Monday morning, Cairo. We flew from Amman to Cairo yesterday (Sunday). We'd seen TV coverage on Saturday of the protests in Tahir Square following the aquittal of Mubarek, with 2 demonstrators killed and 13 injured, so wondered what we were heading into. We can see the square from our balcony, and Sunday afternoon tanks and other security had closed off the area, so Tahir is actually empty. The protests moved to University campuses on Sunday. (Will post some photos when they're downloaded)
Cairo traffic is unbelievable! There's a lot of noise from the streets, but fortunately we're on the 25th floor of the Ramses Hilton so it's quiet in our room. We just had breakfast on the second floor, and street noise was pretty loud. We meet a guide in a few minutes to tour the Egyptian Museum and then off to Giza for the pyramids and sphinx.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Amman, Jordan's Capitol
On Thanksgiving Day we headed off to Amman, Jordan's capitol. We had originally planned to go by way of Jerash, to see the extensive Roman ruins there, and attend their reenactment of the Roman Circus, complete with gladiators and chariot races. But it was raining "cats and dogs" in the words of some Jordanians working at our hotel, and the thought of sloshing through the ruins and sitting outside to view the Circus lost all of its appeal. So we headed straight to Amman. We actually found our accomodation, a wonderful guest house called "By the Lemon Tree", without getting very lost, so we pushed our luck and decided to rid ourselves of the rental car that afternoon. Several hours and many wrong turns later we finally found the Thrifty/Dollar outlet. We thought Israeli drivers were agressive, but they're pussy cats compared to the drivers in Amman. Every intersection seems to present an opportunity to play chicken. So by the time we found the rental agency it was raining quite hard and we were frustrated and tired. We asked the agent to call a cab for us but he directed us to stand across the street and try to hail one. It took about 15 minutes to find an empty taxi, and with the driver's speaking no English and us having no Arabic it was amazing we eventually found our way back to the guest house.
After a pretty dismal start we found we really enjoyed Amman. The weather cleared up and the guest house was lovely with an interesting host, Guido. Guido is an economist whose grandfather came to Amman in 1921 to found the Italian Hospital. He loves to throw out controversial ideas over breakfast and create some really animated discussions among the guests. By the Lemon Tree is located next door to the Italian Embassy on the slopes of Jabal Webdeh, a trendy area of galleries and restaurants about a 15 minute downhill walk to the historic downtown. (Of course, we also had to walk back up to return).
We strolled around the downtown area on Friday, enjoying the crowds out enjoying their weekly Holy Day. You could buy almost anything on the street - cosmetics, clothes, books, plumbing supplies, etc. We stopped at Hashem Restaurant for some mezz - hummus, fava bean paste, onions and tomatoes with pita bread and mint tea. Hashem's been around forever, located in an alley and not very impressive appearing, but everybody goes there,
including the Jordanian Royal Family. So while we were snacking a truck pulled up loaded with large tins of olive oil - each about 5 gallons or so. The restaurant guys formed a bucket brigade to unload what seemed like an endless amount. I asked our waited how many tins had been unloaded and he said over 80!
Saturday night we had dinner at a local restaurant. Besides the food they featured an extensive menu of flavored tobaccos for their shisha, or water pipes. While seeing men smoking hookahs has been a pretty common sight in the Mideast, this was the first time
we'd seen quite a few women indulging. This part of the world is full of contrasts. As we were having dinner a young woman in a short mini skirt came into the restaurant. I looked up just then to see a burka-clad, fully veiled woman passing by the window.
After a pretty dismal start we found we really enjoyed Amman. The weather cleared up and the guest house was lovely with an interesting host, Guido. Guido is an economist whose grandfather came to Amman in 1921 to found the Italian Hospital. He loves to throw out controversial ideas over breakfast and create some really animated discussions among the guests. By the Lemon Tree is located next door to the Italian Embassy on the slopes of Jabal Webdeh, a trendy area of galleries and restaurants about a 15 minute downhill walk to the historic downtown. (Of course, we also had to walk back up to return).
