p at least one more post about my last extensive fieldtrip: the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan! It really only takes about an hour or less to get to the border of Jordan, but it took us about 2 hours to get through and on our way again. It's been interesting to go through customs in this part of the world. They didn't stamp our passport going into the country or leaving, they only stamped us that we'd left Israel and entered Israel. Someone told me that it was because 
as Americans it can look bad to have a Jordanian stamp in your passport. I don't know if that's true or not but I have been told that having a stamp from places like Saudi Arabia or Yemen could mean that you don't get back into the United States. I don't know how true that is either, but it's an interesting rumor.We also saw an amazing Byzantine floor mosaic map of early Christian pilgrimmage sites in the Holy Land. It's very famous and has really helped archeologists (Biblical ones in particular) figure out where traditional sites were for early Christian pilgrims. The first picture on the top right is of my head and the Madaba map on the ground behind me.
The highlight of Jordan by far was Petra. Petra is the famous city that Indiana Jones rides his horse out of in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was a major city built by the Nabateans (who were a pretty well established group of people that I knew nothing about until I got here, unfortunately). They traded in spices and such and basically ran the spice route from Yemmen up to Petra and into Asia. Petra was a major stop for the camel caravans. The Nabatean Empire was eventually dismantled by the Romans and all that's left is some amazing carved architecture and a bunch of bedouins selling cheap jewelry that turns 
your fingers green even though they assure you it's real bedouin silver.
The first picture is of me with the "treasury" behind me. The "treasury" is a huge building carved directly into the rock. It's amazing! The next picture is of a group of us on a high place with the land of Israel behind (brother Seely is on the far right--he's the semi-balding, older guy).
If walking into a pyramid was one of the funniest things I've done in my life, then riding a donkey in Petra was probably one of the craziest. To get to the "monastery" (another huge rock-carving building (and when I say big, I mean big: like, a house c
ould fit inside it!) you have to climb or ride a donkey up 1000+ stone stairs. Or, you can pay a bedouin boy $7 and he'll take you up on a donkey. Or in my case, the bedouin boy will slap the donkey on the rump, tell you it knows the way, and take off after it as it runs up the mountain. There were times I thought I might die, which is when I yelled out to the kid that he better keep me safe or I wouldn't pay him any money. After that we still went fast (we kept passing people which is scary in a one lane little canyon with cliffs on the sides at times) and for some reason he tried to make it up to me by flirting with me. He kept asking if he could sit with me on the donkey. I kept telling him no (I felt him help me onto the donkey and I wasn't going to make that mistake again) but at one point I asked him a question and he didn't answer and I looked all around and didn't see him until I looked directly behind me and realized he was sitting on the back of my donkey, grinning. I told him to get off but it was pretty funny. The experience alone was worth the $7. Someday I'll have to show you a hilarious video I took while riding.
Another highlight site we went to was a Roman city named Jerash. It had great ruins, probably my favorite of all the Roman cities I've seen. I even ran a footrace in a hypodrome. I took second place, but I was barefoot and in a skirt so it wasn't a totally fair race. I can't even tell you how impressed I am with the Romans. They really knew how to make their cities. I think I might have really liked having them come in and conquer and up the standard of living, had I lived in the 1st Century. To the left is one of the temples in Jerash, the columns are still miraculously standing because the Roman engineers built them so that they would sway slightly during wind and earthquake. You can even feel them sway if you stick your fingers between the cracks. It's crazy! 
gel before being reunited with his brother Esau. This is where Jacob was given the name Israel. It was a peaceful place at the side of the highway. Here's a picture of Jacob and the angel wrestling.We stayed in Amman for 3 days (the capital of Jordan) and it was really great! We had a lot of free time in the evenings which meant we could go out exploring, take taxis and see the sites. There wasn't a lot to see that we weren't seeing as a group, but we did have a good adventure going to a shopping mall/bazaar one night. Foreign taxis are really fun, as long as you have a boy with you! I felt safe in Jordan, and much more respected as a woman there than I did in Egypt. However, I also felt a greater need to be modest, just out of respect (not out of safety like I did in Egypt).
wear. Here's a picture of a bunch of us looking serious (I'm not sure why) and of me in the 
women's mosque (which was my favorite because a cute little Muslim woman showed us all around, the washing room, the toliets, everything). The boys were jealous that they didn't get to see something that we did. Ha ha!
'm not sure if this picture is blasphemous or not, but here's a baptism picture. This is my friend Jason, he gets married one month from today! Crazy! It's actually probably pretty accurate that Jesus got baptised within a quarter mile or less of this area. It was HOT HOT HOT at this site! It's amazing to feel how the heat increases as you get closer to the Dead Sea. 
No comments:
Post a Comment