We were greeted at the baggage claim by what I believe to be the mascot of the Middle East-the cat. Wherever you go, a cat is prowling by your side. And although, I like cats, it is a little disconcerting to see them EVERYWHERE.
We started our tour of the city by going up to the Amman, Citadel. Amman is called the white city because all of the buildings are covered with limestone. It was built on 7 hills and has a population of 2 million. (There are 6 million people in the whole country.)
Here is the Jordan flag waving in the breeze. The green, black and white of the flag symbolize different dynasties, the red stands for the royal family, and the 7 sided star stands for the 7 pillars of Islam. 95% of the population is Muslim, which means you hear the call to prayer loud and clear five times a day.
Standing on the old ruins of this fortress and temple we kept hearing a little tune playing down below in the city. The little tune sounded vaguely familiar like the Ice Cream Man's little song. I asked our guide about it and found out it was a little song from a man in a truck, however, instead of ice cream he was selling cooking gas. When you run out, you just listen for the Cooking Gas Man's truck and there you go.
So, I'm a teacher and I teach about ancient civilizations. This means I'm pretty much compelled to take pictures of everything. Which will explain these fascinating photos at the museum at the citadel. These arrowheads=Stone Age, yep 40,000-10,000 years ago. Crazy!!!
Don't think I'm into the whole skull thing, but check this out:Early Bronze Age 3,300-1,900 B.C. They are performing surgery, boring holes into the skull. Seriously, fascinating.
These happen to be Hercules's knuckles, yep his knuckles. Which gives you a pretty good idea of how huge his whole statue would have been. Over 13 meters tall standing by his temple.
The Jordanians sure seem to love their king. These pictures of King Hussein and King Abdullah II, royal descendants from Mohammed are everywhere. The late king is revered for bringing peace to the Middle East. Men show their support of the royal house by wearing headdresses of the royal color red all around.
After leaving Amman, we drove to one of the 10 great Roman cities, Jerash. I'm a sucker for ruins, and they were pretty amazing. This is Hadrian's arch which is a memorial to the Roman Emperor Hadrian. The vastness of Rome's empire always amazes me.
I must say I felt safe the whole time I was in Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. It was just different. We had metal detectors at every hotel we stayed in and people with guns to protect us everywhere we went. In Jordan, they had the Tourist Police. At all of the major tourist sites they had a little force of men in blue, who would try to woo you and keep you safe. We got a picture with one of them, but promised not to post it. I guess that is against the rules.
This theatre would seat 3,000 people and is still used today. The acoustic point is in the middle which allows for amazing acoustics. We even got to hear "Praise to the Man" on the bagpipes, which was crazy until they told us the tune is from Scotland the Brave, the unofficial anthem of Scotland. This still seems a little out of place to me, but I loved it.
Pretty amazing theatre
This is the largest temple to Artemis. You had to go up 7 sets of 7 steps to get there. Regular people could only go to a certain point and then you left your offering to be taken to to altar.
I sure do love a good mosaic. The more you step on the colored rocks the shinier they become with their true color coming out. Like most things I would love to turn this into a metaphor for life, but since I do this to everything. I will stand back and let you take the liberties.
The Hippo (stands for horse) drome where they had their chariot racing. This was pretty cool to see, especially because in Rome the Circus Maximus is long gone. Unfortunately, the actors in the reenactment of the races were on strike, I'm not sure how this happens to me, but all I can say is Louvre, workers, strike, me, sadness.
This is the middle of the city or the Cardo Maximus meaning the heart of the city, pretty cool.
After such a beautiful day in Amman, I couldn't wait to see what else Jordan had in store for us. We packed up the next morning and bid the Amman International goodbye. Then we headed to the lost city Petra!!!!
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