Left @ 9 am right on time…. onto the road that runs along side Dead Sea.

FYI…. I’m feeling much better although not 100%.

Farms of solar panels in the middle of a very bleak landscape.

New border crossing being built between Israel and Jordan to facilitate those tourist from Israel that just want to see Aqaba, Wadi Rum and Petra.

Amira completed Baccalaureate in 3 years

Stopped at a restaurant supported by GAdventures that supports the women of the village that previously had never worked outside the home or interacted with others outside their home. It’s a very controlled environment for many of these women. Now some have completed their education and gone on to become doctors, etc.

“Lots” caves right close by ….part way up the mountains. On the other side of the mountains is Karak and the Crusader’s castle

Hot springs …..they are building chalets for people coming but they are too hot for Amira.

No pictures till later. Wifi sucks!

Missed picture of the sunset in the Valley of the Moon.

Aqaba…quite modern, lovely palm tree lined street. Apparently because it is so hot here in the summer (I can only imagine), the government has implemented cheaper taxes, lots of other perks and benefits…. just to have people stay.

Today is the day I was really looking forward to…to go snorkelling in the Gulf of Aqaba. Unfortunately I am sick. Two others are too…..maybe food poisoning??? I went out on the boat but was terribly sick again and kept falling asleep cuz I didn’t have any energy. Consequently not much in the way of pictures.

One thing of note…..no pictures are to be taken in a certain area because of military base/presence. At this point, we are in Jordan, across from Israel. A little further down beside Israel, is Egypt. On the other side is Saudi Arabia. Lots of shipping containers.

Hope I feel better tomorrow

We all got to sleep in …didn’t leave until 10:30. This whole area around Petra is so hilly. It’s a good thing that they don’t have snow. I tried to post a video of the call to prayer but failed.

Back onto Kings Hwy….from Roman period.

In 1917 was the beginning of WW1 & the first Arab revolt. Before 1917 it was under Ottoman rule. The British (Lawrence of Arabia), ordered Arab tribes to join together to oust Ottomans….to prevent the Ottoman (at the Suez Canal) from accessing Europe (to keep them busy so that they wouldn’t move into Europe). Britain and France originally supported the formation of a United Arab country but reneged the plan. They divided the area into different countries, be shared by the two country. King Hussein was leader of Jordan for almost 50 years before he died of cancer. He brought Jordan to 20th century with universities, bridges and roads, etc. etc. He was married 4 times. He divorced his 1st after couple of years. To guarantee Abdullah (British mother, the 2nd wife, wouldn’t convert to Islam so they divorced) to be king. The 3rd died in a helicopter crash at the location of the airport. Hence, the name of the airport. Jordan got Independence in 1946. It’s called Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Wadi Rum …Valley of the Moon, was the area where many films were made including Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars. It really does look like one would imagine what the moon looks like with vast flat barren “valleys” and strange looking rock formations

Aladdin- movie with Wil Smith.

Stopped at a couple of arches and were greeted by kids and adults with their pet camels. The camels have incredibly long, long eyelashes…maybe 3inches…..and very bristly whiskers

“Steps of the moon” where Starwars was filmed.

Camel races yearly here

Kefir is name of scarfs used by the arabs

Camels came from Austraila via Afghanistan

We met a Bedouin man and son who stay to protect the inscriptions on the rock wall previously damaged by hoodlums. The inscriptions tell story of travellers coming through.

When it comes to names……”Abu” is father of… ,“ om” is mother of….

We are staying in a Bedouin camp in the shade of one of these mountains. They are supposed to be tents but the the walls are solid, the floors have ceramic tiles, there are bathrooms and showers. Only thing is that the roof is fabric. There is a fire pit that some are sitting around in the middle between the “motel rooms”. OMG it is so hot…. Never cooled down.

Out the door at 5:45…. Yuk! But, got to get ahead of the crowds.

Genie blocks-cistern???

From the 6 century BC to 4 century BC the Nebateans were here.

Male and female pipes for the water

It was called the rose city because of the colour of the red sandstone

Treasury is a tomb….. they buried all their belongings with person. At the Treasury, a rich person had lots of gold which I understand was put in an urn at the top. The population expected it to collapse and then they would be rich. It is still standing. Stairs left and right…..Could be 4 levels…. 2 being below. At the Treasury …….Pillars are Corinthian with Nabatean influence. There are 12 pillars, 30 Rosettas, 365 cubes.

Faceda (the facade) street….all the rich peoples tombs

4600 Roman army attacked the Nebateans but only 50 survived …. And were sent back to Rome. Amphitheater influenced by the Romans.

Mahmoud gave demo on kohel application. It lasts 2-3 days.

The temple is in fact not a temple at all but a Palace …has huge garden and pool. Next is temple of winged lion.

