i: Window into the Old Testament

Thu, 11 Mar 2004 19:48:17 -0800

Jordan is of course more than a window into the past, it is a lot of other things also. But visit Jordan with a Christian guide knowledgeable in the Old Testament, and you will find so many places referred to in this ancient book, holy to many, that the place will develop an aura of its own.

The country abounds with locations, which have been mentioned in the Books of the Bible. There are the locations where Mary and Jesus once walked by and rested. At one place a church now commemorates that spot, after a miracle healing took place there. And there are many locations where it seems that time has gone by it, like this wadi, where Bedouins still eke out a precarious living tending to goats.

left: A wadi with Bedouins tending their goats.

When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan, the Promised Land, he did not go there in a straight line. Moses was a man, so he did not bother to ask for directions. And the Boss was often vindictive and cruel, so it took the Israelites 40 years before they could finally step into their destined land. This is in rather sharp contrast to the slightly more than an hour it took us to fly from Cairo to Amman. But you do have to add to that about 6 hours to go through procedures, safety checks, and waiting. But we all made it in our group. Centuries ago the Israelites were not that lucky; only one of them actually made it into the Promised Land, because the Lord their God was pissed off at them for their many transgressions during their journey to the East. Mom, are we there yet? Boss, what do we have for dinner? Chief, I am tired.

“ And the Lord heard the voice of your words and was wroth, saying: Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh” (Deuteronomy 1, verse 34)

After liberation from the Egyptians the Israelites left the banks of the Nile to go East. That was during the reign of Ramses II, who was the ruler when Egypt was at its apex, and who spent a lot of his time building monuments and temples for his eternal glorification. The temples for the living are on the East bank of the Nile; monuments for the dead are on the left or West Bank of the river, because the sun sets in the West. Ramses II did not build the pyramids; the pharaohs before him did that. But he built a lot of temples and huge statues of himself. Those Israelites, who were on the West Bank had to cross the Nile before setting off on their journey to the Promised Land which was, for them, also the Journey of No Return.

They then crossed the Red Sea to enter the Sinai, where they spent most of their time criss-crossing the desert, getting into fights with each other, with their leaders, and with their God before the original refugees were almost all dead. Then Moses told them to pack up and get going and then they entered what is now Jordan. They went by the area near where Petra would be built several centuries later. It is here, on the top of Mount Hor, that Aaron died.

“And the Lord spake unto Aaron and Moses in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying: Aaron shall be gathered unto his people; for he shall not enter into the land, which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar, his son, and bring them up unto Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son, and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people and shall die there. And Moses did as the Lord commanded; and they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation …. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain.” (Numbers, 20, verse 23.)

I wonder how he died. The guy must have been healthy enough to climb the 2000 feet or so high mountain. He strips off his clothes, he lies down, closes his eyes, and he dies of hypothermia. Is that it? Anyway, at that time Petra was located in the land of Edom and the Edomites were the descendants of Esau. I will write more about them later on.

There is now a mosque on the top of Mt. Hor, which is still a few thousand feet above the plateau, and its gleaming cupola can be seen from miles in the distance. The locals call the place Jabal Harun, because the Islam also recognizes Moses (Musa) and Aaron (Harun). From the bedroom window of our 5-star Marriott Petra hotel we can see this cupola in the distance, glistening in the morning sun. Much lower to the right, on the valley floor, is the hidden entrance to the ruins of Petra. And in the distance a bit higher up, is the town of Wadi Musa, (Valley of Moses) which has grown tremendously as the staging place for tourists going to Petra. Wadi Musa is a hilly, non-memorable town. Except for a rather nondescript building with a large tourist shop to one side and an entrance to a hall on the other side. There is a rectangular pool in the tiled hall and there were some rocks in the background. There was obviously a water source somewhere feeding the pool, because the water was moving.

“And the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Zin …. And there was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people strove with Moses and spake, saying: Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord …. Wherefore have you made us come to this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. … And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying. Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock … And Moses lifted up his hand and smote the rock with his rod twice, and water came forth abundantly ….. And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron. Because ye believed not in me .. therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah” (Numbers, 20, verses 1-12)

Well, the rocks we saw there were presumably the rocks, which Moses smote. And the spring, which was the source of the water, is still merrily supplying water today. Legend says that if you wash your face regularly in these waters, you will look at least 10 years younger. That was what our guide claimed. At which a member of our tour group chimed in: “At our age I would opt for a sitzbath”.

