Another week with LOTS of touring! Plan your reading accordingly.

March 27, 2023  Monday:  Up early and on the bus for our 4-day trip with the students to Jordan.  Amman is only about 50 miles from Jerusalem as the crow flies, but the tedious border crossing procedures at Allenby/King Hussein Bridge caused the typical delay of a couple of hours.  They don’t make it easy to cross from Israel into Arab countries.  But after that, Jordan was a real pleasure.  Friendly people, clean and tidy (in stark opposition to the part of Jerusalem where we live), and stunning archaeological wonders.  

First stop was Mt. Nebo, with its view over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.  This is where Moses was allowed to view but not enter the Promised Land because of his disobedience.  Outside a church on top of the mountain is a sculpture depicting the brass serpent in the shape of a cross, symbolic of John 3:14: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Pizza Hut pizzas on the bus for lunch (because "Pizza Hut delivers!").  We missed going to Machaerus because of the delay at the border.

Dr. Mark Rosen, James Wallis, Jim

We did make it to Madaba where we saw the fascinating 6^th century AD map in mosaic of the Holy Land on the floor of St. George’s Greek Orthodox church.  From there we had a 4-hour bus ride to Petra, where we stayed at Hayat Zaman hotel, a nice place reminiscent of Death Valley hotels. We expected Petra to be sparsely populated, but it is a big town with endless hotels and tourist services.  No surprise there!  

March 28, 2023  Tuesday:  Up early for breakfast buffet and then to Petra in the ancient region of Edom, “Capital of the Nabataeans,” which has always been on our bucket list.  It did not disappoint—in fact it exceeded our expectations.  Having nice cool weather also helped enormously.  It is blazing hot here in the summer. Jim ended up walking 11 miles, up and down hills—wanting to see everything!  Deanne came in second at 9 miles. The first view of the Treasury is a real thrill, even though the place is mobbed with tourists and vendors.   

Just a third of the students

(Photo clean up credit: Jenna Greenfield. She took out all of the other tourists and trash!)

Jim took the grand loop hike to the High Place of Sacrifice, Obelisks, Garden Triclinium, Roman Soldiers’ Tomb, Wadi al Farasa, the Great Temple, meeting up there with Deanne who had walked the Street of Facades, past the Theater and Royal Tombs, the Nymphaeum, and the Colonnaded Street.  

James Wallis at the Royal Tomb

Great Temple

Mosaic floors in the church

My Bedouin friend and a great salesperson!

Jim then went up the 850 stairs to the Monastery which was truly a sight to behold, so massive and detailed.  Impressive views from up there off into the surrounding deserts. After a fine buffet lunch in the shade at the Basin Restaurant, we rode camels back to the Treasury.  That was a total kick and well worth the $25 each that we paid our camel drivers.  It seemed a much longer walk up the “siq” and out of the valley.   Jim bought an Indiana Jones hat before leaving Petra.  We had a long bus ride to Amman, about 3 hours.  We stayed at the Days Inn Hotel which was passable.  Some students wanted to get out and explore, but we were happy to call it a day!

March 29, 2023  Wednesday:   Today we started at the Jabbok River in the Biblical area of Gilead where Jacob wrestled the angel (Genesis 32). 

Next a visit to Ajloun Castle, with its overlook of ancient Gilead. The castle was built in the 12^th century AD by the Ayyubids.  

Eden, James, Chloe, Ginger, Seth

The highlight of the day was Jerash, one of the Decapolis cities and one of the best-preserved Roman sites in the world.  What a fantastic place this is, with long colonnaded streets, ancient temples and carvings, theaters, all decorated at this time of year with wildflowers. The city was destroyed by an earthquake in 749 AD.  Perfect weather!  We had about 1.5 hours there to explore, but it’s a place you could spend all day.  Late buffet lunch at the Artemis restaurant, whose specialty is hot naan-type bread they keep bringing to the table.  Back to Amman for the evening.

March 30, 2023 Thursday:   Windy and cold today—rare to be this cold in Jordan.  We had a visit to the King Abdullah Mosque, where the women had to wear head scarves and robes.  Our guide Ibrahim gave us some instruction about Islam and the mosque.  

Ashton Martin with our guide Ibrahim

We explored the Amman Citadel with its ruins, theater, and near the Temple of Hercules, fragments (three fingers and an elbow) of what was once a huge statue of Hercules. This area may have been the location for the story of King David, Bathsheba, and Uriah. 

Hercules' hand

The Jordan National Museum is an excellent and manageable place full of ancient artifacts, but interesting also were the displays upstairs about the many contributions to language, history, science, math, astronomy, surgery, and more, from Arab culture. Very impressive.  We were going to have lunch at the “Taj Mall” food court, but with Ramadan, it was closed, along with most other restaurants, so we had—get this—McDonald’s!  They had made arrangements with a McDonald’s in Amman to prepare lunches for us which we ate on the bus as we drove to Bethany beyond Jordan, the traditional baptismal site on the east side of the Jordan river, right across from the Israeli baptismal site. We had quite a walk under a canopied walkway to the site and had a devotional there by Frank Judd.  Saw an arch commemorating the traditional site of where Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire.  Much warmer down in Jordan Valley than up on top of Amman!  

Students in the children's interactive exhibit area

Our border crossing back into Israel was much less eventful than our entry the other day and we were soon back in Jerusalem, where it was rainy and cold. It was good to be "home" and now we prepare for Holy Week in Jerusalem! Thanks to the Barkers for doing all of the hosting this week! They had 210 visitors in 2 days! It is a busy season here in Jerusalem.