Karak, Dead Sea and Madaba

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We decided to make our way north to Madaba, with a couple short stops at Karak (a Crusader Castle) and the Dead Sea. We hired a car and driver to take us (joined by our new Portugese friend, Felipe) and set out early in the morning from Dana.

Our first stop was Karak, which is a huge Crusader castle famous for many 12th century battles between the Crusaders and the Muslim armies of Salah ad-Din. We wandered through the very well preserved underground tunnels and up on high rock walls 450m above the valley below.

From Karak we made our way down to 400m below sea level to the Dead Sea. Once there, we took a few dips in the saltiest body of water on earth and floated with absolutely no effort at all. The water has so much minerals dissolved in it that it feels more like a mineral oil on your skin, and tastes more putrid than you can imagine! We also did a mud bath, where you cover yourself with black mud, and let it dry. Silky soft skin afterwards!

From the Dead Sea, we made our way to Madaba, which is famous for its numerous Byzantine Era mosaics. Most famous is the mosaic map on the floor of St. George's Church, which could be one of the oldest maps in the world (shows Jerusalem, Bethlahem, etc.). It would have been nice to stay here longer, but we needed to get to Amman so we could get Bonnie out on her flight home, or so we thought...

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