On our way to the Dead Sea and Madaba, we stopped off at Kerak Castle, one of the 3 largest in the region (The other 2 are in Syria). It's an old crusader's castle, though parts of the structure and inhabited area date back to the Moabites in the Stone Age. This is where Syrians settled before going North of Palestine. There are some inscriptions that were found dating back to the 9th century BCE.
The castle has been under the control of the Nabataeans, the Romans, the Byzantine Empire, and the Crusades.
Below you can see some of the wheels once used for pressing olives.
The back wall here is the giant oven.
With several sections once surrounded by a large outter wall, this was once a impressive and well fortified stronghold.
From Kerak we travelled on North, to the Dead Sea. It was really quite beautiful, and the day was clear so you can see across the water to Jerusalem.
Although the others got some good photos of me really floating, this is the only one that I currently have. It was SO. MUCH. FUN though!! The water is very strange and has an oily quality to it when you come out of the water. Incredibly viscous. You get into the water, and you just...float. And by that, I mean, it's near impossible NOT to. You can tell in the phot below, as I tried to stick my arms and legs out of the water at the same time to show just how much I was floating, the buoyancy of it all made me start to flip over.
The whole group just laughed like kids as we tested the water. It took serious core strength to try and put your legs straight down and keep yourself vertical, and the same was true for trying to roll onto your stomach and just stay there. Everyone else that was in the water seemed calm and collected about the whole experience, but my little group reverted to just being children. It was fantastic!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment