Back from Jordan!

And indeed, what a trip it was! We covered a huge area in only 4 days, a feat that was made slightly easier by the fact that they Jordanians apparently have no interest in excavating or keeping up Biblical sites and therefore not enough is known about them to keep us there for long periods of time. Rather a mixed blessing, I guess.

At any rate, here are my thoughts from the first day:


November 13, 2008, Amman, Jordan.

Hooray! My first time in Jordan! I don’t think I really learned or saw anything earth-shattering today, but it has been an interesting day, though not so much in terms of history or geography. Probably the most interesting thing to me has just been to observe the country – the towns, the people, and to see similarities and differences between Jordan, Israel, and home.

The day started out at the border crossing near Jericho. It had poured rain in Jerusalem shortly before we left, and apparently had even rained some in the rift valley. It was fun to see puddles still sitting and wadis flowing with small amounts of muddy water. I think it’s one of my goals to see a flash wadi flood (from a safe distance, of course), but for now I enjoyed actually seeing water in these wadis. Crossing the border went as smoothly as could be expected. I was amused by the mobile x-ray machine for our baggage as we entered Jordan. Security is definitely not as tight as at the airports back home. At any rate, we made it through, both the Israeli side and the Jordanian side.

Our first “real” stop of the day was as Deir Alla (not sure of the spelling?) which is thought to be ancient Succoth. It was supposedly in this area that Solomon molded metals in clay to furnish his house. Strangely enough, there is evidence of smelting here, dating to the 10th century. Not proof, but interesting. It is also the place where an inscription mentioning Balaam son of Beor was found. From there we could see the Alexandrium and the Wadi Faria. I personally was favoribly impressed with the vaious colored rocks they had. I've gotten a little tired of similarly colored limestones.


It turns out that the archaeologist of that region lives or works right across the street from the tell, and he was very impressed a) that we visited and b) that we stayed so long. I wouldn’t necessarily say that archaeological interest is thriving in that area of the country. I’m sure there’s some, but probably very few tourists.

After that we stopped at the window place (Pella). No, they don’t really have windows, that’s just my lame attempt at a joke. They did have some spiffy columns, though, as well as a huge, steep tell. Pella was one of the Decapolis cities, right across the rift valley from Beth Shean. This probably would have been the most important Jordan crossing in ancient times. From transjordan all the way to the coast there is very minimal elevation changes.


The next stop was Gadera (another spot of the commemoration of the demonized pigs). This place is special for a couple reasons. It’s a Decapolis city which, of course, means a cardo, columns, a couple theaters, temples, etc. However, it just so happens that it is built in a small region with basalt rock. So it has Corinthian capitals made of basalt (instead of limestone or marble or granite).
How cool is that? It also has some very hot springs nearby that I believe were used in/as a Roman bath. This site was also special because we finally got to eat here. At 3pm. Actually, we ate on the bus on our way to our next site.

The final stop of the day was Ramoth Gilead. It was indeed remote. This is the place that Ahab with Jehoshephat of Judah tried to take and ended up dying. It’s quite a ways (and climb) from Samaria. It’s a much easier trip (flatter) from Damascus. What he was attempting would have been quite a feat if he had pulled it off. There wasn’t much on the tell. They had apparently found a small fort from about the right time, but all I saw of it was a small corner. There was a Bedouin tent, though, a few bones, a beautiful sunset, and a lovely full moon. The land there is a bit like eastern Montana in its feel. Its partly the openness (fairly dry too) and partly the smell of animals, I think. We even used Montana for an analogy – how does someone who’s grown up in the hills (of Western Montana or Ephriam) feel when they get to the open areas (of eastern Montana or Gilead)?


Turning back from that site we came as close to Iraq as we will on this trip…not very close, really, though we did see a sign for an Iraqi border.

That was about all the geographical and historical information we covered. I had a few other impressions, though. In general the people seemed friendly. Many of the kids we passed would smile and wave…or sometimes throw fruit at us. It’s a colorful place – I’m not quite sure what the point of the multi-colored trucks is, but they’re fun.

Our bus driver apparently got lost while finding our hotel in Amman, Jordan. The hotel is pretty nice, though we’re not to drink the water. It’s lovely to use elevators – I’m so tired. It’s odd – the elevators are pretty nice, but the stairs are pretty sketchy. Some of use went out wandering after dinner. I thought we were just going to wander a bit, and I suppose we did, but somehow we still ended up at Starbucks (where everyone else had gone, but by taxi.) I think that may be the first “real” Starbucks (not counting B&N) that I’ve been in. And I didn’t even buy anything. Driving through Amman (a city of about 2.6 million) it was odd to see so many American places – McDonald's (who apparently delivers here),
Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, even Hardee's. Our outing ended up being about 2 hours. I was exhausted when we started. But I enjoyed seeing a bit of Jordan. Crossing streets was interesting. I’m not sure how it happened, but a boy fell right in front of a car while we were walking. That was a little scary. I felt sorry for him. Walking home, a man in a car kept talking to us. “Welcome to Jordan! I love Americans! Me, I am Turkish!” It was kind of funny.

I’m sure I could write more, but I need sleep! Bon Nuit.