March 20th Holy Sites, the Dead Sea and Amman

I had my small breakfast and then was off on my hotel arranged trip to the Dead Sea. There were 3 others with me on the trip - Margo, the Australian that I had previously met in Hamah in Syria, Kospi, from Argentina but working for Emirates Air and living in Dubai, and Rahul from India, working in Singapore. As all of the regular hotel drivers were on other day trips, the hotel arranged a taxi to take us around for the day.Our first stop was Madaba, a very Christian city, to see the Madaba Mosaic Map that was found under the floor of the Greek Orthodox Basilica of St George. The mosaic dates to around 560 AD. The mosaics were discovered in the late 1800s when a group of Christians settled in the area and as they were building, the maps were uncovered.The map shows all of the major biblical sites from Lebanon to Egypt and was made of more than 2 million pieces. Only about a third of the original map remains. When we arrived at the church we had to wait outside with all of the other tourists hoping to see the map. A church service was going on and the map was covered to protect it. Once the service was over and the map uncovered, they would let the groups of people in in the order they got there. Most of the people were in larger tour groups. We weren't the first to arrive but we were close to the door and the guy in charge seemed to be slightly interested in talking to me. He let us go in with the first group. All of the groups were limited to about 10 minutes in the church before they had to go to leave space for the next group. Because we were just a small group of four, we were allowed to take our time. The church is beautiful. The walls are covered in mosaic pictures of saints and biblical events and such.As I was wandering around the church looking at the mosaics, the guy in charge of keeping the visitors in order always seemed to be watching me. At one point he came up and started talking to me. He asked what I thought of the church. I said it was beautiful. His response: "Like you!" Ha ha ha ha ha. Nice.[Next to the church, a giant billboard of King Abdullah II]
Once we had our fill of the church, we headed to our next destination - Mount Nebo.

Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land.... Then the Lord said to him, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it."
And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day on one knows where his grave is. --Deuteronomy 34:1-6
(That's from the bible for those that don't know. Borrowed from Sacred Destinations Mount Nebo.)

This is where Moses is said to have looked upon the Promised Land.[On the sign left to right: Hebron(65 km), Dead Sea, Herodium (47 km), Bethlehem (50 km), Qumran (25 km), Jerusalem Mt-of-Olives (46 km), Ramallah (52 km), Jericho (27 km), Nablus (66km), Lake Tiberias (106km)]Mount Nebo gives an amazing view. On Mount Nebo there are the ruins of a monastery and church, complete with mosaic floors and tombs below. The structures are currently being rebuilt, so unfortunately we couldn't go to that part of the mountain top. "The Abu Badd - Rolling stone used as a fortified door of a Byzantine Monastery in the old village of Faisaliyah, once known as Kufeir Abu Badd." [from the little sign beside it]Just a couple of turkeys wandering around the mountaintop. ^.~[Aerial view from Sacred Destinations] Our next stop was Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, or Bethabara to see the baptism site - the place where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. It took quite a while to actually get to the site. Our ride dropped us off and we bought tickets which included a ride to the site. The ticket I was given was in pieces. I looked at it and the guy said no problem. I said no, I wanted one that was in once piece. The driver then looked at me and said, "No problem." I said no, I wanted one that wasn't ripped because I wanted to put it in my album. He just kept repeating, "No problem." I was starting to get frustrated though trying not to show it. Finally he took the ticket and handed it back to the guy in the office who then proceeded to tape the pieces together. Argh! I said no, I wanted a new one. They looked at me as if I was nuts. I got a new one! Maybe it's just me, but I think everyone wants a complete ticket. It's not like it was a cheap one, either! 14 JD!
We had to wait about 15 minutes for our ride to come. It was a fairly windy and cool day and our ride was a partially covered truck with seats in the back. Sooooo cold and dusty. It took us quite a ways down a dirt road before dropping us off at the entrance to the area. We had to enter on a walking tour. It was a fairly good walk. Eventually we came across the old baptism site and the remnants of old churches. The spot where Jesus was baptized is front right with a little protective roof, and the roof in the background is protecting the mosaic floors and what is left of the churches (they were built on top of one another, which seems to have happened fairly often all over).[The Jordan River at the roof of a church in the distance - gold color, center just over the trees.]We then went to the newer Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist and the nearby new baptism site.Inside the church.
At the newer baptism site, there is a fairly large basin at which babies and young children are baptized. Adults are baptized in the river itself.
Touching the waters of the Jordan River. The Jordan river forms the border between Jordan and Israel.Directly across the river - Israel.
From there we made our way back to the visitors center (on the same little shuttle 'bus') and then we were off to the Dead Sea.A Bedouin camp on seen from the road.At the dead sea there are a couple of options for swimming or sitting on the beach. Tourists are generally taken to one of the resort beaches, at which you have to pay 12JD just to enter the gates (there are swimming pools inside, but why go to the Dead Sea to swim in a swimming pool right in front of the beaches???). We opted for the cheaper public beach (7JD). Our driver tried insisting several times that we go to the resort one. I have a feeling he would have gotten some sort of commission or something like that out of it had we gone there. As it was a bit chilly and none of us actually wanted to go for a swim, the public beach was the much better option. After a quick look at the beach and sea, we decided we were quite hungry. The only place that was open for us to eat was a large buffet at the entrance. It was ridiculously expensive for what it was. 10JD for a small lunch buffet at a public beach! I'd hate to find out what we would have payed at the resort restaurants then! Margo wasn't extremely hungry and didn't want anything more than just salad. The restaurant said she would still have to pay the full buffet price. She didn't want to be taken advantage of so she didn't eat. We ate and the driver ate (I think he convinced them to give him his for free or at a huge discount since I'm pretty sure he told them that he suggested the place to us). As we were still eating, Margo had the driver take her back to the car so she could rest a bit. We finished out food and then headed down to the water.We wandered around talking and watching the people. Some people were out having picnics, some were out to test the healing properties of the Dead Sea water and its mud. A couple of guys had covered themselves completely from head to toe in mud. If it were a bit warmer...It was interesting seeing women in their Hijabs wading in the water next to a foreign woman in a bikini. Quite the contrast. Not many people were swimming and to see a foreign woman in a bikini among all those who were completely covered up seemed a little wrong (you can see her if you look between the two guys standing on the beach just to the right of center). I figured it would be a shame to go there and not even touch the water so I went wading a bit. The entire edge of the sea is solid salt rock. You can even see the layers where it has been worn away. It is quite sharp in places where the top is salt crystals. Other places have been smoothed out by the water. Away from the waters edge the salt rock is broken into pieces in the sand. When I was finished giving my toes a salt water treatment, we made our way back to our taxi to find that both the driver and Margo had dozed off, with the air conditioner on. The battery had died! What to do? Give it a little push.A couple of guys came to help and since Rahul and Kospi were already at the back ready to push I was able to back up and capture proof of the incident. A bridge in Amman.
Back in Amman Kospi and I made plans to go out with a couple of other guys she had met previously (Philippe and Greg). We went to Hashem for dinner (where I had gone the night before for dinner), and then to the Blue Fig for some drinks. The Blue Fig was nice but certainly not cheap. It think most places in Jordan are not cheap when it comes to drinks. The Tiramisu cheesecake was fantastic!!