The Israelites could then have gone straight north to enter their Promised Land. Instead they went to the east first and then they went north along the east bank of the Dead Sea. Part of the trip went on the King’s Highway. This road is now in Jordan; the King’s Highway is still there, as it was in 1200 BC, but it is now paved to allow tourists in their minibuses to zip by years of history in only a few hours. Time is precious; time is money. Very recently an ancient stone was found by a French archeologist, (so the original went in the Louvre), with 40 lines of inscriptions made by King Misha, who was mentioned in II Kings 3, verse 4. King Misha states on this stone, now called Misha’s stone, that his father built the road.

But it was not all that easy in those days. There were areas where the local king did not want this horde of Israelites tramping through his land going north. And as we traveled down this winding road (there is a sleek, modern high-speed highway parallel to the King’s Highway several miles to the East through desert) our guide read us excerpts of the Old Testament, “And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites saying, Let me pass through thy land; we will not turn aside into field, or into a vineyard; we will not drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the King’s high way until we have passed thy border” (Numbers, 21, verse 21) Well, Sihon didn’t like the idea and he vetoed their passage. With no choice offered to them, the Israelites fought him, beat him, and took his lands and possessions.

But the Israelites did not always took arms to fight their way through. In Numbers, 20, verses 17, Moses asks king Edom of Kadesh for passage: “Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard; neither will we drink of the water of the wells. We will go along the King’s high way, we will not turn aside to the right nor to the left, until we have passed thy border”

Well, King Edom did not give permission for the Israelites either to go through their kingdom. Maybe his refusal was to get even for Jacob, the ancestor of the Israelites, for having bamboozled his elder brother Esau, the forefather of Edom. In this case the Big Boss did not think it was advisable to fight their way through, so the Israelites had to veer west to go along the Red Sea. And somewhere along their path they must have crossed the Mujeb Valley, or the Grand Canyon of Jordan. This is part of the Great Rift Valley formed some 50 million years ago and this geological feature goes all the way down to South Africa.

Here in Jordan the Wadi Mujeb is about 1 km deep and about 4 km across. When the Israelites fled Egypt, the Old Testament estimated their numbers to be around 600,000. To lead this number of people along these areas is truly astounding. But the mortality rate was also high. Divide 600,000 by 40 years, since only one guy made it to Canaan, so some 40 persons died each day. Actually more. There must have been many persons born during this 40-year odyssey, who perished in the desert also. I took some pictures from the rim of the Valley, but the air was hazy. Maybe the air is polluted as in many developing areas in the world. There was also a dam in the Mujeb river, which is a tributary of the Jordan River, but I did not see any electrical power plants and water coming out below the dam. The dam is there to collect water for use in the country. None goes to the Jordan River, every drop collected is used in place. This is a desert country and water is precious.

In the same area a lit bit more to the north we went up Mount Nebo. After passing the usual collection of tourist stalls and hawkers you enter the grounds of a simple church built on the summit of this mountain. As you walk up the short hill to the church, you pass a stone stating that this is a holy Christian place dedicated to Moses. Because in Deuteronomy 32, verse 48 we read: “The Lord spoke unto Moses that selfsame day saying. Get thee up into this mountain of Abarim, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for possession; and die on the mount wither thou goest up.”

From that same spot where Moses stood, we could see the north end of the Dead Sea, where the Jordan River ends. Jericho is quite visible a bit further away. Here Moses saw the Promised Land, but he could not enter because on occasions he had rebelled against his Lord. (Deuteronomy 32, verse 51.) His was not a kind and forgiving God; but a God where circumstances forced Him to be stern and unbending, a Leader who would brook no dissent to be able to lead this multitude to safety. And here, on Mount Nebo, Moses died. And now there we stood, and we too could see Jericho in the distance.

On the top of Mount Nebo there is now a simple church built over the remains of a much older church,one probably from the 6th century. Rows of partial columns and stone carvings were still there and the floor in some areas were still from the original church. Our guide tells me that many Indonesian Christian tour groups come to this church for special reserved morning services where the preacher is a member of the tour group and the sermon would be in Indonesian. It would have been a most powerful experience for these modern-day pilgrims.

left: Inside the Church on Mt. Nebo; note the ancient 6th century partial columns.

There are wonderful, large mosaics on the floor made from tesserae, small pieces of local colored stone. The colors are more permanent than when the tiles would have been made from glazed tiles. Most of these mosaics were created in the 6th and 7th century. In the iconoclastic period of the 8th century, Pope Leo II banned the depictions of human figures and living animals, so later-date mosaics were just geometrical forms and therefore not as interesting.

right: This is not a carpet, but a mosaic on the floor of the church. Especially the dip in the front creates the impression that this is a carpet.

Many of these older mosaics survived because some people, Glory Be Unto Them, covered these art works by constructing another floor above them to comply with the ban by hiding them instead of destroying them. But in this process they were protected for posterity. Sometimes good things can come from bad decisions. Not often. But many other mosaics were destroyed because of Pope Leo’s edict.

Creating mosaic floors seems to be quite the pastime in those days and there are still many wonderful mosaics to see; most of them on the floor of churches. On the floor in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Madaba, there is this huge mosaic map of the area, laid in around 540 AD. It shows what is now Jordan, Egypt, and part of some of the surrounding countries.

left: A mosaic map of the Jordan River emptying into the Dead Sea.

The picture shown above is only a small part of that map. On this picture to the left is north. You see the Jordan River emptying into the Dead Sea, and a fish turning around away from the saline and inhospitable waters of the Sea. The inscriptions are in Greek. On the bottom of the picture (above the picture of the walled town) is the town of Jericho (ίεριχω). And just above the confluence of the river and the Dead Sea you would have found Mt. Nebo.

These tourist stalls and hawkers at Mt. Nebo were really not as obtrusive as the ones we saw in along the path to Golgotha in Jerusalem. There the path to where the cross was set up was lined, both sides, with tourist stalls selling the same items, probably made in China or India. Here, in Mt. Nebo, they stayed outside the gates, a few hundred yards from the church proper, and shielded by a grove of trees, so you could enjoy the view and the history without being bothered by hawkers selling three necklaces or a package of postcards for a dollar. And you can have your picture taken next to the large stone proclaiming in chiseled letters this to be a Christian Holy Site, a Memorial to Moses.

From there Joshua took the leadership and led the Israelites into their promised land. He marched around the city seven times, blew the trumpets, and the walls fell down. That was the first step in the conquest of Canaan. It was to be a land flowing with milk and honey but their God, not having a geological background, did not realize there was no oil in the ground.

Here too, not far away, was the palace of King Herod. Here Salomé danced for him and asked for the head of John the Baptist as reward when king Herod offered her anything she wanted, up to half his kingdom. Why this gruesome request. It came from her mother, Herodias. She was married to the brother of Herod, and when she took up with Herod, John the Baptist called her a harlot. Which did not sit too well with her. Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned. so she convinced her daughter, Salomé to ask for his head as reward. As for the seven veils, that was introduced in stories of more recent vintage to make the story more salacious.

To the north of Amman we stopped at a rushing stream, 20-30 feet wide; nothing special except for the pockets of foam from modern-day detergents lining the banks. It was the Jabboc river. Another historical site, but maybe not that important, because there was only one hawker selling postcards and some trinkets. That was one hawker more than when Moses and his Israelites fought Sihon, king of the Amorites. They came all the way north to the Jabboc River. And much earlier than that Jacob crossed the river and wrestled with God.

You may recall that previous to this Jacob had impersonated his brother Esau to get the blessing of Isaac, their father, whose eyesight was not too good at that time. When Esau found this out, he was wroth, and Jacob had to flee. Many years later, he heard that his father Isaac had died, and so he decided to return to his homeland. For that he had to cross the Jabboc river again. Of course he wasn’t quite sure how Esau would receive him and so he prepared as peace offering “200 she-goats and 20 he-goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milch camels and their colts, 40 kine and 10 bulls, 20 she-asses and 10 foals”, which he sent ahead of him. (Genesis, 32, verse 14).

“And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two handmaids, and his eleven children and passed over the ford of Jabboc. … And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. … “ (Genesis, 32, verse 22).

It was God himself he was wrestling with and at the break of day. God told him that his name shall henceforth be Israel. And he became the forefather of the Israelites, because, I suppose, God saw he was a productive and prolific man. And it was his son Joseph, the guy with the multicolored coat, who was sold into slavery in Egypt, became important, and induced the Israelites to move to Egypt during the years of famine.

II: Amman and The Dead Sea.

Wed, 10 Mar 2004 20:54:55 -0800

Amman

Amman, the capital of Jordan, is a modern city with an ancient past. Some 1.5 million people live here, which is a big junk of the 6.4 million population of the country. The population is 95 % Muslim and 5 % Christian. Most of the people we saw are well-dressed. The city also has a huge number of expatriates, because Jordan has a reputation as a haven for political refugees seeking asylum. There are big groups of Palestinians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Chechens, and others. The city is also home to many South East Asians, who come here to work as domestic or civil servants.

