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Minaret, Amman

Disco Rules

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Bedouin child in Petra, Jordan

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Colours of Petra, Jordan

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Zooming in on the Qasr Kharaneh desert castle, 65 km east of Amman, constructed in around the 6th century AD. There are a few different historical opinions about what the building was built for: as a defensive fort, or as a caravanserais for passing camel trains. The day we were there it was extremely windy, and there was no-one in sight. A little bit spooky, and definitely like stepping back in time. The sun was bright but the wind-chill was pretty extreme, so we hurried from room to room (61 rooms in total). As you can see, much like the other desert castles, it's out in the middle of nowhere, by the side of the road. There's a bedouin tent nearby where you can get a warming cup of spiced tea.

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Downtown Amman, Jordan. In the middle picture you can see the Roman Amphitheatre, built during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (169-177AD), which could seat 6,000 people.

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Qusayr 'Amra, Jordan. It's the best preserved of the desert castles (and a UNESCO World Heritage site), and was built as a bathhouse for travelling caravans. It has separate hot, warm and cold rooms, an elevated water-tank, a masonry-lined deep well, and an apparatus for drawing water from the well into the water-tank. Pretty amazing, as it was built sometime between 661-750 AD. I found the desert castles interesting because there's nothing around them for miles and miles and miles - they're just a stop on the road, a resting-place for travellers.

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Jordan, April 2009

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Road-side, north of Amman, near the Iraqi border

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World's best falafel (according to Louis, our host). Sadly I can't remember it's name, but it's in the old part of town in Amman, and even the royal family pop in from time to time.

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The colours of the stone at Petra. This is why it's called the pink city. These rooms would originally have been plastered inside, but it's long since worn away. That's me in the third picture - taken by my Dad.

البتراء

These were taken at the Treasury in Petra, the pink city. It is a city which was literally carved out of the stone (no free-standing buildings) by the Nabateans in around the 6th century BC. The city was only rediscovered in 1812, and only about 5% (?) has been excavated. It's an other-worldy experience to be there, imagining it as the bustling centre of trade (it was on the silk and spice trade route linking China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome). A bit of its history: The Nabateans controlled Petra until around 100AD, when the Romans took over. It was still occupied but declined in importance a bit during the Byzantine period, when the Romans moved their focus to Constantinople. In the 12th century, the Crusaders constructed a fort there, but largely withdrew soon after, and left it to the local people until it was rediscovered by the west in 1812.

The scene around the front of the Treasury is what you'd expect - chaotic - with donkey-rides, camels, hundreds of tourists, bedouin children selling postcards, but the Treasury itself is not at all what I expected. It's actually only 1 room deep. So that fabulous facade, which is 40 metres high, was built to frame one room.

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This is what I mean when I say it was salty:
the edge of the Dead Sea.

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Wishing I was back here. It's the new-ish Kempinski hotel on the Dead Sea (Jordan side), and it was heaven. Swimming in the Dead Sea - or rather, floating - was strange. You can't put your head under the water because it's so salty, and i don't know whether it's something to do with the saltiness, but you do feel lighter in the water. We laughed a lot, because it was quite windy that day, and we had to hang on to a rope to avoid drifting away! I went all-out and smothered my face with Dead Sea mud. Felt absolutely fantastic afterwards; my skin has probably never been so soft. I know, I'm a very lucky girl - this really was a taste of the good life.

وادي‎

Mid-way along the King's Highway, we stopped for tea at what felt like the top of the world. The bedouin men were very kind, and made us black tea, with spices collected in the area added to the pot. They also gave me some to take home.

The King's Highway is itself pretty fascinating: it was first mentioned in the Bible, as the route along which Moses led his disciples to southern Jordan. There are many ancient archaeological sites along the way. We stopped at Mount Nebo, Madaba, Kerak, and Petra. The grand canyon you see in the pictures above is called Wadi Mujib and is absolutely mind-blowing. It's impossible to describe the scale of it - I heard myself saying "wow" a thousand times but couldn't stop myself!

بدوي

We drove in on a 4-wheel drive, toured around for a while (saw ancient rock carvings, and the place where Lawrence of Arabia used to camp), and then after sun-set we were dropped off at a bedouin campsite for the night. The local bedouin man who looked after us (just the three of us, and our very kind host, who didn't speak a word of English!) made us a delicious meal, and in the morning I woke up to the peace and extraordinary quietness of the desert, and a spicy cup of bedouin tea. A pretty special and memorable birthday.

وادي رم

Earlier this year, I took my first trip to the Middle East, on a holiday to Jordan for 10 days with my parents. I've been posting photos from time to time, which you can see if you click on the Travel tag. We started in Amman, and travelled south via the Dead Sea, along the King's Highway to Petra, and then further south to Aqaba via the desert at Wadi Rum. These photos are some taken there the night before my birthday (a significant one!). The landscape was truly spectacular. The sand was soft, changing colour with the fading light in the evening.