Photos: Northern Jordan
Pictures from a few day trips I did from Amman - Umm Qais, Jerash, and some desert castles. Most of the photos are of Roman ruins; consider yourself duly warned.



I flew to Amman from Cairo - would have been cheaper to travel over land and sea, but that would take 2 days as opposed to an hour. I flew with Royal Jordanian, who I now rate as third on my list of favourite airlines (second is Singapore, because nothing ever goes wrong with them, and first is BA because their ground staff are adorable and their vegetarian meals are tasty. Least favourite is Ryanair, for obvious reasons).

As soon as I landed I noticed the difference between the cities - Amman felt so much wealthier than Cairo. And Jordan isn't a particularly wealthy country (huge refugee burden, basically since the country was founded, and they don't have oil), but the streets aren't littered with garbage, the houses aren't falling down, and there's a general feel of order and civility about the place. Its a lot more progressive than Egypt is, too - far more women are educated to University level, and in the wealthier areas of Amman many women don't wear head coverings. More than anywhere else on my trip, I felt completely safe and comfortable at all times in Jordan.

On paper Amman doesn't seem to be much of a destination - there's no major sights there (all of the things Jordan is famous for - the Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum - aren't within day trip distance), and its not one of the great cities of antiquity (it certainly doesn't conjure up the same images cities like Damascus and Istanbul do). As a result there's not a lot of tourists there, and no backpacker scene at all. Which is fantastic (no tourists means no touts, and you can explore the city and actually feel like you're discovering something new), but also challenging - fewer people speak English, so you often can't have a conversation with a local or even ask them for directions, and it can get quite lonely because you don't have the opportunity to meet other travellers.

But despite a few challenges I liked it there, very much. Mostly because of the people - its a bit of a cliche, but Jordanians really are the most extraordinarily friendly people. Just walking along the street I'd have people wanting to talk to me, and it was always just to talk to me, not to chat me up or try to sell me something. And always the conversation would go the same way: they'd ask where I'm from, I'd tell them, and they'd say 'ah, Australia! You're welcome!'. Even in stores where they didn't speak English and I had to resort to mime to get what I wanted, I still got a friendly 'welcome!'. Welcome was the one word I heard more than any other in Jordan, and it was always said with a big smile and in the most genuine way. In Amman the conversation rarely went further than that; it was lovely.



I don't have any photos from Amman itself, because there really is not a lot there. As far as sights go, there's a Roman theatre (from the days when Amman was the Roman city of Philadelphia), a citadel, and a couple of good museums, but all up that took me less than 3 hours to see on my first day there. The bigger attractions in Northern Jordan can't be reached by public transport (public transport in Jordan being mini buses that only go when they're full, so you can end up sitting at the bus stop for hours waiting for enough people to get on and sometimes they don't leave at all), but a few of the budget hotels organise day trips, and this is what I did. I nearly didn't get there - my hotel was happy to organise trips for 20 Dinar per person per trip, but only if they got four people to go each day, and we only just made it each time.


First stop - Umm Qais. Umm Qais is in the North West of Jordan, and is home to the ruins of the Roman city of Gadara. My guidebook says you can see Syria, Israel and the Palestinian Territories from Umm Qais, and there were terrific views there, but with my shoddy sense of direction I had no idea what I was looking at. The scenery was nice, whichever country it was.

One of the things I really loved about Jordan (it was also the case, to a lesser extent, in Turkey) was that the Roman ruins aren't 'fenced off' the same way they are in Italy (and the way Greek ruins are, in Greece). There were no guards, no 'keep out' signs, really nothing from stopping you from getting up close to the ruins. Umm Qais was really quiet - there was our party of four, and a couple of other small groups, and that was it.





The main street.








Checking my guidebook, I'm pretty sure the body of water in this picture is the Sea of Galilee.









Part two: the Desert castles.

I visited four castles, all of which are located in the east of the country. The closest we got to the Iraqi border was about 100ks, but I saw lots more poverty out there than anywhere else in Jordan. I don't know how the border between Jordan and Iraq is policed, or if it is at all, but I know there's a lot of Iraqi refugees in Jordan.

The desert castles were mostly built by the Umayyads around the 8th century, and used as retreats rather than fortified castles. They were later used as caravanserai (stops on the spice route), and in some cases used into modern times (Lawrence of Arabia used Qala'at al-Azraq as headquarters in WWI).




Qasr al-Kharana. Its totally isolated out in the desert, and its quite a sight. Its not particularly high, maybe slightly taller than a two storey building, but its more impressive as there's nothing around it at all.



The castle was quite basic in design, just a big central courtyard with rooms around the outside. The rooms were tiny though, and so dark.












A hunting lodge rather than a castle, Qusayr Amra is a World Heritage site. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but there are some amazing frescoes inside.

Unfortunately, flash photography is banned so all of my photos were taken with a long exposure and are therefore rather blurry. Also there was a big French tour group there when we were there, and the bastards kept getting in my way. Damn them.












Inside Qala'at al-Azraq. There have been buildings there since Roman times, but the present castle dates from the early Middle Ages.





Our driver told us that this door weighs a ton (actually a ton, not just a figure of speech) and can still be swung open and closed. He might have been pulling our collective leg, but there's really no way to prove him wrong.





Finally, Qasr Al-Hallabat. Originally built by the Romans, there was a big joint Jordanian/Spanish excavation project on when we were there. There's really not much besides ruins left, but there are a couple of big Roman mosaics.









I've never seen Roman mosaics that are as intact as these. One of the benefits of the ruins being out in the middle of the desert means they don't have hordes of tourists out there. They didn't even have these mosaics roped off, or have any staff there to stop people from walking on them. If these were in Europe you'd have to queue to get a glimpse of them.



Part three: Jerash.

Jerash was amazing, the best preserved ruins I've ever seen. The Roman city was called Gerasa and had a population of 15 000. According to my guidebook, excavations have been going on for 85 years but its estimated that 90% of the city is still unexcavated. What is there is incredibly beautiful.




Hadrian's Arch, built in CE 129 when Emperor Hadrian visited. He must have done a big tour of the Middle East, because I saw a fair few monuments to him.




Looking into the hippodrome. They do staged chariot races and gladiator shows for the tourists; I only saw them practising.










This plaza is oval-shaped, which is apparently unusual in Roman architecture.












Jerash refers to the ruins as well as the surrounding town. Its in a very pretty part of the country; even though its clearly desert there are heaps of olive trees and other greenery around.








And finally a picture of the most unlikely thing I saw on my trip: I was walking back towards the entrance gates, having spent a good three hours walking around the Jerash ruins. There was only one building left to see along the path, an amphitheatre. As I walked towards it I heard something that sounded like bagpipes. Telling myself not to be stupid, I kept walking, but soon heard a drum beating along with the bagpipe-like sound, and I thought I recognised the tune as a Scottish one. The closer I got to the amphitheatre the louder the music got, until I eventually walked in and saw this:





Three guys in keffiyehs playing Scottish tunes on the bagpipes. I watched them play a few, and then one of them asked us to stand while they played the Jordanian national anthem.

I didn't find out exactly why they were doing this, but it was very cool all the same.