We strolled around the downtown area on Friday, enjoying the crowds out enjoying their weekly Holy Day. You could buy almost anything on the street - cosmetics, clothes, books, plumbing supplies, etc. We stopped at Hashem Restaurant for some mezz - hummus, fava bean paste, onions and tomatoes with pita bread and mint tea. Hashem's been around forever, located in an alley and not very impressive appearing, but everybody goes there,
including the Jordanian Royal Family. So while we were snacking a truck pulled up loaded with large tins of olive oil - each about 5 gallons or so. The restaurant guys formed a bucket brigade to unload what seemed like an endless amount. I asked our waited how many tins had been unloaded and he said over 80!
Saturday night we had dinner at a local restaurant. Besides the food they featured an extensive menu of flavored tobaccos for their shisha, or water pipes. While seeing men smoking hookahs has been a pretty common sight in the Mideast, this was the first time
we'd seen quite a few women indulging. This part of the world is full of contrasts. As we were having dinner a young woman in a short mini skirt came into the restaurant. I looked up just then to see a burka-clad, fully veiled woman passing by the window.
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| Strolling Around Jebal Webdeh |
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| Birds Flying Over the King Hussein Mosque |
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| Shopping in Downtown Amman. You Can Get Almost Anything You Want. |
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| Clothing |
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| Shirts |
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| Plumbiing Fixtures |
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| Gold |
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| Books |
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| Delicious Snacks |
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| Or Watch 80 Tins of Olive Oil Be Unloaded |
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Madaba, the Mosaic City
From Petra we drove north to Madaba (managing to get lost only a couple of times - they don't seem to believe in road markings here in Jordan). Madaba is renowned for the quantity and quality of its surviving Byzantine mosaics. The best known example is the Madaba Map, part of a floor mosaic located in the Byzantine Church of St. George. The map is the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land, dating to the 6th century AD. One of its purposes was to facilitate pilgrims' orientation in their journeys. The original map measured almost 70 feet by 23 feet. The dimensions of the current remains are about 52 by 16 feet.
We viewed the mosaics in several other churches and archaeological sites, before driving up to Mount Nebo, the spot from which Moses is reputed to have viewed the Promised Land, or Canaan (he died before he actually got there). The views of the Dead Sea and surrounding area were good, and on a clear day, which it was not, you should be able to see Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We'd planned to drive to Bethany, the site on the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptised Jesus, but we'd seen the Jordanian churches from the Israel side, and as it began to rain fairly hard, we drove back to Madaba to settle for a warm dinner and comfortable bed.
While touring today we bumped into a group of young people. One young man, wearing a maroon cap with a large yellow "M" wanted to know where we were from. He was really excited to hear that we too were Minnesotans. He and a young woman from Minnesota are studying Arabic in Amman as part of an exchange program.
We viewed the mosaics in several other churches and archaeological sites, before driving up to Mount Nebo, the spot from which Moses is reputed to have viewed the Promised Land, or Canaan (he died before he actually got there). The views of the Dead Sea and surrounding area were good, and on a clear day, which it was not, you should be able to see Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We'd planned to drive to Bethany, the site on the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptised Jesus, but we'd seen the Jordanian churches from the Israel side, and as it began to rain fairly hard, we drove back to Madaba to settle for a warm dinner and comfortable bed.
While touring today we bumped into a group of young people. One young man, wearing a maroon cap with a large yellow "M" wanted to know where we were from. He was really excited to hear that we too were Minnesotans. He and a young woman from Minnesota are studying Arabic in Amman as part of an exchange program.
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| The Church of Saint George, Madaba Map in Foreground |
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| Section of the Map Showing Jerusalem and Surrounding Towns |
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| The Sea of Galilee on the Map |
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| VIP Group Visiting the Map. We Didn't Find Out Who They Were, but They had Lots of Security |
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| Floor, Church of the Virgin |
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| Camel and Trees, Church of the Martyrs |
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| Mount Nebo, Monument Commemorating Visit of Pope Paul II |
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| What Moses Saw??? |
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| Key to Geography Viewed from Mount Nebo |
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| With Laura from Falcon Heights and Adam from Brooklyn Park. Small World! |
Petra!!
