Amman and Jerash, Jordan

Arriving in Amman, Jordan!

Pit stop at a river for stretch break to enjoy the River Jordan

We flew from Cairo to Amman, Jordan. If you haven't been to Jordan or don't know much about it, you could look at a map and see that it's a country in the Middle East that's very close to Israel / Palestine. Jordan is a very safe and peaceful country that's welcoming, with a very strong economy (ie quite expensive to travel to). Jordan has amazing landscapes and tourist attractions and we feel very lucky to be able to visit this country for 6 nights.

We got picked up at the airport by a guide and a driver, and we drove North to the ancient city of Jerash. We had never heard of this place before booking this trip, but we probably should have. It's a huge and very well preserved ancient greco-roman city! 

We were really tired from flying / travel and struggled to keep our energy and enthusiasm up, but that was not the fault of the sights! It's a very cool place to go and certainly right up there, if not better than, many other amazing ruins we've seen.

The entrance to the ancient city of Jerash

   

View standing at Temple of Zeus

Mosiac floor in church

Theatre

   

Temple of Aphrodite

The North Theatre

Nymphaeum

    

Nana on the "main street"

After we were guided around the city for a couple of hours, we drove back to Amman and checked into our hotel for the night. We were really tired, so we had some pizza and fell asleep.

Our hotel in Amman is behind

 

The next day we left with all of our luggage and started a road trip in Jordan. We first stopped at St. George's church (now Greek Orthodox), which had an amazing mosiac tiled floor of a map of the whole region. There were also many mosaics hanging all around on the walls.

 

Next stop: Mt. Nebo - basically the place where Moses went to die. It was really windy and it was cool to see the view and look over the Jordan River to Jericho and Israel. There is a monument to Moses and a church/temple/museum at the top. Inside the church on the floor are very well preserved mosiacs.

This giant circle stone used to be a door

Monument to honour Moses (staff/snake) at the viewpoint

Jericho visible in the background - very windy!

 

 

After this we went to a mosiac workshop and learned about how the stones are cut into little tiles and then glued in to make the mosiac art. We were in awe of the patience of these artists.

All made of little tiny tiles, placed by hand

Then we had a drive South. Normally people would go along the larger 'desert highway', but this road was currently closed due to strikes around rising fuel prices. So we had a chance to drive along the Dead Sea (where we will go later in the week) and then up over some mountains on a very snaky adventurous road.

Check out the salt on the rocks at the Dead Sea

camel footprint

See the hairpin turns on this road?!

We arrived at Little Petra and had an early traditional buffet dinner. We ordered lemonade and were served some green mint drinks that were... not our favourite! The food was good though.

We then checked into our hotel in Petra, and visiting Petra will be the subject of the next blog.

So far, we are enjoying our time in Jordan and appreciate the hospitality and calmer vibe of this culture (compared the Egypt). Unfortunately, a few of us have had traveler's diarrhea, so we were grateful for the pharmacy in town also!

Thanks for following along!