Gallivanting Grandma

Saturday – September 30, 2107

The Petra Moon Hotel was a short walk to the famous archaeological site.  We ate an early breakfast and walked down the hill to the Visitors’ Center.

The well worn path led to an area where local Bedouins had horses available for people to ride instead of walking to the Siq.  Al Siq is the narrow gorge that leads to the entrance to the city of Petra and is about a mile long.

Originally known as Raqmu, Petra is perhaps the most spectacular ancient city remaining in the modern world today.  The “Red City” is a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.  As we entered the Siq, the path narrowed to about 15 feet across.  The walls towered 650 feet above us.

Sometime during the sixth century BC, nomadic Nabataeans settled and made Petra their capital.  The Nabatean Kingdom preserved its independence for centuries.  They created an amazing system of hydraulic engineering in the desert.  Channels were carved out of the rock and earthenware pipes, dams, and cisterns were constructed to collect water and to irrigate farmland.

After we followed the winding path for about a mile, the narrow Siq opened to reveal the most impressive monument in Petra: al-Khazneh, (Arabic for “the Treasury”).  It was carved out of solid rock from the side of a mountain and stands over 150 feet high.  Although it served as a royal tomb, the Treasury gets its name from a legend that pirates hid their treasure there.

After walking more than two miles to reach The Treasury, we rested and watched the flurry of activity in front of the incredible stone carving.  It was a noisy chaotic mixture of tourists, camels, donkeys, horses, and local Bedouin boys selling postcards and jewelry.

We passed through another short steep gorge to reach the wide heart of the city between towering cliffs.  The steep rock faces were carved out for tombs, markets, temples, baths, and cave dwellings.

It was a long walk along the main canyon between Petra’s cliffs.  We were entertained by the camel drivers and their relatives selling donkey and horse rides.  The enterprising young Bedouin in the photo below told me his three donkeys were named Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati.

Tourists passing the Royal tombs:

We walked along a narrow thoroughfare called The Colonnade which was built curing Roman times, about 100 AD.  Historians believe it was used for ceremonial purposes.  The ruins of the triple-arch Temenos Gate are at the western end of the Colonnade.

Our reward at the end of a long walk was lunch at the Crowne Plaza restaurant which is the end for point for most tourists.  Some tourists like to continue on the path and climb 850 steps up to the Monastery, but I did not.  After lunch, I began to walk back to the Visitors’ Center but was easily persuaded to take a camel ride back to the Treasury.

The kind owner with his two camels.  He said they were gentle animals with good memories.

My camel’s name was Zoo Zoo, and it was sooooo much fun to ride!!!!!  The highlight of my trip!!

We walked back through the beautiful Al Siq gorge and the long path to the Visitors’ Center and back to the hotel.  Visiting spectacular Petra was one of the most exciting, breathtaking, and amazing experiences of my life.  Riding Zoo Zoo was a thrilling and fun experience.  I will never forget Petra.

Friday – September 29, 2017

Lobby of the Cham Palace Hotel in Amman, Jordan:

After breakfast we set off on our drive south along the King’s Highway.  The road has been an international trade route for the last 5,000 years.  Our first stop was the ancient city of Madaba, about 30 km from Amman, which is known for its beautiful Byzantine mosaics.

Madaba is known for the 6th century mosaic map of the Holy Land which is located in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George.  The “Madaba Map” is part of a floor mosaic and is considered to be the “oldest surviving original depiction of the Holy Land.”  The photo below is an artist’s drawing of the map.  Our tour guide, Muhammad, described the ancient symbols to us using this drawing.

The map depicts Jerusalem during the period from 542 to 570 AD.  It was created by unknown artists for the Christian community of Madaba.  Photo of the real map:

The interior of St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church is below.  The mosaic map is enclosed on the floor within the red chains in front of and to the right of the main altar.

Less than 10 kilometers west of Madaba is Mt. Nebo, known as Pisgah in the bible.  It is purported to be the place where Moses lived out his remaining days and viewed the Promised Land from a distance on top of the mountain.

The spectacular view from the summit provides a panorama of the Jordan River Valley, the West Bank city of Jericho, and on clear days, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Mount Nebo rises almost 2700 feet above sea level.  Although it was a bit hazy, the Dead Sea was visible from the summit.

The plaque pictured below shows the distance and approximate locations from Mt. Nebo to many of the sites which my tour group and I will visit during the next few weeks.

The remains of a late 4th century Byzantine church and monastery were discovered on the Mt. Nebo summit in 1933.  A modern chapel was built to cover and protect the site as well as the ancient mosaics.  The original columns, mosaics, and walls were visible inside the chapel.