The first thing that struck us on arriving at our hotel in Petra was the cool and windy weather. We'd left Aqaba, 120 miles to the south and at 20 feet above sea level, driven along the desert at sea level and below, and found ourselves in a location at about 4,600 feet, so shouldn't have been a surprise that we'd left the beach weather behind.
The next quite wonderful surprise was Petra itself. We walked down from our hotel to the entrance the next morning, bought a two-day ticket (overly-ambitious, as it turned out) and walked down another half a mile to the beginning of the Siq, a narrow split in the rocks leading for another mile and a quarter to Petra's most elaborate ruin, the Treasury.
Petra was an ancient Nabataean city. It contains some extraordinary ruins. The Nabataeans grew wealthy controlling the major caravan routes and extracting tribute from the traders plying the incense and other goods from China and Arabia into Southern Europe. Their influence was in part due to their ability to control the water resources in the area. The water supply to Petra was quite sophisticated, relying on an elaborate system of conduits bringing water from the Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses). It was believed these springs began when Moses struck the rock and brought forth water. It flowed to their city via a pipe system insulated to prevent evaporation. The site was known in the Roman, Byzantine and Crusader eras but was unknown to the Western world until its discovery by a Swiss archaelogist (Johann Burckhardt) in 1812.
The Treasury was the first of many of Petra's delights, hewn into a sandstone cliff and amazingly preserved to this day. We walked over 6 miles through the ruins and back through the Siq, shunning the offers of carriage, donkey, horse and camel rides but deciding that one day was enough for our ancient bones in this wonderful ancient setting.
The next quite wonderful surprise was Petra itself. We walked down from our hotel to the entrance the next morning, bought a two-day ticket (overly-ambitious, as it turned out) and walked down another half a mile to the beginning of the Siq, a narrow split in the rocks leading for another mile and a quarter to Petra's most elaborate ruin, the Treasury.
Petra was an ancient Nabataean city. It contains some extraordinary ruins. The Nabataeans grew wealthy controlling the major caravan routes and extracting tribute from the traders plying the incense and other goods from China and Arabia into Southern Europe. Their influence was in part due to their ability to control the water resources in the area. The water supply to Petra was quite sophisticated, relying on an elaborate system of conduits bringing water from the Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses). It was believed these springs began when Moses struck the rock and brought forth water. It flowed to their city via a pipe system insulated to prevent evaporation. The site was known in the Roman, Byzantine and Crusader eras but was unknown to the Western world until its discovery by a Swiss archaelogist (Johann Burckhardt) in 1812.
The Treasury was the first of many of Petra's delights, hewn into a sandstone cliff and amazingly preserved to this day. We walked over 6 miles through the ruins and back through the Siq, shunning the offers of carriage, donkey, horse and camel rides but deciding that one day was enough for our ancient bones in this wonderful ancient setting.
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| Walking Down to the Siq |
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| The Siq |
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| The Light at the End of the Siq: the Treasury |
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| The Treasury or Al-Khazneh. Built as a Tomb, Later Used as a Temple |
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| The Theater, Carved from Solid Rock |
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| Caravan Serai? |
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| The Street of the Facades, Rows of Tombs |
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| The Urn Tomb, Largest of the Royal Tombs |
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| Qasr al-Bint, the Main Temple at Petra |
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| The Conduit System, Bringing Water Down to the City from the Springs of Wadi Musa |
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| The Bad News: Somebody Needed an Ambulance. The Good News: It Wasn't Us. |
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| The Cave Bar. Yes, it's in a Real Nabataean Cave. No, it's NOT Part of the Archaeological Site |
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| Abdo, Our Waiter at Dinner the Night Before. As We Walked by the Next Day, He Gave us Tea and Wanted his Picture Taken |
Monday, November 24, 2014
Wandering in the Wilderness in Jordan
We picked up a rental car in Aqaba and headed off to Petra, an expected 2 1/4 hour drive. We planned to take Highway 15, a major route north, and connect to the highway to Petra but things went a little awry. Road signs weren't apparent as we headed north, and only after a couple of hours driving did we realize we'd taken the Dead Sea highway (Rt65), not the one that would give us good access to Petra. Scanning our maps we found we had to drive a considerable distance north, then cut across to the east (Rt35), then head south again to reach Petra. The bad news - it took us over 4 hours on some rather difficult roads. The good news - we finally saw some camels not in captivity along the route, and had some fabulous scenery on the road crossing the Wadi Al Fidan, which we would have missed had we taken the right route (like the Grand Canyon on steroids!)
