Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea

After Petra, we headed South for Wadi Rum and had a quick stop at the railway station. This 1956 engine was used for the biographical Lawrence of Arabia film, where he helped the Ottomans so the Arabs could control their own destiny. What he didn't know was that he was set up by a secret Sykes-Picot Agreement to divvy up the area between France and Britain.

The train cars behind had sandbags and gun positions, all to help the imagination. Our driver (Feras Nassar) was excellent and happy to participate in some antics. 

St Lawrence’s book “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” included this shot on the cover (I could only make out 6 pillars!).

Our overnight stop was at Rum Planet Camp, which was different to others in the Wadi. It was owned by locals (no foreign investors) and focused on sustainability (stainless steel loaned water bottles, solar power, fans rather than AC, insulated tents etc). The manager, Ahmed, was perhaps the best guide we have experienced. Rather than send one of his cousins out with us, he opted to do so himself as he “preferred older people”. I suspect this was because we were much more interested in the Bedouin lifestyle and the Wadi than the more selfie-driven, younger generation.

This was demonstrated by our first stop – a nearby gorge. A truck caught us up, the tourists jumped out, had a quick walk and left while we were just starting to explore the place. As the gorge was incomplete an alternative route was required, hence these steps. There were no volunteers in our group to try them out!

On the opposite wall was some old Arabic writing. It was unusual as it did not include any of the Arabic “dots” to assist pronunciation. Hence, readers had to understand the context to comprehend the message.

The shapes of the mountains were particularly varied and one could imagine all sorts of faces and animals. This view may have been where the pyramids were first conceived.

Just before sunset, Ahmed lit a fire (we had all helped in gathering the fuel) and made some mint and thyme tea. It was excellent, although Ahmed was surprised that, unlike him, none if us wanted sugar in it!

The following morning, Steve and I had an early start and took a camel ride to see the sunrise. They are remarkable animals not least because of the lurching involved every time they stand and sit. Fortunately, our guide knew how to manage the resultant rider lurches!

This relaxed shot rather belies the internal turmoil as we waited to dismount.

And this video helps explain our trepidation. It is little wonder that camels moan before sitting or getting up. It is clearly quite an effort. Check out the complex leg movements.

This is the entry to the camp. Just inside, we had spent an hour the previous evening lying on the ground while Ahmed gave an enlightening explanation of the stars, including navigation and star signs.

One day in the camp really was not enough and in no time we were off to Aqaba. This is Jordan’s port on the Red Sea. Looking around the bay, our proximity to Israel and Egypt was little more than a hop, skip and a jump. Feras’s brother lived in Jordan and caught a bus each day to work in a hotel in Israel. Three times a Jordanian's income while enjoying the significantly smaller costs of living at home.

Rather than a walk around town, we opted for a glass-bottomed boat to look at wrecks and corals. The captain certainly knew the depth of his boat as we seemed to get very close but never quite scraped the bottom despite the waves and windy conditions.

We certainly took more than enough shots of the coral!

We then headed for our final stop – the Dead Sea. En route, we stopped to view some of the salt pan workings. The scale of this operation compared to those in Port Said was stark. This is a massive industry. (The hill on the other side is Bethlehem.)

So, saying the industry does have a downside. The Dead Sea is over 60 kms long and about 14 kms wide, but that is changing rapidly. As water is drawn and evaporated for phosphate and salt production, the level is dropping some 2 metres per year. The shoreline looks more akin to a dam than a sea. There is some talk of piping water in from the Red Sea to replace the loss, but as that would require agreement between Jordan, Israel and Palestine, it is at best a distant project.

Eventually, we arrived at our hotel, had a quick change and golf cart trip down to the retreating beach so that we could float inelegantly in the 65% salt-concentrated water. Nothing can live in that, hence the sea's name. You can’t even swim, as salt water in the eye would have been very painful. However, it is easy to keep your hair dry and rest assured, without glasses, there is not much reading going on!

The second attraction was to get covered in mud. Apparently, it is good for the skin and overall well-being. I think that is more to do with washing it off, followed by a hot shower, than contact with the mud.

That evening, we had our last supper together for this trip. The peals of laughter that emanated from our table must have been disconcerting to others in the dining room. It did underpin how much we enjoyed each other’s company. We were lucky with the quality and personalities of most of our guides, but also suspect the synergy of our group helped to energise them.

We all agreed we should try and travel together again. All we need to do is pick somewhere!

