Traveling over the Holiday

“Let’s rent a car next week when you are off for Eid.”  I wanted to say “Are you nuts”, but thought better of it.  Ed is fearless when it comes to driving and he really likes road trips because he can stop whenever he sees a photo opportunity.  Some of my favorite pictures are ones that he took when he quickly stopped the car.  So instead of my initial response, I said “Fine, make the arrangements” and wondered if I had enough Ativan for a week.

Eid al-Adha is a four day Muslim holiday that celebrates the end of the hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca).  It commemorates Abraham’s (Ibrahim’s) sacrifice of a ram instead of his son.  While in some Muslim countries the animal of choice to slaughter is a goat, in Jordan it is a sheep.  The sheep are sacrificed on Saturday.  This may be done either at the home (a butcher comes to the home) or in specially designated temporary slaughter areas in Amman or at local butchers.  After the holiday the Jordan Times reported that 42,879 sheep were sacrificed just in the Greater Amman Municipality.  They further noted that “the municipality’s inspection teams destroyed 2850 kilograms of spoiled meat during their field visits throughout Eid and issued 89 warnings for health violations”.  I have not been able to find a sacrifice statistic for the entire country.

This Eid is not to be confused with Eid al-Fitr, a three day festival that occurs at the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting.  The official four days off for Eid al-Adha this year were Saturday (October 4) through Tuesday (October 7).  Like any holiday period, many people add a few days at the front or back end of it. 

 Sheep Waiting to be Sacrificed in Irbid

Looking at our Rough Guide we planned our “vacation” and before you knew it, the car was delivered to our apartment and we were off to Jerash.  GPS use is virtually nonexistent here, but we included one in our car rental.  While it was far from perfect, it did help us to find our way on numerous occasions.

Although Jerash is not more than 25 miles from Amman, we decided to spend the night there.  The tour buses give Jerash only a few hours, but we like Roman ruins and prefer a more leisurely approach.  It is one of the best preserved Roman cities in the eastern Mediterranean region.  Although the hippodrome is the smallest of any of the ones that have been discovered in ancient Roman cities, it is particularly interesting because they still use it for staged chariot races that are preceded by a display of Roman military strategies.

Hadrian's Gate in Jerash

Chariot Race in the Hippodrome in Jerash

One of our best stops the next day was in Kufranja, a town not listed in any tourist guidebook.  As we drove from Ajloun Castle, heading toward the Jordan Valley, we stopped in this bustling market town.  It was the Friday before the start of Eid, and there were large pens of sheep and goats waiting to be purchased for sacrifice on Saturday.  We parked on the main street and wandered around.  In the produce market, Ed was quickly adopted by a small boy who escorted him from vendor to vendor.  While Ed was trying to take candid shots, everyone wanted to pose holding their best radishes or cabbages.  Such a contrast to a produce market that we had visited in Siberia where Ed was told that it was not permitted to take pictures of the vendors and the produce.  We always wondered if they had top secret potatoes in Russia.

 Goat Market in Kufranja

 Vegetable Market in Kufranja

I was disappointed with the Dead Sea.  Long before I came to Jordan, I had wanted to swim in the Dead Sea.  Going to the lowest point on earth (400 meters [1320 feet] below sea level), always sounded really cool and I couldn’t imagine any water being too salty for me.  Well, I was wrong.  It was way too salty.  Just a splash into the eye felt like someone had thrown acid at you.  And you really can’t swim because you float in the brine.  The Dead Sea is about 30% salt while normal seawater is 3 to 4%.  Supposedly the Dead Sea mud has therapeutic effects, and many people availed of the large pots of warm mud, slathering it all over their bodies.  That idea didn’t do much for me, so after staying in long enough to say that I had been in the Dead Sea, we headed up to one of the three hotel pools.  I was really glad that we had decided to stay at a resort rather than just opt for a day at the trash laden public beach.  The pool was refreshing and the ambiance was so restorative.

I had wondered if Muslim women who dressed in long robes and head scarves went swimming and if so what they wore.  The question was answered here at the resort.  They wear long pants and a tunic top and a color coordinated fairly tight fitting cloth headdress.  It seemed too intrusive to take a picture of a woman swimming so this is one time we will just have to remember what the outfit looked like.  At times like this I have always wished that I was a sketch artist.

This was the second hotel room that we were in that had a small decal on the ceiling with an arrow pointing toward Mecca.  However, I think that here one had to watch the clock to know when to pray as we never heard the muezzin’s call to prayer.

Other tourist sites during the week included Mt Nebo (excellent view overlooking the Dead Sea), Uum Qais (more Roman ruins and a view of the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights) and Madaba, a mostly Christian town with beautiful ancient mosaics.  In Madaba we stayed at an inn run by the Greek Orthodox church.  Mt Nebo is where Moses saw the Promised Land that he had been forbidden to enter.  While we were there a group of pilgrims from India were praying as they overlooked the Promised Land.  Other sites in the area also have particular interest for those who like to see places that are mentioned in the Bible.

Mosaic in Madaba

Everywhere we went it was clear that tourism is much diminished.  Tourists from the US and Europe were virtually non-existent.  The troubles in the Middle East have certainly hurt the economy in Jordan.