Other pictures:-

Mt. Nebo is our first stop… where Moses passed away. Official Christian pilgrimage place ….. also a moslem pilgrimage place (who recognize the Christian prophets). Complex of 4 churches. Moses wandered for 40 years in the desert. They we forbidden to enter the promised land….. were diverted through Jordan. Moses consequently died here. Olive tree planted by prophet John Paul 2nd. Mosaics in the church were left undiscovered til 19th century. Cross and serpent symbol

St George’s Church …Greek Orthodox built in 590 Ad. It had a map hidden under floor. Hidden because Persians that were marauding in the area at this time, destroyed lots. The crusaders took faces off paintings, etc cuz were people were worshiping the Virgin Mary and prophets etc instead of God. The map showed 120 biblical sites. Only 10 were evident on the visitors map.

Madaba Mosaics factory. they use the ancient techniques. They get the rocks from mountains. Sliced into strips. It takes 4 years to learn trade. They use a glue made of flour and water to start, place the cut stones on a solid board. They have a rough irregular surface. When it is finished, it is flipped onto permanent place using a more sufficient glue It will then have a smooth surface. 48 of 50 employees are special needs. Some workers are blind. It takes 200 hours to make ostrich eggs from left over “dust” particles.

Crusaders castle at Karak built from 1142-1161. It is close to Jerusalem. It was used as a base to go to Jerusalem. Built in 1184…. Besieged for 80? days by Saladin after many previous attempts, they gave up. Moab people. Then became moslem going forward. Turks added parts. Crusaders used to sleep underground. Largest in Middle East. It was a city of 3000 people inside plus 700 outside. Entrance/doors …when Moslem controlled the castle ….faced south to Mecca, and when Christians controlled it, they faced Jerusalem toward the west.Military rooms hold 8, with view to be able to see oncoming armies. Window to see the mosque. Cisterns below. … 11 very deep ones. It is 50 kms from Dead Sea..

We are leaving early to get ahead of the rest of the big, big tourist buses.

There are tents here and there along the road…. They are not Bedouin tents but for farmers to use by the day…. for their animals and shade during the day. They all have open doors with no privacy. I don’t know if they have homeless communities like we have. Apparently they do have a slight drug problem but it is “still in the closet”…. not visible.

We are driving on the King’s Way from Roman & Greek times. It was built to connect from Damascus to

Madaba … translated “the land of water and fruit”.

It’s an area of caves… used by Christians to hide from the Romans in ancient times.

Mt. Nebo is our first stop… where Moses passed away. Official Christian pilgrimage place ….. also a moslem pilgrimage place (who recognize the Christian prophets). Complex of 4 churches. Moses wandered for 40 years in the desert. They we forbidden to enter the promised land….. were diverted through Jordan. Moses consequently died here. Olive tree planted by prophet John Paul 2nd. Mosaics in the church were left undiscovered til 19th century. Cross and serpent symbol

There 4 springs (oasis?) in Jordan…… one is here nearby.

St George’s Church …Greek Orthodox built in 590 Ad. It had a map hidden under floor. Hidden because Persians that were marauding in the area at this time, destroyed lots. The crusaders took faces off paintings, etc cuz were people were worshiping the Virgin Mary and prophets etc instead of God. The map showed 120 biblical sites. Only 10 were evident on the visitors map.

Madaba Mosaics factory. they use the ancient techniques. They get the rocks from mountains. Sliced into strips. It takes 4 years to learn trade. They use a glue made of flour and water to start, place the cut stones on a solid board. They have a rough irregular surface. When it is finished, it is flipped onto permanent place using a more sufficient glue It will then have a smooth surface. 48 of 50 employees are special needs. Some workers are blind. It takes 200 hours to make ostrich eggs from left over “dust” particles.

Crusaders castle at Karak built from 1142-1161. It is close to Jerusalem… (40 kms). It was used as a base to go to Jerusalem. Built in 1184…. Besieged for 80? days by Saladin after many previous attempts, they gave up. Moab people. Then became moslem going forward. Turks added parts. Crusaders used to sleep underground. Largest in Middle East

It was a city of 3000 people inside plus 700 outside. Entrance/doors …when Moslem controlled the castle ….faced south to Mecca, and when Christians controlled it, they faced Jerusalem toward the west.

Military rooms hold 8, with view to be able to see oncoming armies

Window to see the mosque

Cisterns below. … 11 very deep ones

It is 50 kms from Dead Sea

Shobak… another crusader camp from time of Richard the lionhearted

Petra (Wadi Musa)- half carving, part buildings. Nebateans … nomadic peoples. Came end of 6th century BC ……. Came from the Sinai peninsula. Learned agriculture, used to produce wine.

1 million years ago this area was under water. The area is all sandstone…. Easier for carve. It is in the largest chain of mountains in Jordan.

Higher the facade the more money, the higher the official. They had no statues. Water basins carved. No sacrifices in Little Petra. It’s only a place if business.

