the sites and the people we met. Of all the places we travelled, it was the most muslim. On public transportation, men sat with men and women with women. Most women had their hair covered with the exception of some younger college students and foreigners of course. Being foreigners, we had a bye on their customs and were warmly welcomed everywhere we went. Most educated Jordanians spoke English well and with a literacy rate probably around 90% getting around with English was not a challenge.
It is the many layers to Jordan that was the most interesting. Biblical sites including the Red Sea where Moses led the children out of Israel and the present day King's Highway is essentially the route taken before entering the Promised Land through Jericho. Jesus's baptism site, Sodom and Gommorrah, the rock Moses struck to produce water, and Elijah's assention to heaven by chariot are among some of the many sites. Ancient trade routes traverse all of Jordan including the Nabatean controlled route in the south which ran through Petra, the well preserved remains of ancient Roman cities (3 of the Roman Decapolis, 10 major city centers of the region, are found in Jordan: Jerash, Umm Qais, and Amman), which was followed by the Crusades and Arab response, and historic and modern Islamic sites. This compared to the 200 years of history in the US...
Jerash and Umm Qais
It is amazing how well these 2 Decapolis were preserved from the Roman times. The original stone roads remain with visible 'ruts' from old chariot tracks! Market squares, baths, temples, churches, fountains, theaters, and temples are all well preserved in these once thriving cities.
Ajlun
Ajlun is a castle on a hill which was first built as a Roman temple about 2000 years ago, later converted to a Christian church, and then the military command center for the Muslim general Saladin who headed off the crusaders. Given its defenses and location, this castle was never taken . Only the monguls were successful in beseiging and forcing a surrender.
We met an awesome guide for Ajlun who was an university archaeology professor and one of the archaeologists and worked on the actual excavation of the castle. He found the mosaic floor of the Christian church under the large stone floor of Saladin's castle. He found an intricate multi-step water filtration system that collected and stored rain water into 12 different cisterns throughout the castle -- all this with indoor plumbing that ran behind the walls of the castle! Our guide also found what he termed the 'first internet.' Colored fire was used to send different messages to neighboring towns by adding different chemicals to the fire -- for example, copper oxide for green and magnesium oxide for red.
Petra
Petra was the home of the Nebatean empire around 5-600 BC who profited greatly from controlling and taxing trade
routes. The city is built into the rocks and was made famous in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The horse ride through the canyon to the temple cut out of stone was not Hollywood -- the place is
REAL! The 'temple' is actually a Treasury... appropriate for all the taxes they collected. Aside from the treasury, the Nabateans built extravagant tombs and kept their homes as simple holes cut out of the rock.
Johan Ludwig Burckhardt was a Swiss traveller who trekked around the Middle East in pursuit of making travel to the Middle East more accessible. In his travels, he converted to Islam and heard rumors of an ancient city occupied at the time by the Bedouin people, who went to great lengths to keep it a secret. Knowing the city was near the burial site of Aaorn, Moses's brother, Burckhardt convinced some locals that he took a vow to sacrafice a goat in the name of Aaron and was thus led through Petra to Aaron's burial site.
Jordan Picture Gallery
