Life in the Dead Sea

The final day of our organised tour was spent visiting the Roman ruins in nearby Jerash, before heading off for a refreshing swim in the Dead Sea. Jerash was another awe-inspiring archaeological site. This city and its surrounding area have been inhabited since the Bronze Age. These days, on the edge of the modern city, you’ll find the remains of the Roman settlement of Gerasa. They're some of the world’s largest and best-preserved Roman ruins outside of Italy.

During its prime, historians estimate that Jerash had a population of 20,000. However, the city fell into decline during the 3rd century. It suffered several brutal invasions, first by the Persians and then by the Muslims. It was also devastated by multiple earthquakes, including a major quake in AD749 and a second two years later. The city was eventually abandoned.

Since 1925, the ruins have been progressively excavated and extensively studied. Today they’re a popular tourist attraction second only to Petra. We spent several hours exploring ancient Jersah from one end to the other. Sights that captivated us included the magnificent triumphal arch erected to commemorate a visit by Emperor Hadrian, rows of Corinthian columns in the Temple of Artemis, and an enormous oval Forum encircled by marble columns. It’s hard to comprehend that these ruins are considered relatively modern when compared with those in neighbouring Egypt.

The Dead Sea is quite something. The concentration of salt is such that you literally float on the surface of the water rather than sink into its depths. The sensation is unbelievable...and the salty brine eats at every nick and cut on your skin.

The salt crystals that precipitate on the shore are just as unreal. They form enormous rocks with deadly sharp edges that are surprisingly heavy. You can see me examining a relatively small crystal rock below. Trust me, it's not something you'd want to tread on while swimming.

Our last day in Jordan was spent wandering the city of Amman. The city is home to more than two million people and spreads itself across a series of ravines, or wadis, and hills referred to locally as citadels. We spent time exploring some of its Roman ruins. This included the Roman Theatre, a restored 6,000-seat amphitheatre; the forlorn Temple of Hercules standing guard on a nearby hilltop; and the temple's neighbour, the dome-capped Umayyad Palace, a largely ruined Islamic complex.

I was surprised to learn that despite these ruins, Amman is a relatively modern city. Over the centuries it has been abandoned and resettled several times. In more recent times, it was a relatively modest village until the Ottoman Empire began construction of the Hejaz Railway linking Damascus to Medina. The railway transformed the city almost overnight from a sleepy town of less than ten thousand to the sprawling metropolis it is today.

As we sat in the Roman Theatre, on our final evening in the Middle East, we reflected on two months of non-stop travel across three continents. We'd ticked so many things off our bucket list and experienced so much more than we could have imagined. I doubt we’ll ever do anything quite like it again. On December 13, Garry and I flew out of Amman ready to begin our new life in London.

UPDATE

Here's a little more about our time in the Middle East. One of our tour friends sent me some of her favourite photos.

The promised land

After visiting Petra we travelled up the King's Way, visiting Kerak Castle and the incredible floor mosaics of Madaba. Kerak Castle was our first stop of the day. As you approach Kerak, you're greeted by the striking silhouette of its Crusader castle towering over the surrounding Wadi Mujib Valley.

The castle was first built during the Crusader era in 1142 by Pagan the Butler, a Crusader lord from France. It was initially constructed as a small fortification to protect the area from Muslim forces. Over time, it grew into a much larger structure with multiple towers and walls designed to protect the city from attack.

Our group spent more than an hour exploring its numerous crumbling ramparts and dark maze of stone-vaulted halls and passageways. Hopefully, the images below give you a feel for the scale of this massive structure. I pulled the final image from the internet as all of the summit profiles I took from the bus were motion blurred.

Madaba proved to be an unexpected highlight. Its claim to fame is a series of stunning floor mosaics preserved throughout the town. The most famous of these is on the floor of St George's Chapel, an early Byzantine church sitting in the middle of town. 

The chapel floor includes a mosaic map of the Holy Lands, with a particular focus on Jerusalem. The Madaba Map as it's known, is the world's oldest known geographic floor mosaic. The first image below shows the Nile River delta. In the middle image, Jerusalem is represented by the oval section in the lower right, while the Dead Sea sits in the top right with the River Jordan flowing into it (Unfortunately, the sea is out of focus.).

Our group was given a rather brief, and all too hasty, tour of the main chapel before going for lunch. However, I was determined to see more of Madaba's mosaics. I decided to skip lunch and walked to a nearby museum called, oddly enough, the Archeological Park. The detour was well worth it.