Jordan mines phosphate for export. Other main industries are agriculture, livestock & tourism

Egypt/ Jordan exchange water and electricity. The electricity is produce from oil in the past, which they have to purchase. Now they get it get from windmills. They also get water from underground wells from desert near Iraq. Water is brought in by truck and put into cisterns on top of roofs.

Pictures to follow ….. if I have wifi

We had an approximately 8 hr flight including 1 hour in Entebbe, to Istanbul. Because they we two different airlines we weren’t able to get boarding passes from Istanbul to Amman. Coupled with the airline changing our flight to Istanbul by close to an hour later, not knowing where to go ti get the pass, and then where to and what to do. Are we going to make the connection??? We did, the seats were more, we got food even the flight was only 1.5 hours, leg room was more… all in all a better first impression of Jordan even if the plane on the inside was in poor repair.

Sept 18/23- Jerash and Dead Sea.

Jerash…

wear runners , take sun screen, hat, swim suit, towel, 40 JOD for tipping. plus 10 JOD for water.

Beaky from 6:30-9; 7:30 leaving.

Amira-CEO. It’s the first time we have ever encountered a woman CEO.

Traffic is very crowded in core …. Because everyone has their own vehicles, or uses taxis because public transportation is not scheduled.

We stopped for water that the CEO purchased for the group. We all contributed 10 JOD (more than USD) for the week instead of what we’d done for the previous 2 weeks, which was to purchase water individually for each 2 day period. That was a guessing game and it meant packing it ourselves. We also have a cooler in the bus to keep it cool…. Yeah!

We got stopped at a random check of vehicles. CEO said “this is why Jordan is a safe country”.

Jerash… oldest well preserved roman city from Roman age… end of 1st century bc., then Greeks came and then Moslems. They started excavation in 1925. Up to now only 25% has been excavated. City named after “gold river”. The reason these empires came was for the money. It was on the trade route from east, that they controlled. They controlled the 6 largest cities of which Jerash was one. 324ad it came under Byzantine rule. 636ad, the Moslems & 18th c under ottoman rule. In 585 AD & 748 major earthquakes …. abandoned the city.

Art of gate is Corinthian.

Under stadium it was used as stables under Roman’s. Under Bysantians used as shops. …. Has tiles.

Only partially restorated so you are able to imagine what it might have looked like. If it was totally restored it wouldn’t be considered heritage…. Jordan needs the tourist industry.

We are inside stadium

City is divided into 4 sections. Main gate faces Amman.

7 metres thick wall of defence walls. Were 60 metres high originally

3-4000 JOD for olive trees in front of hotel… ancient.

They used to burn frankincense in homes and still do, to keep bad spirits away. A single gram of it worth 2 JOD each. Each camel can carry 400 kgs each. 200 camels to transport but divided into smaller groups in case of attack

Temple …. People not allowed inside. Had to be built above everything else … to see the whole area.

Forum (ionic style) plaza in centre is oval. Under it is huge cistern… where they recycled the water.

Southern to northern gate road is called “cardio”… the heart.

Theatre…. Seats are assigned with number…,

At huge Red stone water bowl … “aqua park” is used by lovers. That where I felt so sick. It’s toooo hot.

The weather network app says it’s 28C. I cannot believe it. There is no humidity. Talk about dripping perspiration!!!!

We have some people (12) that had joined us after being on a tour of Egypt. They said this is much cooler than Egypt where it was 40.

There 5 refugee camps in this area. Palestinian, 2,200,000 Iraqi refugees as well as Syrian, Lebanese & Afghanistan

Population.. 11 million total but only 5 million are Jordanian. Regardless of original country they came from, they all have all the same rights as Jordanians.

Medical is covered for government employees. Private companies may or may not provide insurance. It costs approximately 1000 JOD for private insurance per year. Donation by royal family makes it possible for those that cannot afford a surgery especially for children who have cancer.

Dead Sea … Jordan valley parallel with Palestinian West Bank

33% salinity…. If you have an open sore we were told to put Vaseline on to protect. 27 different minerals in the water. When Jordanian medical centre was built not too many years ago they used candles because there was no electricity.

Bedouins and farmers …2 tribes

Water level of Dead Sea is reducing by a metre a year. By 2050 it is expected to disappear. The sea level used to be 436 metres below sea level 10 years ago ….. now 390 metres below. Somehow that doesn’t make sense.

2 towers of the sixth circle apparently can be seen from Mt. Nemo

They used to have 8 traffic circles (roundabouts) over about a distance of 8 kms but they took then out … instead integrating with streets with lights…. A BIG mistake according to Amira.

The restaurant that we were taken to tonight was absolutely fabulous!!! So many different choices and so good. If you are ever in Amman…… I recommend you try “MO’s”.

Leave at 7 am with luggage… breaky @6:30