The chapel had been closed for renovation since 2007 and was reopened in 2016, so we were lucky to be able to visit this historic place.

We ate lamb stew, tabouli salad, hummus, and baba ganoush for lunch in a restaurant called the Terrace Souk.  Afterwards Muhammad took us to a mosaic factory located nearby.

The handmade mosaics were lovely and several group members made purchases.  Our next short stop was a liquor store because a few people asked about buying beer in Jordan.  Stores that sell alcohol in the Muslim country are owned by Christians.

We stopped at a very sketchy looking shop and a few people purchased what they wanted.  We learned it was 3 Jordanian Dinars for a can of beer with 8% alcohol.

We continued south on the King’s Highway through the Mujib Valley.  This long meandering road has been the route of north-south trade and scenes of battles since prehistoric times and is mentioned in the bible.

The view out of the bus window reminded me of the drive through the Kyzylkum Desert in Uzbekistan.  This was barren land as far as I could see with low hills of sand and stones.

Occasionally, there was a Bedouin village of shabby tents with enclosures for animals.

There were container trucks on the other side of the highway, driving north from the Jordanian millenniaport city of Aqaba on the Red Sea.  The terrain became more hilly as we continued south and I wondered about the people who live on this rugged land and how they survive.

At four o’clock, we stopped for a break at a rest-stop which looked like a caravanserai.  I paid mental homage to the traders, pilgrims, and Crusaders who passed through this region over the millennia while I enjoyed a refreshing ice-cream.

We drove down steep hills and around hair-pin turns to arrive at the Petra Moon Hotel as darkness settled onto the modern city of Petra.

Thursday September 28, 2017

A sunny cloudless 61 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning. We boarded our van and drove an hour and a half north of Amman to the city of Jerash, which is located near the Syrian border.  During ancient times it was known as the city of Gerasa and was inhabited from the third millennium BC.

We entered through an arch which was built in 130 AD to honor the Emperor Hadrian who visited Gerasa.

North of the arch is the Hippodrome which is currently under restoration.  A huge building was built during the 3rd century AD and was designed for horse racing and other sports events.

We entered the sprawling open-air museum through the south gate.  Alexander the Great conquered the area in 334 BC and Gerasa became the site of a Macedonian Greek colony.

The ancient city was ravished by massive earthquakes and many wars which took place over the years.  The ruins of Gerasa laid buried until 1806 when a German explorer, Jasper Seetzen, began a number of excavations.  During this time, Jerash was inhabited by a small Muslim community.  The Oval Plaza or Forum from the 1st century AD is enclosed by 160 Ionic columns:

Gerasa is considered to be the most significant and best preserved Greco-Roman city ever discovered.  Excavations and preservation continue today because much of the ancient city still lies under the earth.  Jerash has flourished during the last 100 years and is a popular tourist attraction.  The Temple of Zeus in the photo below was built during the 1st to 2nd century AD.

At the Southern Theater which is an amphitheater which seats 3000 people, we were greeted by three musicians dressed in traditional Jordanian military costumes.  They played Scottish tunes for us and led our group in a dance.

The Temple of Artemis was dedicated to honor the patron goddess of the city:

The Cardo, or main thoroughfare, connected the different sections of the city and led me back to the Arch of Hadrian.

We had a Jordanian lunch at the Green Valley Restaurant.  It was a large and noisy restaurant filled with international tourists and friendly servers.

After lunch, we drove through fertile green hills lined with olive groves to the city of Ajlun to climb up to the top of the Ajloun Castle.  This is a 12th century Muslim castle placed on a hilltop in the northwestern part of Jordan.

The fortress was constructed in 1185 AD in order to help the authorities in Damascus control the Bedouin tribes of the region.

The fortress dominated a wide stretch of the northern Jordan Valley and was one of the very few Muslim fortresses built to protect their realm against the Crusaders.  Here is a view of the modern city of Ajlun from the top of the castle:

We spoke to a lovely young Jordanian couple who were visiting Ajloun Castle with their young son.  Below is a group photo:

Mohammad ran into one of his cousins who was selling coffee-with-cardamom at the side of the road.  We decided that Muhammad had thousands of cousins scattered all over Jordan.  They posed for a photo:

Later, we went to dinner in the old section of Amman. We ate at a local family restaurant called Hasham which was tucked into an alleyway between two buildings.  It was an experience!!

We waited in a long line with local people to buy knafeh (pronounced: ka-nah-feh) a sweet dessert made with stretchy cheese layered with flat cake and topped with pistachios.

There was a lively crowd of local people shopping, dining, and walking along the main street.