Blogs from West, Jordan, Middle East - page 7

We packed our bags and we left on our journey towards Amman. The next stop was madaba, a small city that is known for their beautiful mosaics. We drove along the kings highway though the countryside of Jordan. Jordan is a very mountainous county so this road is very windy and continuously went up and down and through canyons. Aside from the few villages we passes, the landscape is mostly barren and rocky desert. On our way we stopped at two crusader castles. The first was called Shobak castle, which we only visited from the outside because the tour guide said that the next castle was exactly the same, just that it was much more intact. So we drive a bit further to reach the present day town of Kerak, and visited the kerak crusader castle ... read more

After Wadi Rum we had decided to head to Madaba, a small town near Amman known for it's historical sites and mosaics. We were also excited to hear that thanks to the presence of Catholics, alcohol could be found in abundance in Madaba. Now, I must explain.....before we set off on this adventure a friend gave me one simple command “Alex, have a great time, but please do this for me.....drink the national beer of every country you visit”. There may have also been mention of photographing the evidence, at which I have failed, but as for the drinking of national beers, I have been doing quite well. Jordan, being an Islamic country, has rather a limited selection and availability of alcohol. Indeed I didn't even know if there was a national beer. But there is ... read more

Hayley and Kevin have been a source of infinite wisdom during our overland travels and on the day of our long drive taking us via the Dead Sea, the instructions before our dip were clear and straight to the point-no heads under water, no drinking the sea (taste it and you'll see why!) and ladies...umm, no breastroke or frog kicks...best to have legs crossed please! Given Hayley and Kevin's words of wisdom, I wasn't quite sure what I was letting myself in for as I took the plunge into the calm and still waters. In retrospect, 'plunge' is actually a terrible verb to describe my action of entering the sea...it's probably one of the only bodies of water in the world when plunge is simply unapplicable as a descriptor due to the near impossibility of dropping ... read more

After leaving Cairo, we took a bus over the Suez to St. Catherine, the home of the famous Mt. Sinai. Lil and I climbed it early Christmas morning to see the sunrise. From here, we moved on to Nuweiba to catch the (expensive) ferry into Aqaba, Jordan. We spent 3 days there, relaxing and snorkeling in the Red Sea. From there we took a bus to Petra and spent 2 days in the ruins. Today we are in Amman.... read more

We borrowed a car and went on a day trip to Madaba, about 25km south of Amman. Known as the City of Mosaics, Madaba is an old Christian part of Jordan with a very long history. Madaba is mentioned in the Bible (as a Moabite border city) in Numbers 21:30 and Joshua 13:9. The city was ruled by the Romans and later the Byzantines. A typical tourist destination in Madaba is the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George. In the floor of the church is a mosaic map of Holy Land dating from the 6th century AD. The map shows details of Palestine and the Nile Delta. Apparently, this map is one of the few records of how Jerusalem looked after its destruction and rebuilding in 70 AD. Local stories suggest that mosaics exist underneath every ... read more