The town is built on 7 hills (our guide maintains there are 8 hills) and the lowest point is still about 600 meters above sea level, so the ambient temperature is quite cool. When we were there, the weather actually reminded us of California; it was 75º and it was very nice. Surprisingly, snow even occasionally falls in Amman during the winter. The streets are wide, there are pedestrian bridges over the busier streets downtown, and you see lots of steps going up into the residences on the hills. That should be good to make the kids have sturdy legs.

Our hotel was the 4-star Golden Tulip Grand Palace Hotel, which was nice, because we received a quiet room on the top or 6th floor with a nice view of the city.

left: View of Amman from our hotel room.

But below its modern veneer, Amman is one of the oldest cities in the world. Archaeological cave excavations north of Amman indicate that Jordan has been populated for the last 100,000 years by both conquering and indigenous people. In the current Amman, the Ammonites were here in the 13th century BC, and the place was then called Rabat Amon or Rabbath Ammon. After them came the Assyrians, followed by the Persians and then the Greeks, with a lot of other stuff in between and afterwards. It was called Philadelphia during Graeco-Roman rule, and Amman is one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the region.

Philadelphia, nowadays Amman, was also one of cities of the Decapolis league, a prosperous confederation of ten major Roman cities on the Eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, who were linked together by powerful commercial, political, and cultural interests. These cities were also centers of Greek and Roman culture in an area which was otherwise Semitic. The Decapolis is mentioned several times in the Bible. The three most well-known towns of this league are Amman (Philadelphia), Damascus, and Jerash.

Many tourists to Jordan think of Amman as only the gateway to Petra, the destination of most. But Jordan has many other important and interesting venues for the visitor. For instance, if you are in Amman, one of the first things you have to do is to go to “Zalatimo Brothers for Sweets” on Abdullah Ghosheh Street. They make the most wonderful Middle Eastern sweets. They sell these small, bite-sized crunchy marvels of millefeuille, honey, butter, nuts, and other goodies. If you think the baklava in your neighborhood deli is marvelous, then you have not compared them with Zalatimo’s creations. They are the best Middle Eastern sweets everywhere and they are guaranteed to give you at least 3 cavities the next time you visit your dentist. What you will do is to buy one or more tins of their sweets to take home. These round, metal containers, are also bound to set off alarms at the airports as your luggage is scanned for bombs and other incendiary devices. Just be forewarned. It is sometimes difficult to convince the security staff not to open these tins to check for its contents.

And if you are there you can cross the street to the Central Bank to change money. We found that using money changers was just as or even more effective, if you wanted to change something else beside US$ into Jordanian pounds. The bank would change US dollars into Jordanian dinars, but did not want to touch our Egyptian pounds. When we were there the Jordanian dinar was worth about US$1.50. And they had actually coins for the smaller denominations; not the smelly pieces of paper we had to gingerly handle in many other parts of the world.

On the tourist tour through the city, there was the King Abdullah mosque, the biggest mosque in Jordan, named after King Abdullah II, the grandfather of the current king. It is a modern structure completed in 1990, with a blue round dome, decorated as if it was a huge piece of Native American pottery.

right: the King Abdullah mosque.

The Citadel

The city has a number of well-preserved ancient sites. On the top of one of the higher hills is the Citadel. A pair of magnificent pillars are the most striking remains of the Temple of Hercules, which our guide claims was built by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. Other sources claim that the temple was built under the Roman emperor Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century AD. Since neither the guide nor we were there at that time, we don’t know.

left: These impressive pillars of the Temple of Hercules are 33’ high.

Close to these pillars is the small Jordan Archeological Museum, with an excellent collection of artifacts. They even have an exhibit of Dead Sea scrolls.

And close to this site are the ruins of some still older temples, including a small Byzantine basilica, dating from the 6-7th century AD, just a few hundred yards away. Corinthian columns are still standing around the perimeter of the church.

right: Corinthian columns around a Byzantine basilica on the Citadel. In the background the dome of the al-Qasr.

And on the same hill, but few hundred yards further away, are the remains of the palace complex, known as al-Qasr, The Palace. It was used by the Umayyads in the 7th century when they grabbed power in this area. The huge ante-room to the palace looked like the interior of a church and on closer look we can see that it used to be a church before it was converted. And behind this hall are four vaulted chambers and a colonnaded street running through the complex. From the garden of this palace there was a commanding view of the whole are. On an adjacent hill we saw a huge Jordanian flag fluttering proudly in the breeze. This Jordanian flag has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest national flag in the world.

The Umayyads were there for about 100 years. They were Shiites. They were displaced by the Abashids, who trace their ancestry back to Ali, cousin of the Prophet, and who are known as the Sunnis.

