Onward into Jordan!

The adventure continues! I'm out of Egypt and into Jordan. I got into Amman today, after an interesting interlude at the airport. You have to have a Visa to get into Jordan, and while you can buy one there at the airport for several nationalities... it's a bit of a sh@* show. After waiting in line for eons to get through, (And being told that we could pay with a credit card instead of exchanging money...only to be told that the machines weren't working...which I KNOW they were....) most of my group got through and went to wait for the luggage.

A few people were left behind and the rest of us waited, grabbing our bags and theirs off the carousel. One bag, however, did not come through. The rest of us were looking high and low all over the airport for the lost bag while waiting for Frances and Martin (The owners of the bag) to make it through customs. In the meantime, a security guard came up to us several times with a luggage sticker on his finger, but asking "How many bags?" over and over. All of us came up with several answers, trying to figure out what he meant. How many people were in the group? How many bags did we have? How many bags were we missing? How many people were we still waiting for? (What do you want, man?! What?! Stop asking how many bags!!!) 

When finally Martin came down the escalator from customs, the security guard immedately took him to a back room.... and we waited. To say that none of us were feeling good about having one of our party detained in a small security room in the Middle East was putting things very lightly- especially poor Frances, Martin's wife. After a bit, Martin finally came out to explain what was happening. 

It appears that you cannot bring binoculars into Jordan. Or, at least, you're not supposed to bring high powered ones in for some ridiculous military security purpose. (I decided to let drop the fact that most good camera lenses would be much more dangerous...but I digress.) Martin had binoculars in his checked luggage. This is why he was detained, as they were trying to figure out "How far do you see with these?"

Now...here's the funny-uh-oh thing about this situation. Not only were Martin's binoculars the low-powered kind you can buy cheaply, and not only could you easily ascertain how "far you can see" by literally stepping out of the security office and looking across the terminal with them, but... FOUR of the rest of us were carrying binoculars, two of which were high powered! It just so happened that the rest of us had them in our carry-ons! We decided to stay as quiet as possible about this fact for the next hour or so while we got Martin and his dangerous binoculars sorted. (They refused to let him leave the binoculars behind, refused to let him leave, and the rest of us were detained as well in the airport as we were with this dangerous man.... Frances was having none of it though and demanded with arm around Martin to be escorted into the security room with him!) 

Ahh. The adventures you have while travelling. 

We eventually got through and made it into Amman. Our new guide, Mohammed, met us at the hotel and we got to take an unplanned half-day tour through the city. 

There's a beautiful old Roman amphitheater there, which is massive. We toured around and inside of it, testing out the near-perfect acoustics in the process.  The upper sections are incredibly steep though as you climb up to the top. I can only imagine the horrendous domino effect that would have happened had someone fallen down from there and into the crowd....

Just to the side of the amphitheater there's also a small museum, which houses pottery, jewelry, traditional clothing, as well as some beautiful old mosaics from the area.  

This section of flooring was particularly impressive. Such beautiful detail. 

We then hiked up to the citadel on the hill, which is the oldest part of the city. Artifacts there have been dated back to the Bronze age, and the remains of the walls and some of the colums/ foundations are from the Iron age and Roman periods. 

In the foreground here is the foundation of a Byzantine church, while in the background stands the main building, the Umayyad Palace, dating back to around 720 AD. 

This large building would have been the main palace, and has a Turkish bath system off to it's right-hand side. Out the back of the building were a large number of living quarters, which would have been used for the king and the military guarding the area. 

They've now done some reconstruction inside the building, so in the upper left-hand corner of the photo you can see what the stone once was carved like- though even in the areas that haven't be restored you can get a sense of it. The ceiling has also had a new wooden support system built under it so that the bronze dome on top doesn't collapse. 

Also on the site you can see the Roman influence here, as the columns and archways seen here are from the Temple of Zeus. 

Dating back to before the palace was built, you can see how detailed the stone work was then from the tops of the columns. The largest section in the background there is easily 3 stories tall! 

While we were up on the hill, I also got to hear the most beautiful call to prayer ever. While all the other cities that I've been to so far on this trip seem to have all the individual mosques calling out almost in competition to the others (Making it sound muddled and almost like an argument), here in Amman it comes from one centralized source. The whole city is made up of a series of hills, and on the top of each hill there is a large tower with multiple speakers on it. The call to prayer eminated from these speakers and out into the air, with the most incredibly beautiful echoing effect. The sound bounced off the hills in a way that it almost created a cannon, and since it was just one clear voice, it didn't sound muddled or confused at all. It was like a song. I felt very lucky to be up there and hear that the way I did.