Amman

Today was my last day in Jordan and the plan was to have another easy day and visit Amman.

The main and maybe the only tourist thing to do in Amman is to visit the Citadel

The Citadel is at the top of one of the many hills in Amman and the views are magnificent

You can also see the Roman Theatre

The city has been under different names over the years... and below are the names under which it has been known (together with the periods)

The most remarkable features were the temple of Hercules

Not much left...

And the Mosque

 As you can see it's still in a re-construction phase...

 As you can see below, the ceiling has been completely re-constructed

All that is well and good but probably the most remarkable thing about the Citadel is the underground stone channels for harvesting and saving as much water as possible.

The Citadel never had a natural spring and the only way to have water is by carefully collecting and storing rainwater. Not a drop was wasted and they built very sophisticated underground stone channels for that very purpose. These water channels and cisterns have been built and re-built over the centuries by different civilisations.

Small cisterns

And the largest kick-ass cistern

17.5m of diameter and the walls are 2.5m thick, apparently inside the walls were plastered so to prevent the water from filtering through the walls.

 

After this we went to have lunch to a place nearby Maria's which is always full of locals and it's a bit like a tapas bar in Spain...

On our way to the restaurant we saw this

They don't exchange money... they exchange MONY   :-)

The restaurant doesn't look very impressive...

But the experience in this place was a bit surreal...

You go in and get a seat... a few seconds later without saying a word someone passing by will casually leave some bread on your table as he continues his way towards another table...

Then someone who didn't speak a word of English took note of our order... and stuff started to appear on our table from different people walking in every direction. As they were passing by they would just leave stuff on our table as they continued towards the next table leaving more stuff there and so on and so forth...

Amazingly enough... the guy got our order spot on, we got exactly what we wanted!!... And we didn't even know the name of one of the dishes we wanted!!

Nothing like the international language of signs... and a few words here and there to make yourself understood.

If they saw you were running out of bread... more bread would just appear in a matter of seconds... without you moving a finger or telling anyone.

They had lots of it... everywhere...

We went for the falafels  which were quite nice

 Then for something we called "destroyed Spanish Omelette"

Because it just looks like someone was making a Spanish Omelette when some accident happened in the kitchen and that's what they came up with... Incidentally, this is the plate we didn't know how to order but we said "Batata" (which is Potato in Arabic) and the guy immediately knew what we wanted... :-)

Some humus to help with the bread...

And that was it... another tough day, eating like a king... :-)

Then in the afternoon we met up with Isabel for a drink and went home to pack as tomorrow I'm flying back to London...

Jarash and Ajlun

Today was the time to look at some of the historical places in Jordan and as the places we were planning on visiting weren't too far away from Amman, Isabel decided to join us and enjoy the day out with Maria and myself.

First we went to Jarash (also spelled Jerash). This is the site of the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa.

Jarash is considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Middle East.

Among the things you can find in this city are:

• More Corinthian columns that you've seen in your life.
• The Hadrian's Arch
• The circus/hippodrome
• 2 Temples, one dedicated to Zeus and another to Artemis
• The nearly unique oval Forum, which is surrounded by a fine colonnade,
• A long colonnaded street
• Two theatres (the Large South Theatre and a smaller North Theatre)
• Two baths
• An almost complete circuit of city walls.

Below is a general map of the area

The main entrance to the city is via the Hadrian's Arch (top left on the map right before the hippodrome)

This is one of the known largest arches in the Roman Empire.

The hippodrome is the smallest known hippodrome in the Roman Empire although it is the best preserved.

The horses would start the race from those arches at the end.

It's 165m long and 50m wide and could host up to 17,000 people.

The temple of Zeus

Temple of Artemis

The forum

The colonnaded street

The South Theatre

 Maria and Isabel by the main door

The North Teatre

While we were here in this smaller Theatre a guy with a pipe, dressed in arab just popped in and started playing some Scottish music
Completely surreal !!!

Then... as if that wasn't enough... another guy came in and started playing a drum...

Impossible to make that up!!!

There were also three churches with some interesting mosaics

Then it was time to eat so we went to a Lebanese restaurant that either Isabel or Maria knew about. I can't remember whose idea it was but what I do remember is how good it was. :-)

  At the parking they even put a blanket on the windscreen so the car wouldn't get too hot

The bread... amazing!!!

 Some humous while we waited for the food

And I was too hungry to take pictures of the food... O:-)   Sooorrry....

Then in the afternoon it was time to visit Ajlun castle, place of a very impressive Saracen castle built to protect the country against crusader's attacks from Al Karak

All the windows had arrowslits

Due to its location, the views allow to control the nearby valleys, Wadi Kufranjah, Wadi Rajeb and Wadi al-Yabes which controlled the routes from South Jordan to Syria.

Also, this castle had what they call machicoulation which is a whole on the ground leading to a lower level from which the defenders of the castle could pour boiling oil to the attackers underneath.

Those wholes you see on the below picture are precisely that

 And below are the same holes looking from below

 They also had catapults  and on the pictures below you can see "the ammunition"

And that was it for the day... a relaxing day ticking the boxes on the places to visit in Jordan...