2015 Jordan
Saturday 24 - Sunday 25 October 2015
Sister Koth kindly transported the Harwards and us to the airport. So neither of us had to leave a car parked and accruing parking fees. I had her pick us up just a little earlier than the Harwards requested. It turned out not to matter, but as we got closer to the airport, on the northbound freeway was a jackknifed trailer which was what I was worried about.
We cleared security easily and then enjoyed a Chic-Filet chocolate shake. The Delta flight was fairly full, but the seating was 2 - 3 - 2, so we didn't have to worry about getting up. Mark watched 3.5 movies instead of sleeping. 7.5 hours of flying for our first leg got us to Charles de Gaulle airport.
We collapsed in a generally-unoccupied waiting area.
The second leg was also quite full and the Air France plane configuration was traditional 3 - 3. Lynn had rearranged our seating at Charles de Gaulle for aisle - aisle, but when we got on, the guy in the middle seat wanted to switch. I was reluctantly willing, but eventually he decided nevermind. This leg was harder as we were much more tired and the plane was less comfortable.
We landed a bit later than planned at the Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, but cleared security really easy since Jim Gee, our tour guide, was there to assist. By now we were all gathered, having met most of our fellow tourists at the airport in Paris.
We met our bus driver, Hani, and our guide, Zaid who would teach us much about his country and it’s history. Jordan is bordered on the north by Syria, on the east by Iraq, on the West by Israel and Palestine and on the south by Saudi Arabia. It was traversed regularly by trade caravans traveling from Egypt to Damascus. There are more than 100,000 ancient sites, the oldest dating back to 7600 BC. Before 1919, there were no borders in the Middle East. The borders were set by the British post World War I. In 1921 Jordan was established. It includes Mt. Nebo where Moses saw the promised land and the ancient kingdoms of Bashan, Gilead, Ammon, Moab and Edom. The Emirate of Transjordan was officially recognized by the Council of the League of Nations in 1922. Abdullah I took the title King of Jordan. The name of the state was changed to The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on 1 December 1948.
We arrived at our hotel, the Grand Millennium and a delayed dinner. The driveway in front of the hotel was not long but quite steep. Because it had rained, the bus couldn't make it up the entrance ramp to the hotel! The main door to the hotel was metal-detector secured. Definitely different than expected.
Dinner was fabulous. Buffet style, but really delicious and exotic.
We went to bed about midnight Jordan time.
Monday 26 October 2015
We started early; the wakeup call came at 6:30 AM. We packed our suitcases and went down for breakfast. Another delicious meal. Mom and Dad gave me a GoPro video camera. I've been using it to get some videos of the storefronts we pass. They are way different than the strip malls in America.
Today we visit Amman (locally pronounced Ah.man). Amman was called Philadelphia historically. In 1925, Amman became the capital of Jordan. Amman was empty 100 years ago with only Bedouins occupying the area. Now it is all bricks and stone. There is little color and no space between the buildings. It is 95% arid. The weather forecast for the day was for a high of 62 and a low of 48 in the evening.
Our first stop of the day was the Amman Citadel. The Greeks built walls around the Citadel. Sitting on top of the highest hill in Amman is the home of the Temple of Hercules. There is also a Mosque and the Jordan
Archaeological Museum. From the Mosque you can see the tallest flagpole in the world.
They believe the Temple was for Hercules because of some statue parts they found. Not much. They did find his fingers.
Everything on the hill collapsed during the massive earthquake of 749 BC. A small portion of the temple was reconstructed from pillars and stones found in the rubble. The Citadel was where King David sent Uriah (to die 2 Sam 11:16-17). It's surrounded by deep valleys and very difficult to attack successfully.
The second stop of the day was the Roman theater. As we arrived, it started pouring rain. Our raingear served us well. The theater seats 6-7000 and is still used.
Next we went to Mount Nebo. Rising over 700m above the Jordan Valley, Mount Nebo offers spectacular views of the Promised Land as seen by Moses (Deut 34:1-6). We could see Jericho, the path of the Jordan River, and the mountains of the west bank of Israel. At the summit is a modern sculpture by an Italian artist representing Moses' staff and Jesus' words in John 3: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The site is owned by the Franciscans, who have excavated and restored the area. There was a new statue, carved like the pages of a book, with the face of Moses. It was dedicated when the Pope John Paul II visited this site on March 19, 2000. Near the entrance was a tent made from goat wool. It was quite coarse, but apparently when it gets wet, it expands and blocks the wind (great for the winter) but it has a loose weave when dry that lets the wind blow thru, which is perfect for the summer.
