Don't Touch the Animals! Travel with the Baysides: Jordan

Before we head back to Ronciglione in October, we are doing some more traveling-- this time to Jordan and Turkey.

Sunset over the Dead Sea

We've been in Jordan for almost five days now, and we've already seen some amazing things. As I write this from the balcony of our hotel room, I'm looking over the water of the Dead Sea to Palestine, which can't be more than 10 kilometers away. The city of Jericho is a cluster of lights to the northwest, maybe 25 kilometers from here. The baptismal site for Jesus is about 20 km from where I'm sitting right now, and a few days ago, on our way to the eastern desert, we drove through Mount Nebo where Moses saw the Promised Land. Jerusalem is less than two hours from here. I'm still digesting how much there is here and how close everything is. And how old everything is. Jericho is the oldest city in the world and settlements around Jerash go back to 7500 BCE.

We arrived in Amman Saturday evening. Our driver met us at the airport and we headed to the Dead Sea Hilton, about an hour away. We got in around 9:30p, got some food and drink and headed off to bed. On our second day we hired another driver and he drove us east toward Azraq see some of the famed desert castles of the 7th - 8th century Umayyad Caliphate. These castles are in the middle of empty, hot, dry stretches of desert. They were used variously as inns, hunting lodges for the elite, and fortifications. We visited three: Qasr Al-Kharanah, Qasr Amra, and and Qasr Azraq (the last made famous by Lawrence of Arabia).

Qasr Al-Kharanah

Qasr Amra

Qasr Azraq

After a day of rest, we headed north to Jerash to see the amazingly intact Greco-Roman ruins of the old city. Alexander the Great began the building, but it was followed up by the Romans, especially during the time of the Emperor Hadrian. Although the city was destroyed in 749 AD, it is still one of the best preserved ancient Roman cities in the Middle East. We spent two hours wandering through the maze of ruins.

Cardio Maximus - the main street through town

The Oval Plaza

Hadrian's Arch

On our last day here at the Dead Sea, we ventured into the actual sea and indulged in mud baths, salt scrubs and lots of not-very-graceful floating. You don't want to get any of the sea water in your eyes (it burns like mad) or in your mouth (it is so salty it burns and doesn't taste like salt at all).