In the late evening, Helen and my taxi arrived for the one-hour ride to the airport and flight to Frankfurt. Interestingly (and in contrast to the flight from Cairo), our path took us over Israel. We were required to keep our seatbelts on longer than usual (about an hour) until we were over the Mediterranean. I assume someone thought seat belts would be of some help if we were shot down!!

Petra

A second stop missed from our cruise attempts was Petra. After a quick breakfast, we walked out of the Petra Guest House hotel and there were the ticket barriers into the site. Now that’s convenience! We were met by our Bedouin guide, Mahmoud, who spoke excellent English and, with a degree in archaeology, was both very informative and easy to listen to. He lived in the nearby village.

Petra began to prosper in about 1000 BC under the Nabataean empire due to trade in Myrrh, Frankincense and spices. The geology is stunning but not something for this blog, other than to say the natural colours were extraordinary. The walk down and through the city is some 4 kms – all downhill, and in no time at all, we encountered our first building - the Obelisk tomb with four pyramids atop. What makes Petra so special is that most buildings were carved from the top down (rather than built up). This is the burial site for five people.

The main street runs through a natural gorge and is hence subject to flooding (on the few occasions it rains). To counter flooding, they built a small dam and tunnel to divert the water away from the gorge.

The size of the gorge is immense, and hopefully, this shot, which includes visitors and the distant cliff tops, provides some indication of scale. The engineering continued with two water supplies. The one on the left would have been covered with stone slabs and supplied the lower part of the city. The line on the right contained a vitreous clay pipe that operated under some pressure to provide water to the upper side of the city.

The left-hand gravity supply included silt traps to help keep the water clean.

As with all our visits, these two found something to talk about and brought up the rear. Even with the floor concreted to protect the friable sandstone, it still appears to be hard to talk AND walk! Above these "statues", the gorge narrows to a bit over 1 metre. 

The light was spectacular, and every so often, some of the natural colours really stood out.

After about an hour, the gorge (or Siq) opened up to Petra’s most well-known façade – the Treasury. It is 40 metres high and beautifully decorated with Corinthian capitals, friezes and figures. At the top is an urn that for years was thought to hold treasure (hence the name), with accompanying bullet holes. Science has now shown that it is purely a funerary urn.

Of course, you could also pose atop a camel with the treasury in the background – that was a step up too high for our mob!

As we moved further into the city, our next encounter was the street of facades. 

Mahmoud suggested we go into one 

and after the eyes had adjusted to the dark interior, we found several of his relatives selling trinkets and spices.

A challenge for any city of 30,000 people is entertainment, and for that, you need a theatre. As room was tight, the location did unfortunately mean a couple of lesser tombs were encroached (the rectangular holes) – such is the price of progress! The engineering for this was advanced when you consider this was carved top down, and when finished, the acoustics had to be perfectly attuned to the centre of the stage.

Nature continued to impress with its natural patterns and colours.

At the end of the main path were the Royal Tombs (Urn, Silk, Corinthian and Palace) dating back to 70AD. These four are all surprisingly different. They could almost have been part of a design competition; however, their carving spanned 150 years.

Age was not limited to the tombs – this pistachio tree is reportedly some 450 years old – not bad when most average a mere 300 years!

We then entered the lower part of the city on the collonaded street. This was built in Nabataean times and then refurbished by the Romans. It is very similar to earlier streets we have seen on this trip, with cart ruts and what would have been a covered walkway protecting shops.

Finally, there was the Qasr al-Bint temple (50 AD). What differentiates this from other built temples is that it has withstood several earthquakes. One reason for its resilience may be that the two horizontal bands (which can be seen on the left-hand wall) comprise timbers. These would have provided some tensile strength to otherwise brittle walls.

We then faced a change in direction and started walking uphill. As a child, our guide initially lived in a cave. One of them in this shot was a playground where he could recall feeling very frightened when his father was fighting in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Most of those working used to live in Petra but have now been relocated to a nearby village and given the rights to manage all tourist activities. 

As we approached the bus stop for our lift back, the final tomb was Turkmaniyya. Unusually, this has a Nabataean inscription over the door.

It mentions the tomb has a courtyard, dining halls, a water cistern and retaining walls. It seemed rather like a "for sale" sign, but in fact was a dedication to Dushara, "the god of our lord". The tomb is only for those authorised to undertake the act of consecration.

Far less prescriptive was the timetable for the bus ride out. My enquiry as to the expected schedule (half-hourly or hourly) was somewhat wide of the mark. Apparently, the bus moves half an hour after the first passenger gets on board! 

