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Date Line Jordan - Friday, April
9
What
a wonderful day we have had, and quite long. It's 9 PM, and I am
once again in the bar where the electricity is better than
anywhere else in the hotel, and where I have the time and
space to spend an hour or so recalling the day's events in a
peaceful, contemplative environment!
Regrettably
I left my little notebook of today's travels in my room - or
so I pray.
Somehow as I gathered all other necessities (cords,
converters, etc), I must have left my notes on the foot of the
bed...So we
shall rely upon my memory.
Interestingly,
at breakfast this morning, it seemed that everyone had had a
relatively sleepless night - not that anyone seemed
particularly the worse for the wear. We all seemed to have
awoken in the vicinity of 3 AM give or take an hour and most
of us didn't truly get back to sleep after that. We all spoke of
hearing the call to prayers at 4:30 AM which most of us
thought, indeed hoped, was the 5:30 call so that we could soon
just get up!
Eventually though, it was time to get up, eat our
breakfast, and get on the bus. Off
to....embarrassingly without my notes I must think very hard to
remember. Ah yes
- it was off to the East desert to see the desert
castles.
We
watch the landscape change from tightly compressed, steep
hillsides to bumpy vistas - desert for sure, but not flat
sandy spaces.
Instead, like blackish three quarter inch gravel semi-packed in
dusty sand. It
turns out that this area has historically been wetlands at
least seasonally, and was a very important stopping place for
major migratory birds.
But at some relatively recent point the water was
diverted, having the effect of lowering the water table from
10 meters to over 100 meters, roughly as I recall. It seems that the
water is no longer being diverted and prayerfully some years
of future rains will restore the oases that were so
plentiful.
Alongside the 2 lane highway in the midst of a great
deal of nothingness one sees the regular occurrence of
concrete manhole covers - it turns out that these are access
manways to channels for fiberoptic cables which traverse the
desert!
The
3 castles we saw were quite diverse. The first was in
effect a caravansary - a substantial and safe place for
traders and travelers to stop and stay. The second site was an
8th century hunting castle for a caliph (or caliph
to be) from Damascus - this particular site is one of two
sites in Jordan on the World Historical Register (perhaps
those aren't the exact words, but remember my notebook is in
my room), the other being Petra. Our third castle is a
basalt castle known for its corbelled construction and for the
fact that Lawrence of Arabia wintered there in 1916 (or there
abouts, remember my notebook is not accessible to me). Do look up corbelling,
as I won't do a sufficient explanation, but I'll try
anyway. So
envison 2 parallel stone walls about 12 feet apart, and try to
figure out how to make 3 lengths of stone totalling about 18
feet, reach across the span Do that over and
over until you have a roof, then fill in the gaps with small
stones. Quite
amazing. Lunch
was at a roadside outdoor restaurant with upside down chicken
- we have the recipe - ask us to prepare it when we come
home!
The
afternoon was at the Citadel - an incredible site in the midst
of Amman, on one of the original 7 hills. Amman has grown so
much that there are now 14 or more hills. On the site of the
Citadel are excavations from the time of man first propagating
food through the various Bronze ages, Umayyan times, Byzantium
rule, and all the others whose names are in my aforesaid
notebook. Beneath
the Citadel, in the rift valley of Amman is another
ampitheater with several small museums. And in one of those
museums is a display of mosaics. The mosaic that caught
my eye, and claimed my heart, showed 2 partridges, one in a
cage and the other, outside the cage, but so close, and so
clearly devoted.
The explanation is that in Byzantine times the caged
bird is the symbol of the soul imprisoned in the human
body. I think
this may be the reason I came to Jordan.
Clearly
it is late and I must now compel the internet to convey this
message to our webmaster, Martin, improbably located at the
moment in China!
He in turn will work his wonders and convey this to you
in your various locales.
Tomorrow I will ask my travelling companions to offer
their contributions, so look for guest by-lines in upcoming
issues. Also
please be aware that we travel tomorrow to the Dead Sea and
will search for new internet access availability! Should access be
challenging, we will continue to journal our adventures and
convey them as technology permits.
There's
so very much I haven't told you - for example, our tasting
forays in Amman led by Zuhair - do ask us when we return/ Ask about our
discussions of shared Muslim / Christian beliefs, ask about
the 2 angels who sit one on each shoulder and record our good
and bad deeds, ask about the 5 questions that are asked upon
death - Who is your God, who are your prophets, what are your
beliefs, what did you do with your body, what did you do with
your money? Oh so
much to share.
Peace
to you and yours,
Ross,
the scribe
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