March 19th: Amman

I'm still trying to finish posting about my trip earlier in the year but it is very time consuming. I'm working on it!!!
The bus drop off in Amman was not at any sort of station. It was in some sort of alley behind a small building, in a dirt lot. Hmmm. Odd. I didn't have any problems, though. Got my bag, headed to the main street and hopped into a taxi. I gave the taxi a business card for the Palace Hotel (I got the card from some of the people I met in Syria). He seemed to know what it was and started going. But then he kept stopping to ask for directions. Along the way, he said 10JD. I said WHAT?? NO! Meter. He said okay, 5 JD. I said NO. He said 4 JD. I said NO, Meter. Finally he stopped. I didn't see the hotel. I asked and he said it was on the other side of the street, back a little bit. He had passed the walk that was near it and didn't want to go and turn around and go back to drop me off closer to the hotel. He refused, even though I had my big back and small bag to carry, not to mention a knee that didn't seem to want to work. I got out, got my bags and paid him. It was quite a bit more than the meter rate. If I had smaller change I would have given him only what the meter said, as he was being a jerk. He drove away, almost knocking me over. Ack. I should have taken down his lisence plate number but was too tired and just wanted to get to the hotel. It was more than a block back!!!! Argh.

I was at the hotel by about 10 AM.
In the hotel I guess I was lucky as they had a single room w/bathroom left for 18JD/night. I say lucky as everyone I saw coming in after was told it was full, including a girl that came in with a reservation - they said the thought it was for the next day. I think they called a couple of other hotels for her to help find her a room. My room was okay but not fantastic. It was actually a double room with a private bathroom/shower. It was room #104 but to get to the room I had to go up to the 4th floor (3 on the elevator numbers, as it is 3 up), across the hall, out the door, along a balcony and then in a door to a long hallway. I think there are only 3 rooms in the hall and mine was at the end. It was a fairly cold room. The heater was on the opposite side of the room from the beds, under a drafty window. I had to use the blankets from both beds to stay warm. The Palace Hotel is fairly well known as a back packer hotel/hostel. It had Internet (for a fee, of course) on 6 computers in the lounge type area, which was great. Saved having to search for a Net cafe. The hotel let me have breakfast for free that morning. :) A simple breakfast but good; fairly standard from what I had been having in the Middle East.
After eating I went out to wander around a bit. I found the King Hussein Mosque. I didn't go in, though. I went through the fruit & vegetable market behind it and went up the hill.It was opposite the citadel hill, and so I had a good view of the citadel.I started making my way back down the hill, along another route. At one point, a group of guys started following me and making strange noises and laughing. I knew they were watching me... and making the noises at me. No matter what country, men are still men. I walked past the Wild Jordan Cafe, which looked fairly interesting, and down to the bottom of the hill and found the amphitheater. It is HUGE!!!I walked up the stairs and looked around. It held up to 6000 spectators!!! It would have been amazing to see how it was when it was built and used. On either side of the amphitheater, inside, are two little museums: the Museum of Popular Tradition and the Museum of Folklore, with clothes and tools and such. Not bad.Next to the amphitheater is the Odeon, a small theater that seated up to 500 people.From what I have read it is still sometimes used. From there I took a taxi to go up to the Citadel. For some reason, it took a long time to get him to understand where I wanted to go. I even pointed and he gave me a blank look. Eventually, though, he figured it out and I made it there. There are several structures on the top of the mountain of the Citadel: the Temple of Hercules which was possibly made by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius:a 5 meter deep cistern: what remains of a Byzantine Church, the ruins of the Umayyad Palace:the palace entrance and the Ummayad Mosque. The difference between the old and the refurbished is so well defined![THIS link has a little map and information of these places.] The small Archaeological Museum has quite a bit to see including pottery covered skullsThe info card says:

