Travel to Israel All Year Long

My favourite blog is by Dina who lives just outside Jerusalem and posts the most interesting sights and details from her mini-meanderings around Israel. Take time to check her blog at Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo and enjoy a Holy Land vacation all year long!

Our Final Day: Amman and Jerash

Ed Climbs the Citadel's Heights

Today's tour took us to the Citadel of the city of Amaan, the site of ancient Philadelphia of the Decapolis. In the Old Testament, the site was known as Rabboth Amon, capital of the Amonites. Here we viewed the great Temple of Hercules from the Roman period. Its huge columns still dominate the skyline of the new city. Below the hill sits the old Roman theare which once seated over 7,000.

Hadrian's Arch, Jerash

We took some time to tour the national archaeological museum, soon to be replaced by a massive new building. The small homey displays coverd every time frame from the Stone Age through the Turkish occupation. We enjoyed the plastered Neolithic skulls, the finely shaped Iron Age Figurines, Roman lamps and vessels, and even gold coins of the various early Islamic periods.

A few steps across the Citadel and we entered the Palace of the ancient Islamic rulers with its finely wrought pilisters and carved capitals. A nearby cistern held over 17 acre feet of water for the residents of the ancient settlement.

Our bus ride north was sidetracked by a terribly truck accident which closed the main road, forcing us off onto a smaller local road that wound through the hills. We soon arrived at Jerash, a gem of a Roman city. Here the colonnaded streets graced paved roads leading to and from the distant cities of Pella, Damascus, Philadelphia, and beyond. A huge theatre with bodacious acoustics allowed us to voice our words to the "crowd" seated high above us with perfect clarity. Here, too, a bagpiper and drummer in the traditional dress of the British Army which once assisted the Hashemites serenaded us (if you can call what bagpipes do, serenading!).

We walked up to the temple of Aphrodite with its towering capitals and past a large Byzantine church. Down at the Nymphaeum we could picture the nymphs who once graced the remains of this monumental facade. We strolled back along the Cardo Maximus (Main Street) to the small souvenir shops, picked up a few final purchases to rid our pockets of stray dinars, and headed back to Amman and our hotel.

Dinner is now over, the final packing is coming to a close. We will board the bus to the airport at 11pm, and we will all (without this blogger) be flying off to Frankfurt then home to Dallas.

It has been a trip of up and down hill, high temperatures, and cold Red Sea water. We have climbed the heights of Mount Pisgah, been baptized in the Jordan River, sung hymns in Bethlehem, found treasures and pottery sherds in an ancient Israelite fortress, and ridden camels, horses, buses, and boats. From the Sea of Galilee to the Red Sea and Transjordan we have experienced more than we ever imagined.

With new friends and new memories and new gifts for loved ones back home, we are about to end our journey. The telling of tales, however, has just begun.


Shout out from Carolyn Ward: I am saving a place for you. Moma/Carolyn/Granny

Mount Nebo, Madaba, and Amman

Wifi is spotty in our Amman hotel so this will be a short and picture-free post. We left Petra behind this morning, taking the Desert Highway out of the Wadi Musa and northward through the hills of Edom toward ancient Moab. A long drive, we stopped for shopping and personal import-export at a small place before boarding the bus again. We turned west toward the Crusader era city of Kerek, passing the ancient castle (unseen) and continuing on to Mount Nebo. From Nebo's heights Moses looked across to the Promised Land. Our vista was slightly hazy, but we could see the Judean hills in the distance, the Dead Sea, And the Cities of the Plains, including ancient Sodom (or so says this blogger). See the video to back up his assertion about Sodom. Back on the bus, a quick ride took us to Madaba" Here we viewed the oldest mosaic map in the world, a Byzantine era floor of a church that guided ancient pilgrims on their journeys across the Holy Land. A wow of a map in vivid detail with Ancient Jerusalem as the feature. The huge Ded Sea and the surrounding sites were all marked for the ancient and the modern tourist as well-- that is, if yu could read Greek! We voted on a lighter lunch and hit a home run with boxed shear as and fries and veggies for a bargain price. We ate as we journey to a Mosaic factory to watch the artists at work in the miniature pieces of stone. A short hour down the road we arrived in Amaan. Our hotel is under renovation and has the oddest room numbering system. Floor two is actually on the fourth floor. Floor three on floors one and two, and I haven't the foggiest notion where floor one goes.... Tomorrow: Amaan city tour (ancient Phialdelphia of the Decapolis) and the vast Roman city of Jerash. Then, a rest at the hotel and a 1045 pm departure to the airport for our flight at 2am for Frankfurt, DFW, and all points homeward. Our blog will be caught up as David is staying in Jordan to work on an archaeological project.