We walked today where Moses walked.
We learned from our guide that Salaam alaikum is the Arabic greeting, and the reply is alaikum wah-salam.
We then visited a Tile Cutting demonstration. They also had product for sale. Mom was interested in one piece, a tree of life tile picture. Let the bargaining begin! It was marked at $180. The sales guy started the discussion at 120, then 100. After talking to 'his boss' it was 80. As we were walking out of the store, it was 70. Mom hadn't even countered.
Mom was having trouble walking in a stable manner, so I started serving as her 'Arm Guy'. We had to walk about ten minutes to get to the Madaba Church wherein is a very famous and possibly the oldest map of the holy lands. Made from tiles, it lists hundreds of holy sites in the surrounding nations. Modern day archaeologists have used it to find lost sites. The scale matches reality very well.
We had our native tour guide, Zaid, purchase shawarma sandwiches for the group. Like Greek gyros, it's made from shaved meat. I had lamb and Lynn had chicken. There's a tourist price and a local price. We don’t know what it would have cost if we were on our own. Zaid purchased the sandwiches for $2.50 a piece.
On the bus for Petra, we drove thru Montreal which is near the Shobak Castle. There was way more rain than usual on the way to Petra. We drove through an area where they had a flash flood. Even Petra had been closed! Our native guide had never seen so much water in this area before. The natives were out taking pictures!
We had dinner at the Guest House Hotel and attended a meeting of the group to talk about the plan for the next two days.
Tuesday 27 October 2015
At breakfast, we met Susan and Brian Ong. She's doing a PhD and is currently in a statistics class. We spent breakfast talking about decision trees.
Everyone gathered outside the hotel at 8:30 AM for our trip down the gorge to ancient Petra. We had plenty of water, hats, rain gear (which we thankfully didn't need), and energy!
The first part of the walk is open areas with some cave work. Along the way down our tour guide talked about the history of the area and the players. It was generally the Nabateans who populated the caves area. He described the various cave-tomb styles (Djinn, Crow-step, and Column style).
Half way down the path changes. First, there is a dam that blocks the water from rushing down the path. Also, the original inhabitants built a water diversion tunnel. Finally, the path becomes encased by a steep rock walls and you enter the Al-Siq. These rocks split apart eons ago creating the gorge.
The Nabateans routed water down to the city along open channels on the left side for irrigation water and by enclosed clay pipes for drinking water on the right. Along the way down are carvings to their Gods. When I was here 40 years ago none of this was visible. They recently excavated down 15 feet, exposing some of the original Roman road.
At one point, the guide had us form two lines and close our eyes. We walked forward ten steps (counting to ten in arabic) and when we opened our eyes, there before us was the Treasury. What an amazing sight! They recently excavated down 20 feet in front the entrance which revealed another whole story of the building. The price for tourists was that now you could no longer walk into the Treasury as the approach is blocked by open grates.
There is a tension between the Archaeologists and the Economy; because the site brings in so much money, the government wants it available, but that means archaeologists can't do research. The recent excavation of the path down was done in a hurried fashion during the off season with bulldozers and they probably damaged some of the carvings.
The other problem is now the Bedouins have commercialized the area. On the way down we were accosted by sellers of postcards and 'silver' bracelets. "One dinar!" was the common call. The women had little booths and would call out, "No charge to look. Blue light special. You buy; husband pays". We soon found just saying 'thank you' seemed to work.
Going around the corner of the Treasury takes you to the King tombs. These are very large flat-faced walls with a tomb/cave cut into the wall. They recently realized there were more buried below the ground level and have done some additional excavation.
We took a shortcut where you have to climb up some sandy boulders to get to a path. After some of the females in our group had arduously made the way up, a Bedouin woman pointed out an easy way up and those of us remaining went the easier route.
We made our way to a small burial cave. Jim described the slots where they bury the coffins. He also talked about the BYU dig located in a more remote part of Petra. We are scheduled to visit it tomorrow. We also visited a beautiful cave with sand colors. A popular tourist souvenir is sand jars containing amazing paintings done by using a thin stick to rearrange the placement of the sand along the walls of the glass containers.
