Turn Back The Hands Of Time

  Amman, Jordan
Saturday, November 7, 2009

Today is November 6 and, with 5 stops included on our tour, it is going to be a very busy day.  So we leave our hotel at 7 AM to get an early jump on the day.  We drive for ½ hour and reach the main highway between Aqaba and Amman, called the “the Kings Highway” which covers a distance of 330 km. (205 mi.).  It is an excellent four lane divided road with a top speed of 120 kph (75 mph).  As it is Friday (and Jordanians have Friday and Saturday off), there is not much traffic.  Just as well, as our driver wanders from lane to lane and frequently drives right down the middle of the road.  There is not much scenery as he landscape is all rock and devoid of vegetation and trees.

Our first stop is at Karak, north of Petra and south of Amman.  Karak has a fortified castle, built by the Crusaders in the 14th Century, which dominates the town.  We spend an hour touring the castle and its many rooms. 

 Our next stop is at Madaba, the most important Christian center in Jordan.  Its most famous site is the mosaic biblical map of all major biblical sites from Lebanon to Egypt.  It is located in St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church. 

The mosaic was constructed in 560 AD, and contained 157 captions in Greek and more than two million mosaic pieces, but only one-third of the whole map now survives.  We can’t wait for the jigsaw puzzle version.

Just 9 km. (5.5 mi.) from Madaba is our third stop, Mt.Nebo.  It is on the edge of the East Bank plateau overlooking the Jordan River and is where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land.  We can’t imagine what excitement and emotions Moses must have felt at this sight.  At 800 m. (2,625 ft.) elevation, on a clear day from the lookout where Moses would have stood, you can see the Dead Sea, Jericho (27 km/17 mi. away), and the domes and spires of Jerusalem (46 km//28.5 mi. away), but today these places are concealed by the haze and pollution in the sky.

Moses died, having never reached the Promised Land, and was later buried in the area, although the exact location of the burial site has not yet been found or determined.  A church was built on the site in the 4th Century AD and added to it in the 6th Century. 

We arrive at the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea whose shores are at 420 m. (1,378 ft.) below sea level.  It is now 3 PM and the sun is already starting to drop into the horizon.  We change into our bathing suits for a quick dip in the Sea.  It has a dark sandy beach leading up to the water, then a fairly rocky bottom for the first 2.5 m. (8 ft.) and then it is sandy again.  We walk about 10 m. (30 ft.) into the Sea and then sit down in the water.  Instantly it feels like you are on a tire tube (except there is no tire tube).  It is one of the most interesting phenomenons we have experienced.  There is no way you can sink.  The salinity in the Dead Sea is 30%, compared to 3-4 % found in the oceans, so you do not want to get any water in your face, especially in your eyes and mouth or else it’s burn baby, burn. 

Some people are putting black mud on their skin, letting it dry, and then rinsing it off in the Dead Sea.  This is supposed to be a good treatment for the skin.  Oh well, so is a massage.

We spend 15 minutes frolicking and playing in the Dead Sea.  We shower immediately after getting out as the salt burns right away on your skin.  Then we move to a large fresh water pool for another 15 minutes.  Another quick shower and we change back into our clothes.  We freshen our mouth with a frozen ice cream and that is really welcomed.

The day is really busy and it seems a bit rushed.  But the sights we have seen turn back the hands of time.  Just awesome.

We arrive at our hotel, the Ziyara Inn, in the west side of Amman near the university.  The hotel is a bit of an oddity as it is also apartment, or self-catering, style.  Our room, for instance, is actually a two-bedroom suite with a stove, fridge, wash sink, kitchen table with two chairs, and living room.  It has a balcony off the two bedrooms.  There is a king size bed in our bedroom but the other bedroom is locked and not available to us.  It certainly appears comfortable enough, but the hallways echo loudly and there is a group of young Russian dancers (about 12 years old) in the hotel who love to use the hallway for everything.

There are no restaurants in the immediate area so we walk towards University Avenue where there are the usual University crowd establishments – MacDonald’s, KFC, coffee shops, etc.  We stop at a place called The Pizza Company and order three different chicken pizzas (barbeque, garlic butter, and Mediterranean).  They are all excellent and the young cook who prepared them comes out to see how we liked them.  He is genuinely delighted with our response.  This is just another example of how friendly and appreciative the Jordanians are.

Saturday is our last day of actually touring, as nothing is scheduled for the next day.  Today we travel 45 km. (28 mi.) north of Amman to Jerash.  Along the way there are plenty of green houses growing tomatoes, potatoes, and other vegetables.  There are also pine, oak and olive trees in abundance along the road and on the hills. 

Jerash is a beautifully preserved Roman city.  The city began as early as 300 BC but the Greeks and Romans constructed the majority of this humongous site in the 1st and 2nd Century AD.  Highlights of Jerash include Hadrian’s Gate, built to commemorate the visit of Emperor Hadrian to Jerash in 129 AD, and the Temple of Artemis which has 11 out of the 12 front columns still standing.

There are two colonnaded streets and they intersect in the main oval plaza.  The spacious oval plaza measures 80 m. (262 ft.) by 90 m. (295 ft.).  The principal colonnaded street is 800 m. (2,625 ft.) long and still paved with the original stones dating back to the 2nd Century AD.  On either side is a broad sidewalk where shops would have been located.  An underground sewage system ran the full length of this street and holes at regular intervals at the side of the street would have drained rainwater into the sewers.

Jerash also has two amphitheatres.  The North Theatre was originally built in 165 AD and then doubled in size in 235 AD to its present capacity of 1,600.  The South Theatre was built even earlier, between 90-92 AD, and is larger, seating more than 3,000 spectators.  It has remarkable acoustics.   Break out the band.

We return to Amman and, as it is Earl’s last few hours, we decide to go to the Citadel.  The Citadel is located on top of one of the 19 hills in Amman right next to the downtown area.  The Romans built several building and structures over a number of centuries, but the greatest ones were built between the 6th and 8th Century AD.  The most significant one is the Temple of Hercules, which was started in the 1st Century AD.

The Citadel affords great views of Amman, a city of 2 million people, with over 50,000 of them (Palestinians) in refugee camps.  The majority of the buildings in Amman are built using local white limestone and there are lots of trees, giving Amman its moniker as the green and white city.
Amman was previously called Philadelphia, a name given to it by the Greeks and Romans.
 
Right across the street from the Citadel is the Roman Theatre, an incredibly large and well preserved amphitheatre built in the 2nd Century AD and capable of seating 6,000 spectators.

Tonight all groups go out together for a last supper at an interesting local restaurant called Tawaheen Al-Hawa.  The tables are set up under a traditional Bedouin tent.  The meal consists of salad, traditional Arabic mezzas, and barbeque lamb, chicken and beef.  Drinks are lemon mint tea (real mint pulverized), mango juice (thick mango with actual pieces in it), or Bedouin coffee (similar to Turkish coffee in terms of size and strong flavor).  Dessert is fresh whole fruits.

It’s back to the hotel for one final nightcap with Earl before he leaves the hotel at midnight for his 2:30 AM flight to Frankfurt.   It would be nice to turn back the hands of time and see a little more of Jordan.