Petra, Nabatean Wonder

The Treasury from the Siq, Petra

Today was spent in the Nabatean caravan city of Petra, known as a Modern Wonder of the World. We hiked down the entry to the Siq, the long passage with towering sandstone cliffs above us. We viewed the Roman and nabatean carvings that once graced this entryway into the city beyond. Here carvings of camels, gods, goddesses, and sacred deities once met visitors. Inside, tomb after elaborate tomb carved from the living stone towered around us. We emerged from the siq at the treasury, the most well known of the tombs. Fifty meters in height, its graceful columns, cupids, Amazons, and demi-gods still welcome modern visitors as it has for 2,000 years.

The remains of a Roman theatre stood below the hills around where the rubble piles of former homes still lay in sight. A huge temple complex still remains, her walls a tribute to the engineering skills of builders two millenia ago.



Some brave souls hiked an additional two hours over the hill to the Monastery, a vast facade of a tomb seen recently in the movie "Transformers II' and whose interior was in "Indiana Jones 3". Some took a camel ride. Others climbed to the Royal Tombs to view the landscape below and the patterned sandstone interiors.

We had a  wonderful--but awesomely hot!--day we shall never forget.

Stone Interior, Royal Tomb

Three Wise Men pass through Petra

Tomorrow: Mount Nebo of Moses and the Madaba Map.....Destination: Amman.

If this is Monday, it must be Jordan

We left our Israeli Adventure behind and crossed the border into Jordan. Though hot and trying for those pulling two suitcases and more, we had no troubles crossing between the international boundary at Aqaba. Here our new guide, Hisham, met us with our new driver. We quickly loaded all the luggage onto the bus and set out for the Wadi Rum.

Wadi Rum is the name of a large national park area of Jordan that is a desert as vast as it is beautiful. We viewed a short film on the region, then split  into groups of 5-6 and climbed into the back of 4x4 pickups with slightly padded seats but a blessed awning. We slid and slew our way through the desert sands, hitting a few bumps on the way, having a few laughs, sweating a lot, but awed by the grandeur of the hills rising around us. Here Lawrence of Arabia (T.E.Lawrence) joined forced with the Bedouin trips united under Faisel bin Hussein of Mecca against the Ottoman Turks. With British backing the forces raided trains and depots and garrisons in the region and ultimately created a larger scale Arab Revolt that helped end World War One.

Ancient Glyphs at Wadi Rum

The Caravan Departs

We enjoyed a short respite and our first Jordanian tea in a Bedouin-style camp. Eight brave souls boarded camels for part of the journey and can say they have caravaned in the desert! From ancient gylphs carved into the sandstone to the rising cliffs that towered around us, we were amazed. We enjoyed a Jordanian buffet lunch and some cooler air in the visitors' center before boarding the bus and working our way north to the Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses) and the city of Petra. After a bit of a delay, everyone is now in their rooms or enjoying the pool, some the Turkish baths and massage, and others walking the city.

Tomorrow, the World Heritage site of Petra,  a Caravan City of the Nabateans. Stay tuned!

A Few Extra

The group explores the dry wadi of the Elah Valle, looking for Philistines 

The Holy of Holies, Arad

Canaanite temple holy items from Hazor, destroyed by Israel under Joshua

South, Toward the Other Side of the Land

We said  "goodbye" to Jerusalem today, headed down Highway 1, turned south toward Beth Shemesh, and worked our way south through the Negev. We stopped in the valley of Elah to consider the story of David and Goliath and the Battle with the Philistines under Saul. Here in the dry wadi bed we looked at the hills and considered the text as the remains of Tel Azekah looked down from close at hand.

Temple in the Judaean fortress of Arad

Back on the bus we mosed into the Negev, passing numerous small squatters' villages of Israeli Bedouin now forced into small hamlets. Camels dotted the landscape where once the biblical Patriarchs herded their flocks. We visited the site of the ancient Canaanite city of Arad and walked through the later fortress of Judah. The site included a sanctuary to Yahweh complete with an altar of unhewn stones, a room that served as a Holy Place, and an inner Holy of Holies featuring two incense altars and masseboth (standing stones) that probably represented the deity. Our sharp-eyed travelers managed to walk around and find ancient sling stone (like in the David and Goliath story!), an Early Bronze flint scraper for leather curing, and a flint sickle blade for harvesting wheat or barley--as well as innumerable pottery sherds.

We returned through Beersheva and said goodbye to our guide, Yael, whom we enjoyed immensely and will miss as much. Her insights and teaching will be a gift we carry forever.

We took the 164 mile drive down the Araba Valley south of the Dead Sea, stopped for a brief lunch, and arrived at our hotel in the heart of Eilat. The temperature was a cool 107 F. The Red Sea is visible ust blocks from the hotel. We ate a nice supper and many walked the boardwalk and shopped, ate ice cream, got a little spa treatment and enjoyed this tourist destination as shabbat (sabbath) ended at 8:30 pm and all the shops immediately. opened!

Tomorrow is a day of rest and relaxation before crossing into Jordan on Monday morning. Some will catch up on sleep, and others explore the nearby coral reefs through a mask and snorkel. We will enjoy a little relaxation after walking off more than one set of feet over the last 8 days. More then!