Mt. Nebo and Madaba Mosaics

So, backing up our trip to Jordan a bit.
Backing it up to our first day of that trip.

A friend and colleague of mine from Abu Dhabi had visited Jordan with her husband. Through their Jordan guide (who has since moved abroad), we found Fadi Wishahi, who does personalized tours of Jordan. (Thanks Kim!) If you are ever planning a trip to Jordan, talk to me ... Fadi is terrific, and I'll give you his contact information.

Fadi met us as the Amman, Jordan airport. Our first stop was a small Greek Orthodox church in Madaba, St. George's, known for the mosaic map on its floor.  When being constructed in the 1800's, it was discovered that there was originally a Byzantine church on the site. According to the Lonely Planet guide (2012), this map "represents the oldest map of Palestine in existence." That same guide shares: "Crafted in AD 560, the map has 157 captions (in Greek) depicting all the major biblical sites of the Middle East from Egypt to Palestine. It was originally around 15m to 25m long and 6m wide, and once contained more than two million pieces."

Outside of the church, there is a painting of the map, letting you know the different cities and countries represented, with English and Arabic translations.

The church had traditional Greek Orthodox paintings, as well as mosaics on the wall.

Streets of Madaba, outside of St. George's.

Our next stop was Mt. Nebo. Mt. Nebo is the place where Moses stood and saw the Promised Land. They are restoring a large church on the site (Moses Memorial Church), and have artifacts and preserved mosaics.

Behind me is that Promised Land. (It was a bit hazy toward Israel and Palestine.) We had limited time in Jordan (4 nights and 5 full days), so did not opt for a trip to Jerusalem. Still cool to be that close (about 45km).

And here is a visual guide to show where the different cities are, such as Jericho, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Hebron:

Madaba is known for its exquisite mosaics. After Mt. Nebo, we visited a mosaic workshop and store. This particular workshop supports artisans from the community, and trains and employs community members including orphans and the developmentally disabled. Our guide was a lovely young woman who was born and raised in Ohio. When her parents passed away when she was a teenager, she and her younger brothers were taken in by her aunt in Amman, Jordan. Can you imagine, losing your parents and being uprooted and moved to a new home half way around the world? And needing to help support your younger brothers, and needing to learn Arabic after landing in your new life? An impressive young woman with her positive outlook and maturity.

Here are some art pieces in the making. This is the rough side. After being done, the side facing the cloth is the art you'll see and display.

The original rocks that get broken down into those teeny tiny pieces.

Painted ceramics are another specialty:

The store also held hand-painted ostrich eggs (big!), jewelry, and carved and inlaid wood boxes. Some of the (larger) finished pieces for sale. They do ship :-)   And talk about heavy! All beautiful, with a variety of designs and colors.

Tim is loading oodles of photos from our Jordan trip on tmgimagery.com   

Wadi Rum

A Wadi is a valley.
And Wadi Rum is one of those valleys in Jordan.
And a famous one. Made famous by T.E. Lawrence, the Arab Revolt, and the movie "Lawrence of Arabia". (A movie that I need to watch, now that I've seen the actual place.) Here's a little video from the back of the 4x4. Beautiful large rock croppings and mountains. The video is a wee bit bumpy, as the ride itself was.

We stopped to see petroglyphs, and to take tea with an older bedouin gentleman, who also treated us to some music. The instrument is a wood framed box covered with goat skin. The bows are traditionally oleander and goat hair.

Petroglyphs. You can see the crude drawings of camels.

There were some impressive rock formations. Here is one that is an arch.

In Wadi Rum, there are a many different camps. We arrived at the Hillawi Camp. Wasn't sure what to expect. The wool fabric tents sit on concrete slabs. The concrete floors have a red color. I don't know if it's from the sand, or if it's intentionally dusted with some red chalkiness of some sort.

We were fortunate and had a room with its own bathroom. (Some of the tents did not have bathrooms, and you would have to walk across the camp's grounds to the toilets and showers. We appreciated having a toilet right there. We didn't avail ourselves of the shower, as the water was not heated and ice cold. 

Lots of blankets, that kept us warm.

We spent one night there. In the evening, guests sat around a large fire pit, and enjoyed a delicious meal in one of the tents. The tent was three-sided, and rectangular. There was some dancing (fairly mellow paced traditional dancing, that looked simple but really wasn't when we tried it).

Sitting around the fire pit, I was bundled up. 
As I was when we had a camel ride at 7:30am the next morning. Brrrr. I had two pairs of gloves on, two long sleeved shirts, a sweatshirt, and Tim's sweatshirt.

30-45 minutes into the ride, both Tim and I found ourselves thinking that we couldn't last the entire two hours. The walk and pace of the camels were a bit lurching. But then you get used to the rhythm of the camel and the two hours end up flying by.

