First and foremost......Happy Birthday to my adorable wife Kim (and her twin sister Karrie) today! Ironically most of my wife's birthday was spent on a bus. We were up and out the door, on the bus in Petra at 7:30 and embarked on a 4 1/2 hour ride to reach the ancient Roman city of Jarash.
We did stop about an hour and a half into our journey northward back towards our final destination of Amman for a short break, and the final two plus hours Rain told stories themed around the political-economic situation in Jordan. Kept us entertained and made the drive go better. Stopped for a wonderful, authentic Jordanian lunch at a nice restaurant then traveled another 40 minutes to reach the ancient ruins of Jarash. First we got a panoramic tour as we circled the ruins in the bus as it is a huge city. Then we disembarked and were led on a guided tour of the ruins. Truly it was interesting and as a World History teacher I'm always intrigued by sites like this. But even for me, especially after the LONG day yesterday followed by a LONG bus ride today, I was "ruined-out" largely. Still fascinating to see.
The South Gate (smaller, less important of the two)
A race track! The Hippodrome
The impressive (and important) North Gate
The Forum - unique in its circular / oblong shape
The blocks in the Forum - the Greeks laid the inner portion, note how they are SO random in size, shape and how they are laid out. The outer, by the Romans who insisted on precision and exactness!
The Theatre - 2nd best preserved ancient theatre in Jordan
Larry in the "Reserved Section" - which ACTUALLY was....it was in the most shaded part of the theatre; the seats were individually cut with back rests and designed for your feet to swing comfortably below; AND were lettered for reserved seating!
We had not had a "Theatre Photo Op" the entire trip :)
The Theatre on the right - the Temple on the left
Panoramic view of Jarash
We arrived at the hotel about 5 pm, and it's an exclusive hotel - it's unfortunate that of the twenty of us only one couple will be here past an early breakfast hour, with some leaving as early as 9pm tonight. Highlights.....certainly the Pyramids of Giza, going INTO the ancient tombs in the Valley of the Kings and seeing the paintings and inscriptions from 3000 to 5000 years ago STILL largely intact. The boat ride down the Nile to the Nubian village - so cool....and for that matter every moment on the Osiris. And Jordan was a pleasant surprise on all the days except the highlight day of visiting Petra which was just stunning. But best of all were the people we met and shared our trip with. The Viking staff, as always were so great, every one of them, but most especially our guide in Egypt, Hany was so fabulous and we had such a connection. Our favorite staff member, Petra who took care of us and especially me with the desserts :) And of course the life-long bonds we formed with John & Valerie and Larry & Lisa were priceless. I had exceptionally high expectations for this trip, and it exceeded them by miles! Next up, our Disney Christmas cruise with our youngest son, his wife and our grandson!
Today was the highlight of the extension and largely the reason we opted to add on the Jordan trip. Though to be fair we, and all of our fellow guests from the Osiris have been amazed at just HOW much Jordan has to offer - it's been great. But Petra is why we are here.
Carved into the sandstone cliffs, the prehistoric city of Petra remained "lost" to the rest of the world for centuries. Between 400 B.C. and 106 A.D. the Nabataean empire city was the center of trade for the ancient world. Mysteriously abandoned (at least our best guess is that) it remained unknown to the world until discovered in the early 1800's - and this was done only when that early explorer disguised himself as a traveling Bedouin trader to be led through the Siq (canyon/gorge) to see the once mighty city. Most people today would recognize this from the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie where the climatic final scenes were filmed here. The city had it's own water system including porcelain pipes that had valves that allowed fresh water (collected from the rain storms) to flow into the city. And it had a water control system to prevent flooding. Evidence visible today shows that alot of the carvings and buildings were massive "billboards" to advertise to visitors about how effective they were as merchants to visitors from around the world. What's really as remarkable as the stunning and breath taking scenery - especially in The Siq - is that archeologists estimate that they've only uncovered about 15% of the site! MUCH more to learn about the Nabataean people!
Looking at the map above, our tour (known as the classical tour - taken by most tourists) started in the lower left corner and took us to the Treasury, the Street of Facades, the Royal Tombs, past the Theatre, down the Colonnade Street and finally to the Qasar al-Bint (a huge temple). Many trails were available for more exploring but ALL including multiple-hundred steps (yes, hundreds) that were in poor shape. And the walk to the end of our tour was over three miles, so by the time we returned to the exit (right across the street from our hotel) we'd covered 6.85 miles. And I must say - which I'm sure would disappoint our guide Rain, that the "tourist version" of Petra, and what made my day was the walk through the massive & colorful canyons and then the National Treasury. Everything else we saw was like a double layer of icing on carrot cake! And so that's where most of my journal will focus as I try to whittle down the 114 images I shot today over the four and a half hours we explored the ancient site.
The Journey Through The Siq Certainly a highlight for everyone was the long trek down the incline through the walls of the canyon. I cannot begin to capture what that was like (best I can do is the 1:45 video below that gives a better idea than these pics). The walls are MASSIVE and so colorful. And it was a good 20-30 minutes of this before......
Our guide Rain was so clever.....along the Siq he pointed out many carvings and told many stories and then he gathered us close by and said he'd offer a banana split to the first person who could identify what he was going to point out. And he told us not to turn around, not to look.....finally got to a curve in the wall, had us look back and pointed up to the wall and said, "What do you see?" - dramatic pause, then, "Turn around and look" and there through the darkness, emerging in the light was the iconic National Treasury which was greeted by a chorus of "OOOOO's" and "AAAHHHHH's" :)
We then entered the open plaza to all the wonder of the National Treasury.......Look at our photos below then Google "Petra" and you'll see the exact same thing. Two-thousand years old - and we are here, looking at it. We had about fifteen minutes of free time before heading further down into the city to explore the rest of the complex.
Discovering Petra
To be honest, even though I'd researched with a lot of reading, watched several videos and a documentary on Petra and the civilization that was once here, I honestly thought once you exited the Siz and made the dramatic entrance into the open you'd see the National Treasury building carved into the walls of the cliff and then the city would be in this canyon. Oh no my friends. At this point we'd only traveled a little under two miles of our nearly four mile trek through the city complex. The highlights of the remainder of the tour are pictured below. Once we reached Qasar al-Bint the tour itself was over. So Kim and I joined Larry & Lisa for lunch. Then those two headed off on a rugged hike to the Royal Tombs on their journey back, while we retraced our steps back to the National Treasury, through the Siq, and exited the complex. As a reward for making the return trip in just over an hour we enjoyed ice cream at our resort!
Check the map above for these sites!
The Streets of Facades
The Theatre
The Royal Tombs - Panoramic View
The Royal Tombs - Close Up
The Street of Collonades
Later, at 6:45 we met our guide Rain for the optional tour to enjoy dinner at the local home of a Jordanian family. Interestingly Kim and I were the only two signed up for this adventure! Had a pre-dinner drink and for only the second time on the trip I got a legitimate frozen mud-slide. Then our guide rode along on our drive with the hired driver to the family's house. There we met two other couples (one with a teenage son) who were doing the home visit from another tour. We were entertained and learned about the average life in Jordan by the host, a Mom, her three daughters, and her oldest son. It was a wonderful evening and further enhanced our opinion that Jordan is one of the friendliest and safest countries we've visited in all our travels.
Tomorrow we are on the bus for the final day at 7:30 am and have a 4 1/2 hour bus ride back to Amman where we will have one last excursion. Then it's on to our hotel for a Farewell Dinner and at a little after midnight Kim and I will be taken to the airport to begin our journey home.
