JORDAN

JORDAN

FRIDAY, 16 MAY 2008

The 55 minute flight to Jordan is interesting. We leave Cyprus which looks quite dry, fly over the very blue Mediterranean and in no time at all are passing over the dessert of Lebanon. Incredibly there are patches of snow on tops of some of the mountains.

It is refreshing to be picked up by our guide and go straight to the Dead Sea for lunch in the afternoon. By road we pass by sheep and goat herds with their herdsmen and dogs, vegetable stalls and many oleanders (usually pink) breaking up the dry landscape. Driving through the dessert we see the special Jordanian stone used for building. Then we begin the descent through the green belts of olive trees on the terraced hills and “small” bananas. The water comes from Dead Sea and is desalinated. We also pass camels and horses being ridden by the road.

We pass by the turn off to Jesus’ baptism site. It is incredible to think how long ago he was here.

The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth. We were surprised to see it was a lovely blue. What a wonderful experience it is to float here but you don’t want to drink the water which is so salty. We come out feeling very light. The mud from the bottom is good for the skin because it contains many minerals.

View over the Dead Sea



Aerial map of the Dead Sea and its borders

We are staying at the Imperial Palace Hotel and have dinner there. The wine comes from Mount Nebo. We find an Irish pub around the corner in the course of an after dinner walk.

SATURDAY, 17 MAY 2008

We head first to Madaba which has a sixth to seventh century Byzantine church, St Georges. It has a huge mosaic (said to contain two billion tiles) forming the map of the routes the pilgrims took, beginning in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the centre of the map (as it was considered the centre of the universe).

Mosaic map showing Pilgrim´s routes

Then we drive next to Mount Nebo which provides a panoramic view of the Jordan Valley. Moses is presumed to have died and have been buried here. There is a bronze statue showing Moses lifting up the water and the crucifixion of Jesus. There is also a memorial for Moses decorated by the Christian mosaic artists of Madaba.

Bronze statue at Mount Nebo

Karak is famous for its immense crusader castle.

There are also beautifully presented fruit and vegetable shops with the local produce – corn, tomatoes, spuds and melons.

The drive to Petra is long but varied. We take the bypass road to avoid all the fuel tankers travelling from Iraq to Aquaba. We make a stop to see how mosaics are made. They are all cut from limestone. Made in the old way they are stuck with cement (they are very heavy) and in the new way with plastic netting (so are light to transport). The landscape near Karak is steeply mountainous and desolate right down to Wadi Mujib. There is a dam there from which water is pumped to Amman. There is said to be underwater springs sufficient to provide water for Jordan for the next 50 years but the costs of pumping are also vast (US$600 million).

On route to Petra we pass over-size tents – Bedouin tents used as homes in the middle of this harsh, dry terrain. They get their water from springs under the surface.

We arrive at Petra in time to watch a beautiful sunset from the Panorama Hotel, overlooking the surrounding mountains. We meet an Australian couple here that live in Abudabi. They have friends named Sue and Ross who are sailing the world in a boat which are currently in Cyprus (what a coincidence!).

SUNDAY, 18 MAY 2008

Walking into Petra through the rift in the mountains

Petra is fascinating as is the history of its development by the Nabateans. Our guide is a Bedouin who used to live in the caves here. The Bedouins have now been moved out to homes in a village, paid for by the Government and are paying no taxes.

The Treasury - Petra

We bought a book called “Living with a Bedouin” written by an Australian woman who was married to a local Bedouin. Her son, who had lived in Sydney, had a broad Australian accent. The Bedouins are nomadic people, always looking for water and grass. We have seen many examples already of their settlements with over-sized tents made of goats’ hair which helps make them waterproof.

The colours in the enormous rocks are sensational. The different tones of pinks are from the magnesium, the yellow from copper and the grey/black from iron. It is a very mountainous, rocky area with a rift forming a passage and spectacular monuments in the form of palace tombs. We enjoyed a donkey ride up the steep path to the monastery.

Riding donkeys up to the monastry



The Monastry

There are camels everywhere here

The Nabateans are well-known for their very advanced engineering, including water irrigation systems. The carved waterways into the side of the rocks and used earthenware pipes.

Nabateans method of cooking

MONDAY, 19 MAY 2008

Jerash is a famous Roman city. The Roman pillars still standing here have been built using metal (usually bronze) keystones which give their joints some flexibility and has helped preserved them.

Looking up at the tall pillars

It is strange to hear bagpipes here. They were brought across to Jordan originally by the British.

Walking along some of the old caravan trails imagining the lively stalls along the way seems like a walk “in the past”.

Walking along the old caravan trails.


We have a local lunch at “Yuhala” which means “you are welcome”.

Ajlun Castle is an imposing site built by the Muslems on top of a high mountain with a great defence position looking west to Palestine, north to Syria, northeast to Iraq, east to Saudi Arabia and south to Amman and Saudi Arabia.

Ajlun Castle

Everywhere we drive we come across tomato stalls in abundance. They sell four kilos for one dinar (AU$1.50) and are full of flavour. We also see chickpeas sold by the side of the road. These are made into hommus which is delicious served with Jordanian or Lebanese flat bread.

