A tour of biblical proportions...

Besides their ancient history and striking natural beauty, Egypt and Jordan are also significant as parts of the Holy Land. Here's just a sampling...




The burning bush, at St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai in Egypt, where Moses learned of his destiny as the one who was to deliver the Israelites from Egypt.




Mt. Sinai, where he was passed the Ten Commandments.




And Mt. Nebo in Jordan, from which he finally viewed the promised land (today, you can just make out the cityscape of Jerusalem on the horizon from here), and where he passed away.




In Cairo, St. Sergius church is built above a room where tradition dictates the Holy Family took shelter while hiding in Egypt from Herod.




Finally, the Jordan river on the border between present day Jordan and Israel, in the spot believed to be where Jesus was baptized by John.

Jordan off the beaten track, part 2

After Shobak castle, the next stop was Dana Nature Reserve. Here at least they were set up to sell tickets, though it took me a while to find someone who could come to the reception office to issue me one. I didn't run into a single other tourist for at least 2 hours...


The hiking trail here led down into an expansive valley. The path was not technical by any means, but steeply graded. Coming back out of the valley (after a nice peaceful lunch on the dry river bed) was the physically demanding aspect of the day. At one point I stopped to catch my breath, drink some water, and let the wind and sun carry away some of the sweat.


Standing still in a place like Dana allows it to tell you some its stories. A flock of birds sang and twisted through the air above. Deep down in one of the crevices, echoes of a shepherd's singing and shouting intermingled with the din from his animals.


Suddenly, the sound of air being cut caught my attention. I turned my head in time to see a falcon flitting by, streaking down the valley face. As quickly as it appeared, it was over a lip and away. The aerial disturbance caused by its dive soon dissipated and was soaked up by the vastness. Only a moment in the tapestry of secret memories these cliffs must retain...

Jordan off the beaten track, part 1

After a wonderful traditional Jordanian dinner together on Sunday night, I bid farewell to my tour group on Monday morning. I had organized a private tour for the rest of that day; the first stop on this being Shobak castle.

Shobak apparently doesn't get as many tourists as Kerak castle. In fact, it's considered more of an active archaeological site than a tourist attraction. So instead of buying a ticket, I just needed to sign in on a visitor's form at the gate.

I managed to find most of the sites of interest listed in my Lonely Planet by just wandering around (there are no signs, maps, or marked tour routes). I was unable to locate the escape tunnel, though (the one mentioned in a previous post), so I decided to seek out some help. I found a couple of archaeologists measuring the distance between carve marks on the stones in one of the rooms. One of them had an official looking badge and spoke English.

"Hi," he greeted me.
"Hello... I'm looking for the tunnel. The escape tunnel?"
"Hmmm, yes. Well, it is very dangerous."
"Really? Oh..."
"Do you have light?"
I pulled out my maglight from my pack, "Yes."
"Oh, that's good. Well, you can go see it, and then decide if you want to go."
He walked over with a binder, flipping to a plan of the castle. He pointed out the spot, and an easy route to it. "Ok, be careful. It is dangerous and long."
"How long is it?"
"Over one kilometer."
"Oh, ok. Wow." I wasn't quite expecting that. "Well, I will go see if I want to go through with it then."
"Yes, go see it. It is very interesting. Then you can decide... go, or come back."

I set off, and found the entrance without delay this time.
The stairs led down steeply, and were uneven, broken in places, and covered in a fine dust. I could see what he was getting at with the dangerous bit, now. After the first corner, the flashlight was on.

I wanted to experience the tunnel. I climbed down for a few minutes, until I had put a few corners between myself and the entrance. At this point, I stopped and turned off the flashlight.

Black.

The kind of black that makes a crow teem with colour by comparison.

Silence.

And that was enough of that. I wasn't seriously considering doing the whole thing after what the other fellow had said, but now I was utterly convinced that this wasn't something you did without, at the very least, an extra flashlight and, frankly, a buddy.

Here's a photo of me climbing back out, nearing the top.


... and the same shot withouth flash...

Jordan is home to an even greater number of mosaic floors. Apparently, it was the thing to do if you were a Byzantine in Jordan in the 6th or 7th century...




Noah's ark scenes (note the pairs of animals) on the floor of the Byzantine Church in Petra.




The floor in another historic church at Mt. Nebo.




This floor mosaic from a church in Madaba is actually the remnants of an elaborate map of the Holy Land (you can just make out the Dead Sea and Jordan river in the top portion). It was used by arriving pilgrims to plan out their journeys.

Jordan is home to a great number of castles. Most of these date back to the time of the Crusades.

We visited Kerack castle back when I was still with the group. During the Crusades, this castle housed one Raynald of Chantillon. He was famous for his particular method of prisonor defenestration. He would afix boxes around their heads so that they wouldn't pass out from shock, thus making the eventual impact more painful in that final second or so... nice guy! Mind the window at the end of the hall...


My visit to Shobak was already after parting ways with the others.


This castle was known for its inhabitants being able to withstand siege for unnaturally long times. Turns out, they had an escape tunnel dug through the hillside that allowed them to sneak out for supplies and soforth. This hall here isn't the tunnel.. more on that later.


Finally, Qusayr Amra isn't actually so much a castle, as a "little palace", as its Arabic name describes. Nonetheless, it's located in the same general area as a bunch of actual castles, so it's lumped in with them in most guidebooks... and in this blog.


Amra's interior is decorated with pretty impressive (though not entirely preserved) frescoes. The one above shows various stages of work of different tradesmen (the blacksmith's row is most visible in the photo). Below is a domed roof that was decorated with the zodiac.

I just spent half an hour watching arabic music videos while waiting for my dinner... here are two of the more amusing sequences I witnessed:

1) A music video by the duo Milk and Honey (one of whom is white and blonde, but still sings in arabic... I'm guessing she's Milk) for their (hit?) song "Didi". Frankly, the bellydancing of these two girls makes American MTV look pretty tame...

2) The following random 2-minute clip: Girl and guy are sitting and talking together in a parked convertible. The girl is in the driver's seat. Every few seconds, she breaks out into a few notes of song, which the guy finds very entertaining... suddenly, a different girl (dressed in a bright yellow leotard) jumps out of the shadows and starts yelling at the singing girl and slapping her left and right repeatedly... then, a man (also dressed in a bright yellow leotard, and cape! which must make him even more powerful and weird) steps into the scene and grabs the yellow girl's arm. The singing girl, sensing her opportunity, returns a slap. Yellow man kisses her hand and appears to sweet-talk her. Randomly, he punches sitting guy (who has been quiet this whole time) in the face... yellow man points into the camera which has now zoomed in on him, yells something, and is off!

I'd like to say that these things would make more sense if I knew Arabic... but something tells me they actually wouldn't.

All this talk of iron rings has inspired me to write a nerd post. What good is engineering, anyway, if it can't be used as a segue between the Dead Sea and Roman cities?


On Sunday we visited Jerash, in the north of Jordan. It is most famous for its oval rotunda, apparently the only one of its kind. Some of the most impressive things to a nerd, though, were the mundane details of the city that have been so incredibly preserved here.


The nymphaeum, or public water fountain, is one of the best preserved buildings on the site. Water from local springs was channelled to it, and sprouted out from 9 statues of nymphs. This was collected in cisterns for all to use.

Any overflow or runoff was caught by the drains in the gutters, here embelished with fish for example...




Here's a shot of the main North-South thoroughfare leading from Damascus to Philadelphia (present day Amman). As you can see, they laid the stones diagonally. This was to prevent the wheels of chariots and carts getting caught and ruined in the gaps between the stones. The stones have shifted with the earthquakes and weather of two millenia, but were once flat and smooth. Water channels with the runoff mentioned before run under the road like a modern sewer.

Ok, I think that's enough nerd-talk for one post. To ensure it's not too one-dimensional, I've included a shot of myself enjoying a moment in one of the beautifually restored theatres. This was where the locals would come to enjoy plays, poetry, or music. Once the others from the group had filed out, I went down to the centre and sung a nice loud note. Good acoustics, I must add...



"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

By popular demand, here's some more info on the Dead Sea:


First off, I didn't notice my iron ring rusting any more than usual, actually. There may be a very good reason for this though. I had a small cut on my right hand, so I was actively avoiding putting that hand into the water as much as I could. When I did, it would sting a bit... the salt managed to get through the bandaid.

As for other forms of stinging... I managed to not get any in my eyes by making sure I kept my head above water. The tiniest drop still managed to make into onto my lips, and the salt taste was intense. Apparently there are a host of other nasties in there like Bromine and Iodine, and swallowing a mouthful could make you end up spending the rest of the day face-down in a toilet. After a few minutes with the mud on my face, my face actually started to tingle and sting a bit. That was when I decided it was time to rinse off and hop under one of the fresh water showers not far from shore. Art and Jenny were directing, to help point out the spots I had still missed.

One sensation that was totally surprising... My swimsuit has a few pockets on the sides. When I stood up out of the water, they felt like they were stuffed with something. Upon inspection, turned out they were full of water. The density and viscosity of the stuff made it take forever to drain out of my pockets... quite weird.

Here, I am, just floating around in the Dead Sea...

They say that because you're so low (400 m below sea level, the lowest dry point on Earth) and because the evaporating briney water creates interesting atmospheric effects, the UV rays from the sun aren't as harmful down at the Dead Sea. Nonetheless, after a few minutes I looked like I'd been burnt to a crisp!

(don't get too concerned, it's just mud...)