Plastered Skulls
It is thought that skulls of ancestors were kept in
Plaster to be worshiped by their descendents
Found at Jericho
Neolithic

jar babiesThe info card says:

Child Burial
The burial of infants in jars was a common custom in
Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine. The jar was generally
placed under living room floor possibly to keep the
child within the family circle
Ghassul
Chalcolithic

Anthropoid coffins:The info card says:

ANTHROPOID COFFINS

The five anthropoid coffins on display were discovered in 1966 in the grounds of the Raghadan Palace in Amman among other archaeological finds in a cistern-like tomb. Made of baked clay, with crushed pieces of pottery used as grits, each of them has four handles that were used to transport them from their place of manufacture to their place of use. One of them has 16 handles at the back arranged in two rows, apparently serving to elevate the coffin when laid horizontally.
At the place where the head of the deceased would rest, a lid was cut out. the lug handles, one on the lid and one on the body of the coffin, were placed so as to fasten the lid to the body. On two of these lids, there are portraits of the deceased. Note the pointed noses, the small, elongated eyes and the eyebrows arranged in such a wasy as to connect up with the outline of the face. The ears are large and prominent, the lips small and straight and the beards of a pronounced length. Two of the coffins have arms placed on the sides of the body.
When discovered, it was found that each coffin contained two or three skeletons.
Very few sites have shown this type of burial practice in Jordan and Palestine. These include Sahab, south of Amman, and Lachish, Tell al-Far'ah, Besan and Deir al-Balah in Palestine. This burial practice was in use from the 13th to the 7th Century BC.

pottery bombs (maybe?):and other such interesting things. From the info card:

Architectural Relief

young woman wearing a laurel wreath holds a
mask of Pan, the herdsmend's god, or of a Satyr. She
may be Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, or be part
of a frieze in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine
Alternatively she may be the muse Thaleia holding
a mask of Pappos (father), as in the comedies of the
poet Menander which were the most popular on the
ancient stage at that time.
Nabataean, first half of 1st century A.D
Limestone, from Petra

From the Citadel, the view of Amman is amazing, including a great view of the Roman Theater in the distance. I took a back route down the hill using stairs on one side near the Temple of Hercules. The stairs took me to one of the roads that winds along the side of the hill, along which I found other stairs to other roads. The sights along the way were very interesting, with old and new intermixed. Some buildings were being destroyed or just deserted and falling down. When I was almost at the bottom, a guy approached me and wanted to talk. He seemed decent enough so I decided to let him join me. Ahmed, an electronics engineer, is learning English. We walked for a while and then sat in the forum (the area in front of the Amphitheater) to have some tea. Then, since I was hungry, he took me to Hashems, a very famous little restaurant that only serves felafels and side dishes. It is said to be one of the oldest restaurants in Amman. It was SO delicious!!! And cheap!!!! I was so full by the time I finished but only payed a little more than 1 JD. After eating, he took me to Jabra, a cafe, for some coffee. An interesting place with a good atmosphere. A bit smoky, though, since it is a sheesha cafe. After we finished our coffee, Ahmed wanted to show me his favorite street in Amman, a little street just off of Rainbow Street. The whole area there is very wealthy. A huge part of Rainbow Street has cobblestones. I think they are trying to make it back into something of what it once was. [Here is a blog post I found that shows Rainbow Street in some detail: 360East.]
Then it was back to the hotel for me. I was sitting at the computers working on a post and adding pics when all of a sudden something went wrong and the whole post went blank. ACK!!!!! So much time wasted!!! Back in my hotel room, I froze. The room was soooooooooo cold. The little heater was right under the windows, which were not well sealed and which seemed to suck out any heat coming off of the heater. I had the blankets from both beds in the room on top of me and was still a bit cold. Not cool.