The museum displays mosaics from a 6th-Century Byzantine villa that once stood in the same location, along with mosaics recovered from other sites around town. There was hardly anyone there when I walked in the door. A departing visitor recommended tipping the curator for an extra excursion. I followed their advice. After a little baksheesh exchanged hands, the friendly man took me on a personal tour of the site, including a close-up view of several impressive mosaics behind locked gates.

We finished our long day of travel with a stop at Mount Nebo. Here you can see the Dead Sea shimmering in the distance with the Jordan Valley disappearing out into a dusty haze. It's a surreal experience to stand where Moses stood surveying the same vista he saw 3000 years ago.

Mount Nebo is the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land by the Lord before his death. Hence, as you'd expect, the ridge is crowned by an old chapel and a rather sculptural metallic cross. The chapel, while relatively modest, contained another series of impressive floor mosaics. 

I was surprised to see how many African animals were depicted. The menagerie included ostriches, antelopes, zebras, and other exotic creatures. It was another reminder of how Palestine has long been at the crossroads of human history

Follow this link as we take a dip in the Dead Sea.

One heck of a rock carving

From Wadi Rum we drove through the evening toward Petra. I've wanted to come here my entire life. We took the opportunity on our first night to visit the famous Treasury building by candlelight. The narrow Siq valley that you must first walk through is something I will never forget. This ravine is less than two metres wide in places and winds its way to Petra proper for more than 800 metres.

Petra is everything you imagine it to be and more. It truly is a place worth visiting at least once in your life. We spent a full day touring the ruins, visiting all of the major sights including the Monastery, the Royal Tombs, and the High Altar that affords a spectacular view of the ancient rock-carved city below.

According to archeologists the area around Petra has been inhabited for more than 9000 years. However, it was about two thousand years ago that things really kicked up a notch. The Nabataeans settled here and transformed the desert valley and surrounding area into an urban hub which at its peak was home to more than 20,000 people.

Most of its world-renowned rock-cut buildings date from the First Century AD. The most iconic of them all is undoubtedly the Treasury. Carved directly into the face of the rock, this structure spans 24 metres and towers 37 meters above the sandy desert floor.  There simply aren't words to describe how extraordinary this building is. Needless to say, I took countless photographs.

While remaining in remarkably preserved condition, the face of the Treasury is marked by hundreds of bullet holes made by the local Bedouin tribes. Apparently, they've spent time shooting at it hoping to dislodge riches once rumoured to be hidden within it.

A little farther from the Treasury, at the foot of the mountain called en-Nejr, is a massive Roman theatre. Hewn from solid rock, it's positioned with an orientation that brings many of the city's impressive tombs into view. This is also the point where the valley opens out into a small plain revealing the city's ancient ruins. 

Our guide explained that most of the rock-carved structures in Petra are actually tombs. The most notable of these is the aptly named Mortuary, also known as Ad Deir.  This massive structure sits astride a small rocky plateau high above the valley floor. It's reached by a rocky, winding staircase carved from the rock face. 

Garry climbed up to the Mortuary on foot. For a laugh, I hired a donkey from one of the local kids. I swear it was a scientific endeavour. I didn't believe a donkey could climb such a jumble of rocky stairs. Garry considered the poor animal to be overloaded. Personally, I think it simply lived up to its nickname as a beast of burden.

The Mortuary looks like a mirror copy of the Treasury.  However, it's a little wider and incorporates a few additional carved pillars on either side of the central structure. We were lucky enough to have the entire clifftop to ourselves for almost the entire time we were there.

Likewise, I got to enjoy the Urn Tombs largely to myself. This is a dramatic series of terraced platforms and arched columns precariously carved from the valley wall. To reach the highest terrace you have to climb several steep rock stairways, none of which come with handle rails or barrier walls. Understandably, Garry gave it a miss.

The Urn Tombs are part of a collection of tombs known as the Royal Tombs of Petra. These tombs span an entire rockface of the valley making for one of the more dramatic landscapes in the Petra valley.  They also command a superb view across the valley floor, a perfect way to conclude our time in Petra. 

Read on as we follow Moses (and a bunch of marauding Crusaders) towards the promised land.

2023 NOTE

As I've noted in earlier posts, my camera suffered a serious knock while in Alexandria. This badly affected its focal range. As a result, most of the images captured in Jordan ended up rather blurry. Almost two decades on, technology has come to the rescue. I've used an AI program to partially unblur many of the images shown here. 

While the technology isn't perfect, it's dramatically improved the quality and clarity of many images taken during our week in Jordon. No doubt I'll revisit them again in future years as AI software continues to improve.