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| Why Did the Camel Cross the Road? |
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| Camels, Apparently Grazing on Sand |
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| Herd of Goats Crossing Highway |
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| A Detour on Our Detour |
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| One of the Very Few Straight Stretches of Highway |
Aqaba, Jordan
We spent three nights in Aqaba after crossing into Jordan. Aqaba is Jordan's only seaport, and as such handles virtually all of the country's imports and exports. The Gulf of Aqaba is situated on the Northeast tip of the Red Sea with its major economic activity being the port and tourism. It's the famous site of the World War I Battle of Aqaba. where Lawrence of Arabia and his Arab forces scored a resounding conquest over the Ottoman troops. It's now a famous dive center and vacation area. The beach in town is popular with the locals but not very impressive. The hotels send buses to a beach club about 10 miles down the coast toward the Saudi Arabian border, in the middle of a marine preserve. We spent a day loafing at the beach club, which features 3 pools, restaurants, and a nice beach for swimming and snorkeling.
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| The Al-Hussein Bin Ali Mosque in Aqaba |
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| The Meat and Vegetable Market |
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| Family at the Local Beach |
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| Girls' Night Out. Moms Traditional, Daughters Contemporary. |
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| Beach at Berenice Beach Club |
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| Muslim Woman Bathing Amidst Bikini Clad European Women |
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| Looking Down at the Beach from a Pool |
A Variety of Accomodations in the Mid-East
We've been staying in a variety of places since arriving in the Middle East. We originally had booked an apartment for seven nights in Jerusalem. The place looked good on the photos and the location was excellent. The owner, claiming the original apartment wasn't ready, switched us to another location and an apartment we didn't find acceptable, so we checked out after one night and checked into the YMCA 3 Arches Hotel. The hotel was built in the early 1930's, in a great location across the street from the King David Hotel, and features a tower that is a Jerusalem landmark. Rates also included a huge and delicious breakfast buffet, so we were very happy we made the switch.
Other interesting accomodations included an Arab guest house in Nazareth, a guest house operated by Franciscan missionaries on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias, a room with a huge balcony overlooking the Dead Sea in Ein Gedi, part of a kibbutz, and a rustic cabin (but containing a whirlpool tub and a big flat-screen TV) in a moshav or agricultural village south of the Dead Sea at Neot HaKikar. In Aqaba we were three nights in a Doubletree Hotel (we're using Hilton Honors points to score free rooms in Aqaba, Cairo and Alexandria) complete with warm chocolate chip/walnut cookies on arrival. It was a little different from the versions we usually see, however, with security including a metal detector at the entrance and Arab music each evening in the lounge.
Other interesting accomodations included an Arab guest house in Nazareth, a guest house operated by Franciscan missionaries on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias, a room with a huge balcony overlooking the Dead Sea in Ein Gedi, part of a kibbutz, and a rustic cabin (but containing a whirlpool tub and a big flat-screen TV) in a moshav or agricultural village south of the Dead Sea at Neot HaKikar. In Aqaba we were three nights in a Doubletree Hotel (we're using Hilton Honors points to score free rooms in Aqaba, Cairo and Alexandria) complete with warm chocolate chip/walnut cookies on arrival. It was a little different from the versions we usually see, however, with security including a metal detector at the entrance and Arab music each evening in the lounge.
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| The YMCA 3 Arches Hotel, Jerusalem |
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| The 3 Arches Hotel |
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| Nick on our Balcony, Casa Nova, Tiberias |
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| Chapel of St. Peter, Casa Nova, Tiberias |
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| View of Dead Sea from Our Balcony, Beit Sarah Guest House, Ein Gedi |
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| Belfer's Dead Sea Cabins, Neot HaKikar |
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| The Hilton Doubletree, Aqaba, Jordan |
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