The camels were a kick. They frequently bee-lined for shrubs, hungry for breakfast apparently. 

After our camel ride, we packed up. We made one stop at another nearby camp. Our camel guide wanted to show us a baby goat that was 5 days old. SO cute.


Tim with our camel guide Shaban (middle) and our Jordan guide Fadi Wishahi (on the left).

Adventures in Petra ... more beautiful sights

As you can tell from the previous two posts, Petra is beautiful.

The Treasury and the Monastery, well, I needed to give them their own posts.

Yet there was so much more!

The theatre, which was built to hold up to 6000 people. 

Various tombs. Some of the names include Roman Soldier Tomb, Palace Tomb, Urn Tomb.

At one point, Tim and I climbed up what must have been 1000 steps. We thought we were heading toward one of the tombs. We didn't realize until much later that the tomb was down near the others. Well, I guess we needed the exercise! Have to say, we were more than happy to get on the donkeys to go up to the Monastery after that detour. (It turned out that the path we took up, if you continue on it once at the very top, you can eventually look down at the Treasury.) 

A vendor at the high point of one of the tombs, patiently waiting for tourists to buy his wares.

Roman ruins, being reconstructed by a team from Brown University.

I hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of Petra in these three posts.

Coming up, more about Jordan: Wadi Rum; Dead Sea; Mt. Nebo and Madaba; Jerash; and a great dinner in Amman.

Adventures in Petra ... the Monastery

While the Treasury in Petra made my jaw drop, so did another site ... The Monastery took my breath away as well.

While Tim and I had walked around different tombs and pathways before heading up to the Monastery, Audi waited patiently for us. It was a slow day for the various vendors, including the men who have camels and donkeys that you can ride. Only the donkeys (as opposed to the horses or the camels) can make it up the 850+ steps up to the Monastery. A person can walk it, with no problem.

But being a slow day, Audi and his two donkeys trailed along with Tim and I until we were ready for the trek up those particular stairs.

Kate with Audi guiding alongside:

Meet Captain Jack Sparrow (Tim's ride) and William Shakespeare (my ride).

William has made the trek many times. This was Jack's first trip to the Monastery. William has a path.  A (= one) path. As a rider, you have no control. You aren't holding on to any reins. The donkey knows what he's doing, and you let him do it.

Pedestrians are coming down the path as you are going up, and I just keep saying "I have no control and he has a path" and they'd move out of the way. Or Audi, our guide, would let pedestrians know 'people on the left, donkeys on the right'.

Oh, the the right hand side was usually the side where there is a drop, and the donkeys like to live dangerously and walk along the very edge. I just trusted William and flowed with it.

Here's some video from the back of William Shakespeare. It cuts abruptly at the end, simply because my camera battery said 'enough'!

You walk the last few dozen stairs, and you see a snack and coffee vendor, and a small white building up on the next hill. (Shrine to Aaron, from the Bible.) Then you turn to your right, and oh my goodness ... there's the Monastery. And getting there with the light of the afternoon sun, well, it's another stunning place.

In the middle photo (above), you can see a person in the opening ... had to include that so you can see the scale of the place.

On our way down, I found walking William by the lead was easier for me. Otherwise it was clunk, clunk, clunk and felt a bit jarring. Audi guided Tim on Jack Sparrow ahead of us, because Jack hadn't navigated this before. And on the way up, we knew without a doubt that William is accustomed to being the lead donkey. But he seemed okay with walking with me coming down.

Audi had us stop at one of the vendors along the pathway. (2 separate six-foot tables, covered with jewelry and other small wares.)  Turns out that this was his family's stall. 

Behind one of the tables was a small tent, where his mother sits and makes tea. His sister sells their wares.  We were invited to sit and share his mom's home-brewed bedouin tea. A little sweet, and a little bit of sage. It was delicious. Made over a small fire, and a small cast-iron teapot. Her hands were dark and must be calloused, because she touched that tea pot and briefly handled the coals, with bare hands. And never flinched.

Audi and his family. (Audi is in the orange sweatshirt.)

I now want to learn to make a similar tea! The brew ... not the method of making it over the open fire ;-)

Audi and his family were some of the hundred or so bedouins who lived in the caves of Petra for years. An interesting read is "Married to a Bedouin" by Marguerite van Geldermalsen. She describes living in the caves with her Petra-born husband, as well as the transition from the caves to the housing on the hill sponsored by the government. The tourism ministry, if I understand correctly, wanted to boost up the tourism industry and not have folks living in the caves. But those same bedouins and their families continue to be the lovely people who have the donkeys and the vendor stalls.

I'll do another post of other sites in Petra next!