We have dinner at Bonneto’s tonight, a lovely outdoor setting and delicious cuisine. And we enjoy an old classic French film, Les Parapluies, at a modern cinema complex in the Zara Centre.

We are learning about present day life in Jordan. The great majority (90%) are Muslims here and the rest mainly Christian.

The economy largely depends upon the export of phosphate. There are high taxes here. There are the very poor and the very rich with little in between. The media, newspapers and TV, are government controlled. There are many road traffic police controlling the road speeds of cars and the punishments are quite strict (loss of licence after third offence).

There is army control near the sea border with Israel. At present there is peace with Israel but no one knows when this may change.

The English were here for 100 years and their influence in the form of the infrastructure of buildings and roads is apparent.

We now have 1½ days of free time in Amman. We had thought of going to Wadi Rum (south of Petra) but decided it is too much driving in the allocated time, or Jerusalem. For the latter we feel we needed more time and we hadn’t planned it originally because we felt a little uneasy about going there. Hopefully, another time.

So Ross becomes tour leader. Despite some people’s negative remarks about Amman there were plenty of things to interest us, for example:

• the Citadel and National Archaeological Museum (including a display dealing with the ten scrolls found at the Dead Sea and a history of the Nabateans). Petra was the centre of all the caravan trade routes which was a critical economic activity;

Part of the exhibition of the 10 scrolls

• the Temple of Hercules;

• the Roman Theatre and the smaller Odeon Theatre;

• the Folklore Museum with its traditional costumes;

• the nearby Hashemite Square for a cup of the famous hibiscus tea (they are in full bloom now). This is the best place to sit and watch the downtown chaos of market, people and traffic;

Downtown Souk

• the local bazaar with locally produced craft goods;

• the Rasheed Court Café on the first floor balcony. This was established 50 years ago and is a famous meeting place and place to smoke the nargileh (the fruit flavoured infusion fired by red-hot charcoal pieces and drawn through water). One session of this (at its usual strength) it is said to equal three packets of cigarettes. We heard this from the owner who talks to us for some time while smoking his pipe. He suggested we have lunch around the corner at Hasheen and he advises us what to order.

Hasheen is a small café frequented by locals. We are served with Lebanese flat bread and a large white paper serviette accompanied by a dish of hommus and one of fuul (pureed large brown beans). There is a plate of fresh mint to put in our tea and some falafel. All this costs AU$5 for the two of us. It is the perfect lunch for today and fun just sitting watching. There were no other women here.

There is very heavy traffic driving through downtown and we look down to the many straight-sided stone houses, usually more than one storey high.

Jordan looks very densely populated. There has been a large swell in the population with a large number of refugees from Palestine and Iraq. The government is happy to take people in but the public is unhappy because of an increase in food prices and added stress to problems of water availability.

This evening we go to an Italian recital at De La Salle College. There is piano and some percussion music. It is an experience to find it and a passionate performance by the vocalist.

Later we go to a recommended restaurant, Fakka El Deen, but discover later that the taxi driver has taken us to Grappa instead. This is dining under the moon and stars and, obviously, a young persons place but we enjoyed it.

We have been watching the world news and seeing the devastating results of the Burmese cyclone and the Chinese earthquake. Again, we realize how lucky we are in Australia to escape natural disasters of this magnitude.

TUESDAY, 20 MAY 2008

We have a slow start on our last day here. We engage Fawwaz as our driver. He takes us on a downtown walk behind the old King Hussein Mosque. We stroll through the market and souks. He buys us a drink of tamaherdi (an Indian date drink). Then he buys us a kunafa slice (the flat sweet milk custard dish with cheese underneath and a crystalline top with finally chopped pistachio nuts). The street stall where he buys it is insanely busy (according to the Lonely Planet) but is owned by Habadans (said to be the place to go to get a sugar hit).

The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts comprises two buildings flanking a sculpture park and exhibits contemporary Jordanian and other Middle Eastern works of painting and sculpture. There is a Picasso ceramic exhibition there now which is what attracted us.

A cup of coffee at the Wild Jordan Café, a chic new coffee house is quite an experience. It has a view over downtown. We drank a lime/lemon crush with mint (very unusual and refreshing).

View form the Wild Jordon Cafe

Our grand finale is lunch at the Blue Fig Café which is modern and serves a fusion of different foods from all over the world. We try the Bedouin influenced gailai – sauted tomato, garlic, onion and pepper on Arabic bread, topped with cheese and pine nuts and dill. Ross has enjoyed another Bedouin traditional dish – mensaf which is spit roasted lamb served on a bed of rice and pine nuts.

We like the philosophy at this café (it has an art exhibition on now): “Against the ruin of the world there is only one defence, the creative act”. Today’s Jordan Times has an article ranking Jordan’s stability as strong and the level of peace high in an uncertain region. They are, afterall, jammed in between Iraq, Israel and Lebanon.

Jordan has been quite a highlight. Partly this is because of the interest of the historical sites, such as Petra. In addition, we have a better insight into things we have heard of as children receiving biblical instruction but never quite understood.