So we headed back to Amman and filled the gas tank (.79 JD per liter or about $4.20 per US gallon) and the week with a rental car came to an end, without as much as a dent.  Driving outside of the cities was not a problem at all.   In the cities, now that’s another story.  But Ed is ready to do it again, so next time we rent a car we will head south to Petra and Wadi Rum.

[a technical note: if you click on the pictures, they should enlarge]

Seeing the Tourist Sites

In the City:

Amman is a young city compared to many in the Middle East.  Less than 100 years ago it was little more than a muddy farming village.  It grew somewhat beginning in 1921 when it was chosen to become the capital of what was then known as Transjordan.  After World War I the League of Nations divided the Ottoman Empire, giving the British authority over much of the Middle East.  In 1946, the British relinquished their mandate and the independent country, properly called the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, was born.  When Israel was created in 1948, the population of Amman doubled in two weeks as Palestinians moved from their homeland to Amman.

However, Amman is also an ancient city.  Just to the northeast of the current city a settlement was established over 9000 years ago.  More important for the tourist is the Roman era.  Around 300 BC, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, was built on the ruins of previous settlements.  So into a taxi and off to Downtown we go to visit the Roman Theatre, dates from around 175 BC.  Having visited many Roman ruins, especially in the Rhone valley in France, I was not expecting to be impressed.  Well, I was wrong.  It is well preserved and huge, with a seating capacity for 6000.  It is steeply banked with high steps and an impressive view as you make your way up the rows. (Full disclosure – I did not go all the way to the top!)  From the Roman Theatre we visited a small museum and also the Odeon, which is a much smaller theatre, probably used for parliamentary proceedings or small dramatic productions.

 

Roman Theatre - that's me in the blue shirt

Then a quick taxi ride up the hill to the Citadel and the Temple of Hercules. What a view!  The entire city is spread before your eyes, no matter what direction that you look.  The call to prayer sounds while we are there.  We can hear at least 10 distinct muezzins.  The Temple of Hercules, which consists of pillars visible from the city below, was built around the same time as the Roman Theatre.  On the upper terrace of the Citadel is the Umayyad Palace, which was built around 730 AD, over the pre-existing Roman structures.  All very interesting and well maintained.  They say the view at sunset is excellent, but we will have to save that for another day.

 Pillar of Hercules

Then down to Rainbow Street and the Souk JARA (Jabal Amman Residents Association) street market, an outlet for locally grown products and various crafts.  Browsing along Rainbow Street is interesting, with many places to stop for a snack.

 Into the Desert:

On this day I learned that I truly am not a desert person.  Intuitively I have always known that and past trips to California and Arizona have confirmed it.  But the saguaro cactus and the tumbleweed of the American southwest make for a lush landscape when compared to Jordan.  With Rami, our driver, and Amal, a fellow Fulbrighter, we went to see what the guidebook calls the “Desert Castles”.

The Desert Castles are not castles in the European sense.  Rather they are the ruins of buildings that were likely used as rural retreats for the Umayyad caliphs during the 7^th century.  As we head out of the city we see several large flocks of sheep, each tended by a lone shepherd, with his donkey and several dogs.  To my eye, there is absolutely nothing here for them to eat yet they seem well fed.  The road is smoothly paved; as we pass a military base, I comment as to how wide the road is here.  Rami and Amal both agree that it is used as an airstrip for the base.  

Each of the three “castles” has a different style.  Qasr Kharana is a sturdy looking square building with a large central courtyard and many small rooms off to the sides.  It is thought that it was used as a meeting place for Bedouin tribes and the Muslim rulers.  Qusaya (little castle) Amra is unique in that the walls are covered in frescos.  Naked women, cupids, musicians and hunters cavort in stark contrast to the usual Muslim prohibition for this kind of painting.  The third “castle”, Hallabat, stands on the site of a second century Roman fort.  Then in the 6^th century, Christian tribes built here.  The late 7^th century Muslims remodeled and refurbished it to their specifications.

 Qasr Kharana

Qasr Amra

We also stopped at the Azraq Wetlands Reserve.  This disappearing oasis once was a thriving marsh area with hundreds of thousands of birds wintering here or passing through on their flight to Africa.  Illegal private wells tapped into the aquifer and depleted the water supply.  Today the boardwalk through the almost dry marsh is less than inspiring.

We stopped at a tourist restaurant near Azraq for lunch.  Azraq is a small town where both the roads to Iraq and Saudi Arabia converge.  While we were eating, a large black SUV with KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) license plates pulled in.  The two men quickly entered the building, and just as quickly left with a small black plastic bag – containing a few cans of beer: the proverbial forbidden fruit.

Back in the city, we fight a few heavy traffic jams before arriving at our apartment, which is beginning to feel like home after playing tourist for two days.

A note on the weather:  nights are definitely getting cooler.  After almost a month of not closing a window, many evenings we are closing up shortly after supper.  On Wednesday night (October 8^th) we had about ten minutes of rain.  Recently there have been some clouds every day.  Daytime temperatures are still in the 80s, but it never feels hot because it is so dry.