We then climbed up to the Urn cave. We walked past arches that support the path This was another acoustically pleasing cave where we sang. There were dozens of Bedouin booths, "One dinar, look for free."
Off in the near distance we could see the new Bedouin housing provided by the Jordanian government so they wouldn't have to live in the caves. I think it was to remove the Bedouins to make the area more accessible to tourists. Nice, but landlocked. Now there is no place for the children to have homes, so they are moving back into the caves!
Hiking back down, we continued on to a beautiful Byzantine chapel with Mosaic floor and blue columns. It had only recently been uncovered. Nearby was a snack type shop where I purchased a 7 up and Mounds bar for lunch: $7!
It was time to hike up to the top of Al-Deir (the Monastery). Some of the group elected to ride donkeys up. It was a long way up and Lynn and I were a little jealous. We took it 50 steps, then a break. There were Bedouin booths at every turn and donkeys and their handlers passing us up and down the steps. There are 900 steps up to the top. It was worth the view but what a price.
The Monastery cave which has an urn on top (we could see from the original Urn cave) was the prize for getting to the top. Plus more Bedouin shops. For those that wanted, there was another little hill you could climb for a view. So up we went. The view was fabulous. And, of course, there was another Bedouin shop!
The way down was easier on the heart but harder on the legs. We were among the last to descend.
When we got to the bottom of the hill, it was time for our Camel ride to Treasury. The going rate was $20 each but it was worth it as we were pretty tired by then. Everyone in the group elected to do the camel ride. It turns out there is a style and method for riding camels. You have to get your legs up higher around the camel's neck, and then it's a fairly nice ride. I discovered it and my ride was like a massage. Others didn't and described it in less flattering terms.
When we all arrived at the Treasury, they took a group picture. Very nice.
Unfortunately our guide didn't remember that part and had our camels kneel down apart from the others. That's a fairly bumpy exercise. Then getting back up it's the same bumpy experience. By then, Lynn was feeling a bit ill. While we were up on the camels having our group picture taken, Lynn fainted! Fortunately, she had told me of her discomfort and I caught her as she crashed. Thank goodness we were lined up closely together for the photo. From atop a camel to the ground would have had serious consequences.
After she got off the camel she felt better, and the walk up the Siq was uneventful.
Part of the price for the Petra experience is a horse ride from the top of the Siq to the entrance to ancient Petra. It was nice not to have to walk up the last part.
We were exhausted by the time we made it to the hotel, even though the hotel is right there at the entrance to Petra. I took a bath first. Compared to our six foot bubble tub, this one you could only get half of your body in. After, it was Lynn's turn. Lynn was so tired she fell asleep in the tub!
Wednesday 28 October 2015
We got up super early. We anticipated a wakeup call at 5:30 AM, but it never came. We also anticipated an early breakfast at 6 AM but somehow the night crew who promised it did not communicate it to the morning staff. We started down the gorge by 6:45 AM. We planned to get up to the high place to watch the sun rise. We were a little late but the view was still glorious.
Because we were so early there were very few folks around. We virtually had the place to ourselves.
The hike up was shorter than yesterday but still long enough. The stairs were in better shape than those to the monastery. We saw many more sheep today.
From the High Place of Sacrifice, you could just barely see Aaron's Tomb on a distant mountain top.
Leaving the High Place, we went down the backside which is believed to have been the private entrance of the King. The passage was narrower. It ended in a large soldier cave which had an accompanying Triclinium (a three sided dining room). There was also an observatory. We spent quite a lot of time with our Bedouin accompanist who was selling her wares.
Finally we started back on our quest. Some of the caves we passed seemed to be inhabited! We walked past the place where the Petra artist Johann Burckhardt drew one of his pictures of the Bedouins fighting over his payment with the Urn cave in the background. We walked past the Urn cave area up into a section not usually visited by tourists.
The BYU archaeology department has a dig there and our guide Jim Gee has participated in it. During his work he uncovered a sealed grave with a gold medallion that had a curse on it. The Jordanian government liked the story so much they want to add it to the tour route.
