Our last day in Jordan, the land of Ammon, Moab and Edom...this is a pic of a Crusader Castle that we stopped the bus to look at, similar to the the castle in Karak, where we spent our last night in Jordan.
This is our hotel in Karak, and it's right next door to the Crusader Castle. That's our bus parked out front. The Karak Rest House was not a place I would ordinarily stay at....noisy parties, no hot water, very minimal amenities, did I say no hot water?? etc...but according to Dr. Wright, if we want to see the Castle, this is the only option of a decent place to stay in order to work it into our itinerary. It did have some character...
This is the lovely lobby of the hotel...notice King Abdullah II's pic...I told you his picture is EVERYWHERE!! I feel like he's a buddy of mine by now.
Here's the view down into the valley from the Castle. In 1 Sam. 22:3 it talks about how David brought his family to Moab (that's where we are) to keep them safe while Saul is chasing him. It says he came to 'Mizpeh of Moab' which means 'lookout', then he went to the Stronghold, which is Masada. It's very possible the place we were standing was the lookout, because on a clear day, you can actually see Masada. So David was in this vicinity before he became King. After he became King, he actually came back and conquered Moab for Israel.
Here's a picture of the kitchen of the castle. I can't figure out what they were baking here...
This is a small replica of a catapult.. Because it's made of wood, you don't find these remains, so this shows you what it looks like, and...
These are the actual carved round stone boulders that were flung by the catapult..these are as big as bowling balls....made me think of Fred Flintstone.
Here's an 'arrow slit'...with this little windows you can see your target to shoot the arrow at them, but they can't see you.
Well, we are leaving Karak, and King Abdullah II is smiling at us all the way!!
Hmmm..the view was nice..I don't know about best choice, but it was our ONLY choice.
A few pics out the bus window...Here's a couple Jordanian men, now look whose picture is hanging outside the shop....yup, the King!!
Most Muslim women don't cover their faces, but some stricter sects do.. This woman only has her eyes exposed.
I don't want to gross you out, but you can't believe how you see meat hanging all over the place in the markets, with flies buzzing all around it. We were passing this truck, and I noticed an upside down cow's head in it (sorry, but I'm trying to give you a cultural experience:)
So for something a little more beautiful...This is the national flower of Jordan - the Black Iris. It only blooms for a couple weeks in the spring, and only blooms in a small area near the Arnon Gorge, which we are about to see. When Dr. Wright saw them beside the road, he stopped the bus so we could all take a picture of these flowers which few people get to see.
So here we are at the Arnon Gorge...a huge canyon cut by a river. This is a dammed up portion of it. Moses camped near here with all 2+ million Israelites on their way up north past the Dead Sea...up to where they (Joshua, etc) crossed into the promised land, over the Jordan River. It was hard to imagine this as a good camping place, very desert-like, but at least they had water.
Posing with some of my girls at the Arnon Gorge. Our bus literally had to go down to the bottom of that gorge and then all the way back up to the plateau on the other side. Lots of switch-back roads, believe me. It was quite a sight going down and then back up.
We are up on the plateau on the other side, at the ancient site of Dibon which is on the Medeba Plateau, just north of Moab. Moses conquered this area and gave it to Reuben, but they couldn't hold on to it. Mesha was the King of Moab who fought and lost against King Ahab (you know - Jezebel's husband). He paid big taxes to Ahab to leave him alone, but as soon as Ahab died in battle, Mesha took control of the Medeba Plateau again. Anyway, Dibon was Mesha's capital...and these sheep don't even care.
Now we are at the city of Madaba...there's a very famous ancient mosaic map of the middle east.that was found here. This is a poster of the entire map that was found. It gives alot of information of place names and roads, etc, in the ancient world. A Greek Orthodox church was built over the map in the 1800's
Here's the class looking at the mosaic map on the floor of the church.
I know it's hard to see, but the big blob at the top is the Dead Sea, you will see a boat in it, and see the Jordan River coming out of the top (left) of it. The sort of oval you see is Jerusalem, the long street is the Cardo, it actually has the gates of the city on it, etc. It is hard to get the idea, but this map is full of information about many places in the time of Jesus.
Walking to the church of the Map, we see the King of course, but you haven't seen his wife yet...doesn't she look like the princess in whatever that princess movie is called??
The Church of the Map...class waiting outside for everyone to get done looking at it.
Lunchtime...Clara and I have matching shirts on today....Someone said I was mustard and she was ketchup.
I know you aren't tired of seeing pictures of King Abdullah II (right?!) He's the one in the middle. Notice it says 'Nuts shop' on the sign.
Our final stop for the day...up on Mount Nebo! It's not really a mountain, but it is high lookout point. And this is where Moses came to peer into the Promised Land and was told he wouldn't be going there. It was a hazy day, couldn't see too far. Dr. Wright preached a great mini-sermon here about how we all see our promised land, and it may look hazy, not sure what's over there, and yet we still cross over, etc. Was a great end to our tour of Jordan.
Well, this is the last pic of me in Jordan. I am so ready to go back to Israel now. It seems Jordan is a really nice place to visit, but Israel feels like home.
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