Jerash, Madaba and the Dead Sea

Trip Start Jun 29, 2008
1
35
58
Trip End Nov 27, 2008

Flag of Jordan  ,
Monday, September 22, 2008

First stop in Jordan was Jerash, site of yet another Roman city, this time complete with a hippodrome in which they run chariot races for the tourists. This was one of Ben's most anticipated parts of the holiday, so I was hoping it lived up to his expectations. Thankfully, he enjoyed it, although he was disappointed when the race was aborted prematurely as one of the 2 chariots lost a wheel. All the excitement was obviously too much for me, with the result that on clambering around the ruins subsequently, I managed to land a bad way and twist my ankle badly, being able to only just limp out of there after icing it for a good 20 minutes with it tied in my hanky compression bandage!! This was our second accident for the day, as our travelling companion had earlier fallen down a non-existent flight of stairs in the dark in Bosra and probably broken his toe. The pair of us limping was probably an amusing sight!

None-the-less, we finally made it to Madaba, still in one piece. Madaba is a small town renowned for mosaics, in particular a mosaic map on the floor of a church, dating back to possibly the 6th century. Unfortunately we found the mosaics a little underwhelming, however I believe staying in Madaba is probably preferable to the alternative of Amman, the capital, before continuing down towards the big tourist drawcard of Jordan - Petra! We elected to head down to Petra via the Dead Sea, where a 'swim' is quite a novel experience.
Slideshow Print this entry