Our final event was to walk out through the rainwater diversion tunnel. We started up, but half way the water got so deep we had to turn back. The way was quite difficult; we had to assist each other. It was like a corporate COPE course.
Jim recognized that Lynn and Sue were tiring and arranged for them to ride donkeys back to the Treasury. Lynn was very thankful for that. We again walked up the Siq and rode the horses the rest of the way to the hotel. We showered and packed.
Once on the bus, we left for Wadi Rum. We followed the Kings road to the Desert Highway.
The Arab Spring uprising has caused many hotels to close because the tourists are afraid to come. This has been a benefit for us, as there are few lines and minimal tourists. While on the bus, we saw an ‘ad’ starring the King of Jordan, Abdullah II. In it, he visits some of his favorite places in Jordan (including Petra and Wadi Rum). At one point, he talks about how, if there is some unrest in Egypt, you can still visit Jordan. He then compares it by saying even if there are riots in Cincinnati, you can still visit Chicago.
It's usually the other way around...
Cincinnati: Represent!
Wadi rum has an underground artisan lake. They grow watermelons. Once the King of Jordan came to visit and was served watermelon. He asked where it came from and thus discovered that Wadi Rum has this underground lake. They now pump water back to Amman because the refugees from Syria are using so much water.
We loaded onto 4 four wheel drive pickup trucks and ventured out into the desert. We first visited an area with ancient graffiti. Then to the goat tent home of a Bedouin family. Finally we drove out to an area where the camel caravans used to stop. There were also picture carvings. There was a sand dune which some tried to climb. Michael Harward and I joined the Bedouin drivers in a Bedouin dance.
Back at the hotel, we had our dinner and crashed for a well deserved rest.
Thursday 29 October 2015
Again up early, we ate omelets with some delicious Bedouin bread, similar to Indian Naan bread. After breakfast we were back on the bus for a four hour drive to Israel. Down 15 to Aqaba, north on 65. This is the route Lehi took as he escaped from Jerusalem. It's a nine day trip by camel.
As we drove north, we passed by a cave, up on the hillside, purported to be the Cave of Lot, where he fled to before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We also got our first view of the Dead Sea.
We also passed the Arnon valley now called Wadi Mujeb. We saw the 'Grand Canyon' of Jordan. It was the traditional border between Moabites and the Amorites.
As we got closer to the border, it seemed I got more anxious, what with all the security concerns and the checkpoints and interviews we might need to endure.
One funny thing we saw was an advertising sign of a plate of spaghetti covered with cheese; just like Skyline Chili in Cincinnati!
On the Jordanian side, we handed in our passports and after just a few minutes they came back. That was pretty easy. We then had to drive thru what turned out to be multiple check point gateways. At one point our driver decided to try and cut in front of the line and was caught by the gate controller and made to wait. He tried it again, passing a bunch of buses and this time, although the gal at the gate was mad at him, he schmoozed his way and she let him pass.
At the Israeli side we drove to the bus/group area and the receiver has us all identify our luggage and then we were brought into the gate/ security area through a back door. We they waited in a special line and were processed thru the passport area quickly without even having to have our bags scanned! Once they checked our passports, we were done.
Jim said we get the award for the fastest security clearing.
We drove into Jerusalem uneventfully. Our hotel for the next 5 nights would be the Golden Walls Hotel, almost directly across from the Damascus gate and right next door to Golgotha. I mean, it was right there. Lynn and I took a morning walk one day and wandered through the bus stop parking lot. The bus lot is adjacent to the Garden Tomb. It is abit hard to recognize the skull in the rock now because the last rain storm washed away a portion of the nose.
The group went out for a stroll in the evening. Through the Damascus gate, down the left main street and hung a left at Via Dolorosa Street. We walked up a stairway to a school with a wonderful overview of the Dome of the Rock. The location was a Roman garrison at the time of Christ. Roman soldiers saw the mobs wanting to lynch the Apostle Paul and took him into custody to protect him. The shopowner below let us in. Afterwards, we went into his shop. Lynn purchased a gift and I got my first souvenir from the Holy land: a Shofar. A rams horn.
It was used in ancient Israel to announce the New Moon (Rosh Chodesh) and call people together. It was also blown on Rosh Hashanah.
In the evening we were joined by the Krzyminskis. We had an evening devotional on oil lamps and coins.
Continue to Jerusalem