Today was a really cool experience - a much more "personal" day where the stops were "real" is the best way to describe it. First, we had a good start by not having to check out and be on board the bus until 9:30 am. But both today and the day after tomorrow promised to be long bus ride days. We first had to climb nearly 12,000 feet from our resort on the Dead Sea (the lowest spot on Planet Earth) to get all the way to Mount Nebo and then headed into the small town near the mountain top. It was here that our fabulous guide, Rain, wanted to stop at his brother's mosaic store where he also has a workshop to demonstrate how the mosaics are made. The first thing that was oh-so-cool was how Rain spoke about his younger brother, who's name translates to "Thunder!" and when his brother joined us on the bus, their embrace and huge grins demonstrated just how close these brothers are. We were led in to see THE most remarkable demonstration how these pieces of art are made from cut stone. Thunder explained that the pricing was not determined by the size of the piece but by the size of the stones and the intricacies of the art work. You'll see in the photos below just how amazing this is. We then were led into their store room and I decided that a great memory to take home from this experience would be a coffee mug, made of mosaics so that every morning I drank from this cup I'd remember Jordan and the passion these two men had for one another. I told this to both of them and they were very touched.
Next we drove about 20 minutes up the road to reach the town of Madaba. Two very cool experiences here. First, we went to a 200-year-old church which would have been something, but what was significant was that this church, when the foundation was being dug out (over a previous church) they found a mosaic.....it turns out it is the oldest map of the Middle East dating back to 546 AD. Rain led us to a small center off to the side away from the crowd where in the air conditioning he could explain on a model map what we were seeing. MOST ASTOUNDING! First the map is laid out exactly positioned to the geography it portrays. Second the details are astounding and it obviously was the "Google Map" of the ancient world so travelers could get their bearings. Who are they so sure about the dating? Because in the portrayal of the City of Jerusalem there is a church that is positively dated to 546 AD. There are two other churches that were built in 560 AD that DO NOT appear on the map - so that's how it's dated so accurately.
As we had walked to the church we approached the restaurant where we would have lunch. Rain explained that he'd known the owner & founder of this restaurant and his family - including his young daughter - for thirty years. Recently Rain had been in Saudi Arabia for five years and when he returned about a year ago he found they'd opened a second restaurant. When he went in the long-time friend introduced him to "the boss" of the new establishment and so Rain introduced her as "the boss" to his group, only to notice the girl was giving him an odd look.....she said, "You don't remember me?" Turned out to be the daughter who was grown into a young woman, Maya, and ever since she is known as "the Boss" to Rain. Then after the church we walked back there to be treated to a fabulous lunch, a traditional dish of "Upside Down Chicken" or maqluba. Sure enough, they brought it out in a giant pan, then with great pomp & circumstance the staff member flipped it over and slammed it onto the pan so that all the vegetables & chicken would be on top of the rice base. Let me tell you, this was DEEEEE-licious! And as an added perk, Maya served my plate to me :)
After hearty thanks for the meal and hospitality we went back to the bus and set out on a 2 1/2 hour trip to Shoubak Castle. We had been "warned" that this was a very VERY steep climb and that once at the top of the mountain in the castle the walkways were uneven and would require great care. But Rain explained that the view was so splendid that even if only one guest wanted to go he'd take them. As it turned out about half our group of twenty went and let me tell you it was a steep climb up, but we all made it. The view was excellent and provided a great photo op. In explaining the importance of the castle Rain pointed out that all this arid land at the time had once been nothing but forest. But during the reign of the Ottoman Empire they built a massive railroad and cut ALL the trees down.
We had about an hour ride to reach our resort hotel, but just outside of town Rain had the bus driver pull off the side of the road and we watched a beautiful sunset. An impromptu WOW sequence of moments to be sure. Tomorrow is THE highlight of the Jordan visit, the Lost City of Petra. If you Google "Petra" the photo that comes up is what everyone is waiting for. It comes as your round the bend in the canyon and Rain explained that regardless of how many videos and photos you've seen EVERY guest he's ever taken here just has their mind blown! It should be an amazing day - a lot of walking through the canyon to the city and back out again, but remarkable. Kim and I signed up for the optional dinner at a local family's home and it turns out we are the only two going tomorrow! So we'll have a very unique and "up close and personal" experience. Should be a BIG day!