The Roman Theater

The amphitheater, known as the Roman Theater, is the most impressive relic from antiquity in Amman. It can seat 6,000 spectators and the acoustics are superb. The Greeks started it, the Romans added and finished it. The name associated with this structure is Antonius Pius, 162 - 169 AD.

left: The Roman theater in Amman.

This open-air amphitheater is still in good shape, and occasionally used for sporting and cultural events. Adjacent to this huge structure is the Odeon, a small 400-seat amphitheater used for smaller group meetings and now for intimate concerts. And in between these two structures are the Jordan Folklore Museum and the Museum of Popular Traditions, with an interesting collection of Jordanian costumes and dioramas of local, traditional life.

The Dead Sea

Maybe I will now say something about the Dead Sea, that body of highly saline water with the surface some 390 meters below the level of the Mediterranean Sea. The Dead Sea is only 30 miles away from Amman, so it was a short drive, and going there from the city you go downhill all the way. And uphill all the way back.

As the name suggests, the Dead Sea is very dead. There are neither plants nor fish in the water, because of the extremely high mineral content, almost ten times as high as in the oceans. These minerals, especially bromine compounds, are now being mined for agricultural and industrial use.

We stopped at a modern vacation resort hotel operated by Mövenpick. It was a very nice place; it was not that busy because the season had not quite started. You change into your swimming trunks and walk over a short sandy beach into the Dead Sea.

right: The Dead Sea from the terrace of the Mövenpick resort.

Some 7 years ago my Dad and I were on the Israeli side of the Dead Sea just south of Massala. There we had to walk over the hot asphalt pavement from the hotel to an elephant train, which took us close to the beach, where we still had to walk another 50 yards or so over a stony path, before getting into the water. This one in Jordan was a major improvement. The water is very saline, buoyant, and very conducive for philosophers contemplating life and death, as in the Dead Sea. We see one of them in the picture shown.

left: Contemplating the meaning of Life in the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is also the location of many significant biblical events. Along Jordan’s southeast coast of the Dead Sea is an area described in the Old Testament as the Plain of Jordan. Abraham and Lot were here, but the land could not sustain both, so here they parted. Abraham gave Lot the choice where to go and “Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the Plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah” (Genesis 13:10). Not being bashful, Lot chose this fertile land and Abraham moved into Canaan. Lot went East and moved his tents close to Sodom.

But some years later the king Chedorlaomer and his allies attacked Sodom and Gomorrah, and in that process captured Lot and his family. So Abraham had to come to the rescue. Backed by his powerful God his campaign was a success and he managed to slaughter Chedorlaomer and his allies and so “he brought back all the goods and also again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people” (Genesis 14:16). It is nice to have an older brother who takes care of you.

III: Ajlun Castle, Jerash, and Wadi Rum

Tue, 9 Mar 2004 18:28:36 -0800

Ajlun Castle.

As we drove out of Amman, we could see in the far distance a castle strategically built on top of a mountain. It still took us more than an hour to get to the ruins of this imposing fortress.

left: Ruins of Ajlun Castle. Picture by Nick Fraser.

It was built in 1184 by a nephew of the great Salah ad-Din, known in the Western world as the fierce warrior Saladin. This fort was built to protect against attacks by the crusaders from their strongholds Karak and Soubek in the south and Bisan in the West. Views from the top of the castle show that it dominates a wide stretch of the Jordan Valley. And even though this structure was built high up, there was still a 50’ wide, 40-50 feet deep moat around it, and entrance was over a drawbridge. The fortress must have been built over an older fortress, because the business side of a number of the slotted holes in the walls for arrows were facing inside courtyards or other walls.

right: Interior of Ajlun Castle. Picture by David Bjorgen.

There were cisterns everywhere to collect rainwater. And now there is also a small museum, with local artifacts displayed in a rather haphazard manner.

But less than a century after the construction, this mighty castle fell in 1260 into the hands of the Mongols. But soon afterwards they had to relinquish it to the Mamluks.

Jerash

Not too many people have heard of Jerash, which used to be also a city of the Decapolis League. It is located some 30 miles north of Amman and, outside of Italy, it is one of the largest and most well-preserved sites of Roman architecture. The colonnaded flagstone streets, theaters, plazas, arches, bath and other structures are in exceptionally good condition. Archeologists have found remains dating back to the Neolithic Age, but the Jerash we now see was mostly the sizable town during the days of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. But it was under Roman rule, in the first and 2nd century AD, that the city really flourished. Some 20,000 people must have lived there at that time. The Bible refers to this place as “the region of the Gerasenes.” (Mark 5:1, Luke 8:26)

left: The colonnaded Oval Plaza in the middle of Jerash, 270 feet long and 240 feet wide. The columns are first century Ionic.

