Spiritual Jordan

Map in St George Church

You tend to forget that Jordan is a place for many pilgrims. You can visit many places which were named in the Bible. So very close to Israel, but if we want to come home by car we are not allowed to have a stamp of Israel in our passport. So we visited Mount Nebu, the place where Moses just before his death saw the promised land. We also saw the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized. It is a very dirty and small river these days, but in the past it was a big river. The other side was Israel, with some practise you would be able to jump over the Jordan river. In Madaba many churches are decorated with mosaics. The most famous one is the St George church (again, we already met him in Ethiopia). It has a map for the pilgrims on the floor with all the biblical sites. Especially in the past very useful because maps were rare. These days Madaba is still the centre for mosaic, you see them everywhere and they even have a special school for making mosaics.

View from Mt Nebu

Dead Sea

The dead sea is very salty so you can float without help. If you get the water in your eyes they will start burning. It happened to Evert and Helma, they rushed out of the water to rinse their eyes under the shower. It also tastes foul and makes you very thirsty. The sea is clear but no fish are in this sea, too salty. For 3 euro you can put the mud on your body, they say it is very healthy, but we declined. You actually can walk in the water, it is a very strange experience. The first time you enter the water you feel a pressure that makes you float. We enjoyed it very much, but what was a good thing was the pool. It was a good thing the beach had a shower to rinse off the salt and then jump into a very big nice pool for some proper swimming. Suddenly floating is much more difficult. We had a wonderful day at the dead sea. You could see salt all along the beach and the funny thing was that the rocks also had a coating of salt. We pulled some off and let it dry in the sun, perhaps we will be able to use it on boiled eggs....

The Dead Sea

The king's Highway

Heavy stuff, Bart!

secret tunnel

The King's Highway is the historic route to Amman. The views are stunning and you can see Crusader castles in Karak and Shobak. Shobak was very small but had a very interesting secret tunnel. Our torches were not good enough to try to leave the castle this way, but still it was nice to venture around this castle. History in practise because there were arrow slid windows according to Bart and lots of armoury like the very heavy bullets for the catapults.

Karak castle was much bigger, with nice views, we even could see the Dead Sea. It also had a nice museum which told everything about the crusaders.

On the way up north we had to cross 3 wadi, or rivers. It is also known as the Grand canyon of Jordan. It is a spectacular valley about 1 km deep and over 4 km from one edge to the other. We found a hotel in Madaba, a very nice town, that also happens to be the centre of Byzantine mosaics. It is also the most important Christian centre in Jordan and there are many churches.

But we cannot wait to go to the Dead Sea.


Karak Castle

The wonderful Petra

Treasury

Petra is a Unesco World heritage site. We had no idea but it is a vast, unique city, carved into the sheer rock face by the Nabataens, Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years ago. Apparently it was a junction for all the trade routes and linked China and Egypt. It was left by its people. reason unknown but most likely due to earthquakes. Anyway, to enter this city you have to walk almost 2 km through a very narrow kind of canyon known as the Siq. If you have seen the movie : "Indiana Jones and the last crusade", which was featured here, you know what we mean. Of course lots of tourist, but once you enter the city you are rewarded with a wonderful view of the treasury or Al-Khazneh. It served as a tomb but if the sunlight radiates this tomb it is really breathtaking. After that you enter the city, however, most of it is still under the grounds. There is a street of facades, a 7000-seat theatre, lots of tombs, a colonnaded street where the market used to be and various temples. we climbed up a hill (yes, again) to see the monastery (yes, again) of Al-Deir, a long rock-cut stair case but with some rewarding views.

The next day we returned before the crowds arrived and were all alone in the Siq. On the way back the boys had a lift on the horses and after that in the hotel a nice shower, breakfast and into to car up north driving along the King's Highway.

Welcome to the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan

Ahlan wa sahlan,

We had no idea that Jordan has so much to offer.There are some world famous historical and cultural sites, but also breathtaking nature and pilgrimage routes. So you can say Jordan is an eye opener.

The people of Jordan are very friendly and although the Bedouins are traditional and still live in tents (while we cannot camp in the wild), although next to the camel a 4W car is parked, the other half of the population is rather modern. Furthermore they are all very tolerant. Christians and Muslims live together, along with a lot of Palestinian refugees. Everywhere you see the photographs of their King and the former King Hussein who died in 1999. Everyone is very proud of their royalty.

Crossing borders

As we feared problems with the ferry to Jordan, they were not necessary because we had assistance from lovely people and a very cooperative tourist policeman, who, according to Ed, really deserved bakshees, but refused. Well, the intention is there. But of course it does take a full day to get the tickets, pay tax, remove number plates etc. In the meantime Helma and the boys did some homework. Once the ferry arrived we saw so many overloaded cars, and we thought we were heavy!

The trip to Jordan was swift, only 1 and 1/2 hour, so we were in the fast ferry. No one was able to tell us this fact, but of course we did not complain. It was a much better trip than the Wadi Halfa- Aswan ferry.

In Jordan everything went smooth. They even scanned our cars. OK, it took some time to finish all the formalities, but at 5.30 pm we realized we did not have to spend a night at Aqaba so we rushed to Wadi Mousa to visit Petra. At the port we saw long queues, because also in the Middle east it is summer holiday. So many cars who wanted to cross the red Sea to Egypt. We were sure they all had to wait a long time and we were so happy that we drove in the opposite direction.

Jordan, quiet, clean, expensive compared to Egypt, friendly, no hassling. Jordan was and still is a wonderful experience.