amann, jerash and desert castles.
ajloun castle.
drive from amman through the hilly landscape of the jordan valley to the castle of ajloun: built in 1184 (as we all remember) by a nephew of saladin as a protection against the crusaders who were hanging out just around the corner (equals 'the south' geographically) in karak. and after a while of 80 years the mongoles dropped in (the so called ride-by-destruction, long before drive-by-shooting was invented). that much for a short historical summary...
jerash.
greek-roman city with a unique oval forum, an amphitheatre, broad streets, a hippodrome, some greek and roman temples. and lots of columns. all the things a tourist expects from an antique city. a great place to hang out for an afternoon. too bad that only the public area is excavated, the living quarters are covered by modern jerash.
nice lunch with many starters made of chickpeas, eggplants, different salads,..poor me i have finish all the bowls. i'm not a veggie but in this country they know how to make things taste good.
nice lunch with many starters made of chickpeas, eggplants, different salads,..poor me i have finish all the bowls. i'm not a veggie but in this country they know how to make things taste good.
amman.
more ruins in amman: the citadel with the temple of hercules. and two amphitheatres to prove that architects in the good old times had a sense for accoustics.
downtown is not exactly what i expected from the middle east: no exotic bazaars, no food stall on the streets, apart from some roman leftovers no old town. well, it's a young city with a uniform architecture. we're hanging out in some cafes, the passing cars and the well dressed people are a clear indication that we're in the posh upmarket area. 2,5 dinar for a cappuccino and 600 dinar as a teacher's monthly salary says it all.
the city is a mistery to me. no matter how for you move out of the centre, the quality of the houses doesn't drop significantly. maybe we took a special road or this country has a extremly broad middle class. from what we (later) see the only visible industry is phosphate production, tourism and some agriculture. the source of all this wealth is not obvious to me. can you have so many nice relatives abroad?
downtown is not exactly what i expected from the middle east: no exotic bazaars, no food stall on the streets, apart from some roman leftovers no old town. well, it's a young city with a uniform architecture. we're hanging out in some cafes, the passing cars and the well dressed people are a clear indication that we're in the posh upmarket area. 2,5 dinar for a cappuccino and 600 dinar as a teacher's monthly salary says it all.
the city is a mistery to me. no matter how for you move out of the centre, the quality of the houses doesn't drop significantly. maybe we took a special road or this country has a extremly broad middle class. from what we (later) see the only visible industry is phosphate production, tourism and some agriculture. the source of all this wealth is not obvious to me. can you have so many nice relatives abroad?
the desert castles.
azraq.
small basalt fortress in the middle of an oasis that was finally used by lawrence of arabia....history trivia, you never know what trivial pursuit question comes around one day.
amra.
small castle with outsanding frescoes of hunting scenes, a zodiac, and (surprise surprise) nude women. which means there were times in islamic art when it was ok to paint pictures of people.
kharrana.
well preserved building possibly used as a caravanserai.
small basalt fortress in the middle of an oasis that was finally used by lawrence of arabia....history trivia, you never know what trivial pursuit question comes around one day.
amra.
small castle with outsanding frescoes of hunting scenes, a zodiac, and (surprise surprise) nude women. which means there were times in islamic art when it was ok to paint pictures of people.
kharrana.
well preserved building possibly used as a caravanserai.