The decline started in the 3rd century. Jerash was invaded by the Persians in 614 AD, and then by the Muslims in 636 AD. In the 8th century there was a series of earthquakes and when the Crusaders got there the city was found to be abandoned. Over the succeeding centuries the city became buried in sand and disappeared from view. This was the main reason for its remarkable preservation. Serious excavations only started in 1925, after a German traveler, Jasper Seetzen, came by and recognized some parts of the ruins. Some people believe Jerash is more attractive than Ephesus and they may have a point. When we were in Jerash, there were just a few tourists around; when we were in Ephesus last year, there were throngs of tourists jostling for space.

But just as in Ephesus, the ruins in Jerash bespoke of a magnificent past culture. They have a big colonnaded oval plaza, long colonnaded streets covered with flagstones, two amphitheaters, Greek temples, Roman temples, Byzantine churches, a Hippodrome seating 15,000 spectators, and more. But there is no big historical figure, rock star, or Apostle associated with the city; hence the relative obscurity of the place.

right: The Temple or Artemis still has 11 of the 12 original massive Corinthian columns standing.

It is not a small place; you need to walk between 2-3 hours just to go by the many sites. The walls are from the Byzantine area and had a total length of 3.5 km, or about 2.2 miles.

left: The South colonnaded street, just a few hundred yards from the Oval Plaza, part of the 800 m long cardo, or main street. To the left behind the columns is the Macellum, or market place.

In July and August, there is now an annual Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts.

Shobek and other Castles.

So the Crusaders were here too. We drove by the ruins of Shobek, a large fortified castle on a hill built by the Crusaders. It was one of the chain of Crusader fortresses stretching all over Jordan. It was once known as Mont Realis, or Montreal, and it was constructed in 1115 by Baldwin I. At its apex, it was home to some 6000 Christians. The castle is typical of Crusader architecture, combining elements of European, Byzantine and Arab designs.

right: Ruins of Shobek Castle, built by the Crusaders in 1115.

Note that Aljun Castle to its north was built in 1180 as a counter measure to this fortress.From Ajlun as base Saladin attacked Shobek, and Shobek fell in his hands in 1189.

In the waning light of the afternoon we stopped to look at Al-Karak Castle. This fortress was constructed by the Crusader Lord of Karak, Payem (also known as Baldwin I) in 1132 AD as another castle in the chain of fortifications from Aqaba to Turkey. The city, at that time, could be entered only by three underground passages. Even with its impressive fortifications, the Arabs under Saladin regained the city and the castle in 1189.

This was actually Saladin’s second try to capture the city. His first attacks were in 1183 and during the siege, there was the wedding of Isabella of Jerusalem and Humprhey IV. In a gesture of chivalry, Saladin agreed not to target his cannons on their wedding chamber during the ceremony.

Wadi Rum

There is, of course, a lot of desert in Jordan. We took a day-trip to Wadi Rum in the south. The enigmatic British officer T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, used to live here, and it was here that he planned the attack on Aqaba to wrest the city from the Turks by attacking from the desert side. Lawrence took most of the credit for the fall of the port and he generally underplayed the fact that he had some 10,000 Arab soldiers backing him up in that campaign. Some of the movie footage of Lawrence of Arabia were also shot here.

The desert here is not just barren sand. It is a stunning, romantic and haunting landscape of incredible beauty. There are massive rock structures, in which you can find hidden narrow canyons of multicolored rocks and cool springs. There are sheer granite walls and towering sandstone mountains.

left: A herd of goats of the Bedouins in the vast desert.

There are ancient writings on the rocks, which have not been completely deciphered. There is a lot of flora and fauna around which have adapted to the harsh environment. Shrubs grow in the desert sand. There are Bedouins here making a living from goats because these animals can live on the barest of green stuff. They also drive around in 4-wheel drive open pickup trucks to show tourists around. There are no roads in the desert, just tracks of these trucks. The main center of human population is the village of Wadi Rum, where several hundred Bedouins live in tents and concrete houses. There are a few shops, a school, a small restaurant, and the headquarters of the famous Desert Patrol. You can stay overnight there at the Government Rest House.

right: Ancient writings on the wall, which have not been deciphered yet.

