Leaving the Middle East
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2005
1
15
103
Trip End
Jun 24, 2006
Amman,
Jordan
Monday, October 24, 2005
We've arrived in Amman, Jordan's capital, and the last stop on our tour of Egypt & Jordan. On Sunday, we visited a 12th century fortress built by the Crusaders, and a nature reserve with a deep canyon and a variety of flora & fauna. Then we stopped at a resort next to the Dead Sea, which is the lowest land point on earth at 1300 feet *below* sea level. The Sea is really a lake with no outlet, so as the water evaporates it becomes more and more salty. Since it is so dense, floating in it is really weird -- you float much higher than in normal freshwater or even in the ocean. We spent a relaxing couple of hours there in the Sea and in the resort's pools before continuing to Amman. Just outside Amman, we passed Mt. Nebo, which is the high point overlooking the Jordan Valley where Moses viewed the promised land but was not allowed to enter
01 Floating high
.Today, we visited Jerash, the "city of a thousand columns" which was a Roman city dating from the time of Alexander the Great in 300 BC. It is still an active archaeological site, with an estimated 90% of the city still not excavated. We also passed the traditional site of Jacob's well, where Jacob wrestled with God and was renamed Israel.
This brings our Egypt/Jordan tour to a close. We've seen so much and learned so much history that it's difficult to retain even a fraction of it. We've visited buildings and civilizations spanning 6000 years, much of it so well preserved that colors, inscriptions, and even facial expressions on mummified remains are startlingly clear.
Even though we aren't in the "Holy Land", we are walking in areas inhabited by Biblical peoples, the ancient Ammonites, Canaanites, as well as the patriarchs and Hebrews before they entered the promised land. We drove down the "Kings Highway", so named because of the Old Testament incident in which 4 kings went into battle, were captured, and then repatriated. The highway is now 4-lane asphalt but the route has been the same for 3000 years. We're constantly reminded how ancient our surroundings are
02 Jerash
. Even the currency in our pockets now, the Jordanian Dinar, has its name derived from "denarius", the currency used in Roman times and mentioned in the New Testament. At the same time, we've also seen the juxaposition of ancient and modern, East and West, urban and rural, donkey-drawn carts and satellite dishes, the sunrise call to prayer from the minarets and color-screen mobile phones.
We're in Amman for another day to visit a few more sites, and then we fly via Paris to Dakar, Senegal, to begin our camping trip across West Africa.
Ahlan wa-sahlan from Jordan!
Comments
From Homer
10/25/05
Thanks for making us a part of your jorney.
We have really enjoyed following your many adventures.
It is much better than seeing someone's slides several months or years aftert their trip.
Not much adventure or excitement here, but that is fine with us for now.
Homer
Awesome!
This is awesome! I'm finally getting the time to read through all of your stories & see your pictures. It's amazing!! Thanks so much for sharing your stories. :) - Karin