And with that, a long-time bucket list item was ticked off! What a brilliant tour! Add it to your bucket list and make it happen!

Amman, Jerash and Mount Nebo

After the relative flatness of the Egyptian Nile, it was a surprise to see that Jordan is quite mountainous. Our first tour in Jordan was Jerash, where remains from Neolithic times (7000 BC) have been found. However, most of what can be seen today is Roman. Just inside Hadrian’s arch is the Hippodrome where it is easy to imagine chariots racing.

As we wandered North, we picked up our guide and quickly entered the Oval Plaza. Despite the slope, the line of columns formed a level lintel which would have supported a shady roof.

An interesting challenge when combined with the plaza’s oval shape.

The plaza led to Cardo Maximus (the main North-South street, which forms an axis for the city). The road pavement was somewhat uneven due to the 749 AD earthquake. Thankfully, some of the columns survived whilst others have been re-erected. They would have supported a roof over a colonnade of shops. Quite a long mall!

Despite the upheaval, the ruts formed by carts were clearly visible. What was a surprise was a series of manholes for accessing a stormwater system. This was used mainly for irrigation. 

Further up the road, one even still has its lifting eye intact. 

Although some of the lintels look a little precarious, the use of corbels to support what was quite a load was impressive. It is worth zooming in to see how the column ring and corbel were carved from a single piece of stone.

Where the Cardo Maximus (North-South road) met the Decumanus Maximus (East-West road) was a round plaza. There was a monument here but all that remains are the four supporting pedestals. These supported columns of pink granite supplied from Aswan.

Of course, such a city had to have a theatre. This one sat about 6000 patrons.

Standing on the stage and moving around to find the exact point where your voice resonated was fun and really underpinned the accuracy of the construction. The detail, even at the bottom of the steps, was elaborate as our guide was keen to point out. 

Again, we had an excellent guide who, being in our age group, knew the pace to set. He also had relatives in, and had been to Canada. As a result, Pam ensured he was suitably sidetracked from archaeology discussions on more than a few occasions!

The Northern end of the Cardo Maximus was interesting as the capitals on one side were Corinthian, on the other, Ionic (which suggests the Greeks may have had some input).

There was the occasional stall set up. These operators seemed to have been selected for their language and soft-selling skills. Needless to say, they were successful as we came away with necklaces and a Shemag.

Our afternoon visit was to a few sites in Amman. We started walking along the walls of the Citadel with its 360 views of the city. There were many murals, including this one painted in 2021, entitled “The Column Mural”, depicting a man carrying the base for a column.

The focal point of the Citadel is the Umayyad Palace with its blue dome. 

Inside, the brown timber contrasts well with the grey stone. An intricate piece of joinery atop some similarly intricate stonework. Although restoration has played its part, the design and tradecraft are clearly evident.

As we stood appreciating the roof, music filtered through.  In the corners of the building were a series of small chambers with arched ceilings. In one, we encountered four visitors who were taking advantage of some wonderful acoustics. The resonance of their voices and ambience would have had us standing in awe for the rest of the afternoon until I was reminded that we had 5 minutes to get back to our driver!

A short drive resulted in a second musical event. This was at the theatre and of course, I felt obliged to find the musical focal point. That did not take long as it was marked on the floor! As we wandered, an Italian group entered and a rotund, jolly man stood on the spot and sang some opera with the rest of his cohort singing the chorus.

Unfortunately, the moment was short and so captivating that it did not occur to me to make a video! The small seated audience certainly appreciated the ad hoc entertainment with spontaneous applause and some whistles.

The next day, we headed South along the Road of the Kings. Our first stop was to a beautiful Byzantine (Greek) church, where, as we entered, the chandeliers drew the eye to the striking ceiling decoration.

As we continued, the light from the windows came into play and the new focus became the spectacular mosaic floor.

It is the Madaba mosaic map, which depicts part of the Middle East and contains the oldest surviving cartographic representation of the Holy Land and Jerusalem. It dates back to the sixth century AD and is in remarkable condition.

Our last stop en route to South Jordan and Petra was Mount Nebo. Here, a cleverly designed museum enabled visitors to wander along raised walkways over numerous mosaics. There were more on the walls, which stood out due to great lighting and lime-washed timber walls. Certainly, by some margin, the best display of mosaics we have ever seen.

However, manmade attractions were gazumped by the natural beauty of the view. Mount Neno is mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land and what a view it is.

The distances in this area are so small. It is a sobering thought that a mere 50 kms away is Gaza with its war and here we were looking across a peaceful Jordanian valley towards the West Bank.