And here, in this wide, open desert with no other buildings or signs of habitation around, near the entrance of a canyon, I saw the ultimate in Government bureaucracy. We saw workmen building something, so we asked whether they were planning to build a shelter or maybe a small coffeehouse or so. No, they were contractors for the Government and they were building a parking lot. In the middle of the desert. Where the only few cars are those of the Bedouins around.

left: There are multi-colored rocks in the desert. Shrubs thrive here, eking water from deep underground springs.

The Wadi rum area is actually a great place to do some exploring. Unless you get lost, of course.

Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi

This famous man, known in Western literature as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. He started out low in the military ranks but developed into a warrior of great dexterity and tactical skills. He is often depicted as the scourge of the Crusaders and the arch-enemy of Richard the Lion-Hearted. In 1188, under his command, the Arab forces inflicted the decisive defeat on the Crusaders at the Battle of Hittin, leading to the liberation (from the Arabs point of view) of Jerusalem. This was the start of the decline of the influence of the Crusaders in this region.

Salah ad-Din is especially famous for his generosity and his sense of justice. After Jerusalem fell into his hands, he guaranteed the life and property of the 100,000 Christian inhabitants of the city. He left the amassed wealth of the Christian patriarch intact and even provided for his safe transit to other Christian locations. And when Richard the Lion-Hearted became ill, Salah ad-Din sent him his private physician for treatment.

Salah ad-Din died in 1193.

IV: Petra

Mon, 8 Mar 2004 22:30:10 -0800

Petra, in the south of Jordan, was the main reason why we, and most other tourists, come to Jordan. Petra is essentially an ancient city of tombs or mausoleums, carved out of the multicolored living rock by the Nabateans. They were one of the nomadic tribes of Arabia, and they had started to come into the area at around the 6th century BC. The previous dwellers of the area were the Edomites, who were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. Edom means red, and Esau was a red, hairy man (Genesis, 25, verse 25). The rocks here are also mostly red, which I suppose is just coincidence. Later on, the descendants of Esau, having lost their individual identity after being pushed away, became part of the modern Arabs. You may recall that the Israelites, on the way to the Promised Land, passed this area, but king Edom refused them from going over his land.

King Aretas I was the first recorded king of the new Nabatean kingdom with Petra as its capital. He reigned somewhere in the 2nd century BC. In the Apocrypha there is mention of him refusing to protect Jason as he fled from Jerusalem. (II Maccabees, 5, verse 8). But it was Aretas III (86-56 BC who brought the Nabateans into their golden age. He expanded the borders of the kingdom to as far as Damascus. He imported Hellenic artists and craftsmen, who were the ones who were probably responsible for the carving of the famous structures in the city. His successor, Aretas IV is mentioned by the Apostle Paul. “In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes, in order to take me; and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall and escaped his hands” (II Corinthians, 11, verses 32-33). In later years their power waned. The Roman emperor Trajan conquered the Nabateans in 106 AD and annexed Petra as part of the Roman province of Arabia.

A few years ago one had to stay in Wadi Musa in one of the many smaller hotels, if you wanted to stay overnight in the area. Now, a few miles away, on another hill, a number of new, luxury hotels cater to the more affluent. All these hotels have superb views of the mountains in the distance, including Mt. Hor with the cupola of Jabal Harun, the valley floor with the entrance to Petra, and Wadi Musa in the distance. We stayed at the Petra Marriott. Our tour bus took us the parking lot; it would have been a long walk several miles away.

From the parking lot and the ticket booth to Petra there is a walk of about half a mile before you come to the entrance, the Siq, a narrow gorge with multi-hued walls 200-300 feet high on each side. You can also take a donkey from the parking lot to the entrance, which is presumably included in the entrance fee. You tip the donkey guy the standard tip of two bucks, if you decide to ride. They will then ask for more, as you would expect.

You then enter the Siq, a winding path in a canyon, flanked by tall walls with bands of various colors. It is an amazing place.

left: This narrow gorge is the entrance to Petra. Not the colored striations of the rocks.

In the Siq you see the remains of a water channel in the bottom of the walls to lead water from a dam at the entrance of the Siq to the city inside. You can see this artificial channel in the bottom left of the picture. The floor is originally cobblestones but portions of it have now been replaced with something more smooth. You walk through this narrow gorge for another half mile or so and then, suddenly, you see the façade of El Kazneh, or the Treasury, a superb structure hewn out of the rock. It is rose-red in the morning and it becomes brownish red in the evening sun. It is 120 feet high and 90 feet wide, and it was probably sculpted in the first century BC. It takes your breath away. You enter the bare room through the door and you see the many layers of rocks of different colors on the walls and on the ceiling.

right: The many colors of the stone walls in the interior of El Kazneh.

