Monday, September 23
Today is our first full day in Jordan and we’ve got a full agenda.
We met our other 4 fellow travellers, who were joining us last evening from their tour of Egypt. The retired father and 2 sons from the UK and a mid-aged Australian woman all loved the Egypt trip. So the UK is cleaning up in this group. Nanci and I are the lone Canadians.
Our first stop are the Roman Ruins of Jerash, or Jarash about an hour outside of Amman and only 30 minutes by road from the Syrian border. Although a 7am departure was early, we got to the site before any other buses and had the place to ourselves for the first little while. As you can see there aren’t too many people in the pictures.
These ruins are amazing and if not for a festival being held annually on the site, they would likely be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. They are supposedly the most intact outside of Rome despite the multiple earthquakes that has hit the region. Seems a little short sighted of officials to stop the progress on getting the UNESCO designation because of an annual festival.
The oval hippodrome could seat 16,000, and there are two theatres, one holding 2000 and one 3000. There are some huge chucks granite on the site that had been brought to Jerash from Aswan Egypt but most of the construction is lime stone. The Artemis Temple is undergoing some reconstruction work.
There is so much to see, and 75% of what’s there is original and not restored. I found it much more interesting than Ephesus in Turkey. We spent 2 hours there with the guide and with some free time. As we were leaving, we ran in to the group that we travelled with in Israel. They were just arriving and talked to our guide and new we were there. Certainly was strange to be walking across the site and hearing my name shouted out!
Then we headed for the Dead Sea for the second time in two weeks but obviously on the Jordanian side this time. Since we bobbed around last week, I didn’t go into the Sea today, but I did remember to get a shot of my toes which I forgot to do last week. It was the first time for everyone else and I think they all enjoyed it. This beach club had a swimming pool which people enjoyed for a while and it included a lunch buffet. The entry into the water was a little easier than we had on the Israeli side because it was more gradual.
We had a bit of a break back at the hotel and then jumped in Ubers that Hakam had organized and we were off to a cool restaurant on top of a book store on one of the hills that had a phenomenal view. We were able to see the light leave the sky, the lights come on and listen to the Call to Prayer echoing across the city and I tried a specialty of the region, a mint lemonade. It was fabulous. Our food took a long time but it was worth the wait.
Some bits of info garnered from chats with Hakam today:
There are 9 million people in Jordan, 6.5 Jordanians and the rest immigrants, and the bulk of them refugees from Syria, Lebanon, and other places. The refugees are putting a strain on the economy of Jordan and it is significantly in debt.
The main export is olive oil and the olive tree is the national symbol of Jordan as the altitude in the hills is just right.
They have little in the way of natural resources except potash and uranium.
The unemployment rates is high with more than 50% of those working in the government. The average wage is $US 400-600 per month and average rent is $500 in Amman.
Lois' Adventures 