Wadi rum - sunset camels

Wadi Rum desert flowers

Wadi Rum arche bridges

We also hiked up to 2 different arches.

Wadi Rum slot canyon

This is a slot canyon we hiked into in the desert.

Wadi Rum desert

Wadi Rum desert

Food!!

Usually twice a day we have falafel pitas for breakfast and lunch!! A pita stuffed with falafel hummus fries eggplant tomato cukes and hot sauce!!

And I also love the almonds on ice as well ;)

Petra at night

Petra was stablished sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans. It is enclosed by towering rocks and watered by a perennial stream..  You have to walk through almost a mile of Utah-like slot canyon to reach the site of Petra.   We went to see the Treasury at Petra at night.. The almost mile long path to Petra is lit entirely by candles.. Then everyone sits in front of the Treasury on mats and they play some traditional music, one guy with a flute, another guy with a traditional sort of guitar and tell stories of Petra in the olden Beoduin days.   I think it was really cool to experience Petra this way first.. In the dark, walking a path through a slot canyon, in relative silence, lit by nothing by candles on the ground and the stars above.

Kings Highway - Wadi Mujib

We took the scenic Kings Highway which is road through meanders from Madaba, past the Dead Sea, down to Petra. This was the original north-south trade route to trade goods out of Jordan, and also between Arabia and SYria. This road goes through really pretty, really steep desert canyons.  There is now a more established, faster, lesser elevation highway that runs parallel though the desert.  But what's the fun in taking that?   These pictures are of us going through the Wadi Mujib, known as Jordan's Grand Canyon.  You drive rim to rim down through a valley cutting through 1200 m of altitude.

Kings highway

Taking the scenic King's Highway south from the Dead Sea to Petra. This road goes up and down a mountain range and through alot of small villages.

I have nicknamed Jer "Ricky Bobby" as we are generally running late to things, compounded by getting lost by the signs which are only in Arabic. And our GPS is no help here. And jer does an average of 120 km/Hr no matter how steep or windy the road is ;)

Dead Sea

Jer and I floated in the Dead Sea and it was weird!! The water is really viscous, it almost has a texture with all that salt... I made the error of licking my arm once just to see how salty it really was. Gross!!!

The water is so buoyant once I got in water over my head I literally could not touch the bottom. Even when I tried to pencil myself down. U just bob on the surface like a buoy. I could not get my head underwater!!!

Looking across the dead sea is Isreal.

Dead Sea

The dead sea is so salty all the rocks are encrusted with salt like frost. And it might look like white sand beaches but it's really salt!!!

Madabah

Madaba is most known for the tons of Byzantine mosaics that are amazingly perserved in churches and random houses.  It also has a lot of religious history - the river Jordan was birthplace of Jesus, Mount Nebo - the peak Moses looked over the Promised Land and the alleged site of his burial place.   So remember all the "pictures" you see in the churches are actually mosiacs composed of thousands of individual tiles..

Madabah - Church of the Apostles

The Church of the Apostles is famous for it's central mosiac depicting that is a personification of the sea.

Madaba - Church of the Map

The Church of the Map is located in the St George's Church which houses a Byzantine mosiac map of the Holy Land.  This map was accidentally found during a renovation and was supposed to direct pilgrims to sites of biblical significance, it is the place that led scholars to discover the birthplace of Jesus.

Desert Castles - Qusayr Harraneh

This Desert Castle looks like a serious fortress, though scholars think it was most likely an inn or meeting place for local bedouin leaders.  Prolly also built around 710.

Desert Castles - Qusayr Azraq

This desert castle is located in Jordan's only oasis.  Though the oasis is now really just a trickle since the late 80's as almost all the water was diverted to Amman for drinking water.  This castle was also built by the Romans, and is most famous for its occupation by Alexander the Great in 1917 during their final attack on Damascus which saw the collapse of the Ottoman power.   The first pic shows me trying to open the swinging doors to the castle.  They are made of rock and weight one ton each!!!   The second pics shows another door in the castle that weighs 4 tons and requires a machine to open..   The 3rd pic shows the horse stable.  There were rocks with holes carved out of the middle to tie the horses up to.   The 4th pics shows the room that Alexander the Great stayed in.  Top floor leftmost room

Desert Castles - Qusayr Amra

Qusayr Amra was built as a bathouse, between 711 and 715.  The interior walls are covered with extensive frescoes.  But doesn't this also look like the childhood house of Luke Skywalker in Tatooine as well????

Jerash

Jerash is one of the best-perserved Roman cities in the Mediterranean. It was built in 170 BC.  The site is HUGE, and I cant belive how well perserved it still is.  Especially since you are free to roam wherever you want within the city, you can hike anywhere and climb on anything.  I guess if Jerash has stood there this long what's a few hundred thousand tourists a year gonna do?

Jerash