The amazing thing about the structures in Petra are that they are all carved out of the living rock. When you see columns and porches and sculptures, these were all carved in situ. Not from a piece of rock in some place and moved to its location after completion. This means that the craftsmen cannot make any mistake when they chiseled the rock away. So the columns you see are not there to support a roof; they have been carved out of the rock.

And when you enter the doorway to look behind the elaborate facades, all you see is a simple large room, with maybe a few smaller rooms chiseled on the side. The rock is mostly red, but in many places they are multicolored with layers of gorgeous hues. And in the construction of their tombs and other monuments they don’t seem to mind chiseling away lots and lots of rocks. The auditorium, e.g., is an amphitheater with 33 rows of seats and a total seating capacity of around 3000. The whole complex was chiseled out of the mountain of rock. Then there are obelisks, 20 feet high. They were not carved somewhere and then set up. They were formed by chiseling all the rock around the obelisks away to make a plain where the obelisks stood out. Imagine how much rock had to be removed.

The pillars are not supporting anything. On the top of the middle cupola is an urn. It looks small but it is actually some 11 feet in diameter. Nomads thought that the Pharaoh had stored gold and valuable jewels in it. It has pockmarks on it from rifle shots by people who thought they could get the treasures in the urn by shooting it down.

Then you walk into the city and admire the many other facades hewn out of the rock. It is an amazing place. There is the whole valley of Petra before you, about one mile by one half mile in size, and it is just incredible to imagine the amount of work involved in making all these carved facades. There is still a lot of restoration work being done by archeologists from many nations.

To see almost everything, there is a lot of walking involved. Because to see some of the other treasures you have to hike up quite a distance into the mountains. You can also opt for the less strenuous approach and take a donkey up. That way you also have less chance of stepping in donkey dung as you walk up the narrow stairs.

left: Ed-Deir, or the Monastery, hewn in the rock.

One such treasure in the mountains is Ed-Deir, or the Monastery. It was just named that way; it has nothing to do with a monastery. The façade of Ed-Deir is 154 feet wide and 132 feet high.

Some 1 to 1.5 million tourists are said to visit Petra each year. That translates to about 3500 tourists per day. When cruise ships dock in Aqaba, hordes of tourists can be expected to swarm into Petra. So on some days there will be less, on others there will be more. When we were there the weather was balmy and very nice and there were just a few hundred tourists spread out over the whole city. It was quiet and very nice.

right: The Royal tombs

Maybe the Bedouins there did not think so. Bedouins used to live in many of the buildings in Petra, but they have been moved away to protect the site. In return they are the only ones allowed to operate donkey carts, donkeys, and camels to transport tourists around. They are essentially the local public transportation cartel. They are also allowed to operate souvenir tourist stands, and there are literally dozens of them, usually just a table, all over the place, all selling the same sand sculptures and trinkets made I don’t know where. Because of their frequent contact with tourists these Bedouins are multilingual, so you can bargain in English, French or German. Or in Arabic if you so please. Sometimes the women have small kids with them, and the first words they learn to speak is “Have a look”, which they yell at all the tourists walking by. It is actually a fairly honest place. At the end of the day, they just store the stuff in a box and they leave the box there until the next day. It would be impractical to move the stuff every day anyway, because some of these souvenir tables are located up high in the passes next to the narrow paths.

One thing you see a lot here are these bottles filled with “sand sculptures”. The “sculptor” sits in front of lots of bowls with different colored sand and pours the sand in bottles and uses a spoon or spatula to move the sand.

left: Sand sculptures in a bottle.

And voila, you see camels, your name, and anything you want appear on these bottles. They can be made with your name(s) showing and they do it very fast. These bottles go for about $1.50 each, more if they are custom-made. Or much more, of the seller sees you are a tourist with little experience.

As I mentioned earlier, most of the sellers manning the souvenir tables speak English quite well. Not many use the hard sell; some of them try to say something funny to attract you. There are students trying to earn pocket money during the weekends and school breaks. As I passed a couple behind a souvenir-laden table, the man called out. His voice was joking, jovial, and whimsical.

“Have a look, we have lots of specials you don’t see anywhere else.”
“No, thank you”
“You really don’t want to buy something special from me today?
“No, thank you, not today”
“What about my wife here; you want to buy her?” At this remark his wife gave him a good jab in his side.
“No, thank you, I already have a wife”
“Is she pretty”
“Yes, she is pretty”
“Then what about trading our wives? You know what? I’ll even throw in a donkey”

I was tempted to buy something from him.