Meeting Archeologists and the Eco Lodge
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2009
1
11
Trip End
Jul 05, 2009
Dana, Jordan
Monday, June 29, 2009
After watermelon and cookies the archeologists gave us a tour of the excavation. The site is set on a hill overlooking a valley where caravans travelled. Theories vary about why the fortress was built but the scientists believe it was either to protect the caravan route or to collect taxes from the travelers. The first thing they gave us a tour of was the human skeleton that they had found. They then showed us what once had been a gate to the fortress. It used to have two twelve foot high wooden doors on the entrance that had been destroyed. They then told us that the site was originally built in the Iron Age, before it had been rebuilt several times in the Islamic and Roman ages. They usually found pieces of glass and pottery. One of the archeologists had even found an old stone oven buried under the sand.
After the tour, Miriam let Maia and Hope help dig with the archeologists. They found pieces of pottery and Maia found a whole stash of shells. When you dig, you put the dirt in these bucket things and they're taken down to the sieve. The sieve is where the dirt is poured into and shaken out to reveal the pieces of pottery, glass or shells that you had missed while digging. After helping the archeologists we went back onto the bus to our car and then went to meet up with them again in Karak to have lunch. We were all covered from head to toe in dust and desperately wanted to get cleaned up.
When we arrived in Karak, we got lost trying to find the place. A guy finally had to squish in the back with Hope, Maia and Noor and show us the way. The lunch place was by the Karak castle and we first went into the bathroom to clean up. When we were done cleaning up we sat down to eat with John and Miriam. The lunch was very good and they had many different choices of food to pick from.
If you want to read more about the dig you can visit a blog one of the anthropoligists is keeping about this year's dig. We even made it on his blog! It is
http://www.krp2009.blogspot.com/
After lunch we said our goodbyes and went to go make our way to our next adventure. We were to go to this Eco Lodge that was in the middle of the desert and had to meet this guy about five miles walk away from the lodge where he would drive us to it. It was a two hour drive before we finally met with the guy who would take us out. We rode in an old pickup truck with Hope, Maia and Noor in the back. It was a very bumpy ride and Noor kept complaining of hitting her head every five minutes. When we arrived at the Eco Lodge it was very hot and we were all thirsty. They gave us some tea and then we went to go check out our room. Since it was an Eco Lodge there was no electricity or air conditioning. We were fine without the air conditioning and soon Maia and Hope went to explore the desert. They rock climbed the foot hills to the mountains and Mary said be careful of black cobras and scorpions.
After rock climbing we rested in our rooms until dinnertime. It was beautiful, everything was lit by candlelight and we were the only ones there. The dinner was excellent, there were olives, fried zucchinis, a mushroom dish, foul, noodles, cauliflower and potatoes. When we were done eating we went on the roof to see the stars. It was a beautiful experience and we saw three shooting stars. When we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore we went to bed.
Hope
