7 wonderfully intense days...

Amman

We set off to discover Amman (formerly Philadelphia), a typically Middle Eastern city, where, besides the omnipresent dust, you breathe that air of history, closely linked to religion, so deeply felt by its inhabitants...except that taking our first steps among its people already moves us...

We start from the Citadel, where, passing between the Temple of Hercules and the early medieval complex of Al-Qasr, we dedicate a visit to the small but fascinating archaeological museum...and we don't miss the marvellous views that the Citadel offers over the whole city (and consequently, photo after photo...) We then go down "into the valley" towards the lower city where the theatre, the odeon and the remains of the colonnade of the Roman forum captivate us with their age-old charm...We then dedicate the rest of the day to visiting the "modern" part of the city and then getting lost through streets and alleyways, blending in among smells, colours and passers-by so... Muslim...

In the evening, after having declined yet another few camels for Ila (honestly we're starting to give it some thought...) we throw ourselves into discovering Amman's nightlife...well, we end up in one of the few internet cafes in the city drinking a nescafe...but that's fine..

Jerash

Our second Jordanian day begins with a negotiation. It's incredible how in these countries all hotel owners have a cousin with a shop or a brother who's a taxi driver, or vice versa...and so it happens to us too...but the deal works out well for everyone, since for only E.30 each we rent a taxi and its driver for an entire week...not bad I'd say...so we welcome the "round one" (given his peculiar physical shape...) Waalidh... We then go to Jerash, an ancient city with imposing ruins from the Roman and Byzantine period. Absolutely not to be missed is a visit to the Arch of Triumph, the Forum and its oval plaza, the theatres, and the numerous temples and churches from the Byzantine period... This city, once part of the Decapolis, has such a suggestive charm that it leaves you speechless.... A mandatory stop for anyone in Jordan...

Desert Castles

Bright and early we set off with our Waalidh for our daily little outing, and today we'll focus on those castles built, or at any rate readapted to their new use, at the time when the Umayyad dynasty reached the peak of its power (first half of the 8th century)... luckily they're all far from the capital... Among the many worth remembering are Qasr Al-Hallabat, Qasr Al-Azraq (which also hosted the legendary Lawrence of Arabia), Qasr Amra and its well-preserved frescoes, and finally we enjoy a fantastic sunset from the roof of Qasr Al-Kharana, a castle completely immersed in the desert... The day was unforgettable, also because, driven by some kind of adventurous spirit, curiosity and, probably, a bit of recklessness too, during the excursion we convinced our Waalidh to push on as far as the border with Iraq, just to see what was there...

Well, apart from the noise of war planes, armored vehicles on the side of the road doing drills and (but who would have imagined it?!?) lines of trucks loaded with oil, there's absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. At least we checked......and through the city traffic we finally get back to Amman... poor Ilaria, her admirer and his camels are waiting for her...

The King's Highway

Always awake (but does he even sleep?) Waalidh is already there waiting for us... we leave Amman and take the road that runs the entire length of the country from north to south: the King's Highway. Along the way we make a few stops, starting with Madaba, a city of very ancient origins, mentioned in the Bible no less, where we visit the Orthodox Church of St. George, which houses inside a precious mosaic depicting an ancient map of Palestine... then leaving this little town, you can't help but notice the climate of extreme tolerance that exists here, where for centuries the Christian community has coexisted without problems with the Muslim one, and in the middle of the Middle East... watching TV, people often forget about places like this... So we leave Madaba and reach Mount Nebo, from where legend has it Moses first saw the holy land...

personally I'm not Christian, but I have to admit that a certain sacredness mixed with mysticism hangs in the air that surrounds this little mountain, and so, after a few minutes I'm led away by my companions immersed in a sort of trance, while I contemplate the view over Jericho, the Jordan River valley, and in the distance (but not too far...) Israel and the Palestinian territories... We then descend into the valley and opt for a little dip in the Dead Sea, where you discover, from the burning, cuts and little scratches you didn't know you had, and you try to swim, but more than just sitting on the water you can't do...in a moment of cynicism (my grandmother had better not hear me...), I wonder if this isn't where Jesus walked on water...

And so, after getting a bit muddy, we continue our journey toward Petra, stopping first though to visit the Crusader castle Al-Kerak (12th century)... beautiful and rather well preserved, it's definitely worth a detour... By now he's been driving for hours, poor Waalidh asks for help, and I myself offer to drive for a while, but the round Jordanian has the brilliant idea of making me drive up a very narrow mountain road with no lighting whatsoever. I flash one of my most fake smiles so as not to worry the crew and, praying, I drive... Safe and sound, at night we reach Wadi Musa, the base town for discovering the sacred city of Petra the next day... we end up, wouldn't you know it, in a hotel run by a cousin of Waalidh's (it doesn't matter what country in the world you're in, it always works like that...). It's clean, though, and they're as friendly as always.

And then in the evening, wouldn't you know it, they park us in the reception to watch "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"...

Petra

Being in Jordan and not visiting Petra?!?... off we go... Absolutely excited we walk toward Petra, and between one tourist trap and another, we finally manage to reach the entrance... After a nice long walk we arrive at the gates of the Siq, a natural corridor carved through the rocks about 2 km long. Few places in the world can stir the emotion you feel when, at a turn in the narrow gorge of the Siq, the towering facade of the "Treasury" suddenly appears before you, the most famous monument of Petra... maybe, distantly, I felt something similar to what the Anglo-Swiss explorer who brought this sacred city back to light felt in the early 1800s... And it's here that we spend the entire day, visiting the Treasury, the theater, the countless tombs, the lower city and the Deir, another iconic building of Petra (even though you have to climb small steps for more than an hour...

but it's absolutely worth it!...) This sacred Nabataean city is absolutely something wonderful, thrilling, certainly Jordan's greatest attraction... alone it would be worth the trip... unmissable!!! Still wrapped in the unnatural air you breathe in Petra, we head back to the hotel, asking my friends if from now on they'd mind calling me "Indy"...

The Wadi Rum Desert

With Waalidh already ready, we head even further south... this time in the direction of Saudi Arabia, as far as the road goes, exactly in the Wadi Rum desert. The rock formations and the very fine sand of an unusual color ranging from deep yellow to dark red are its main attractions, and on top of that you can spend the night sleeping in a Bedouin camp... fantastic!!! By jeep we reach the camp, where dinner and blankets await us... At sunset, a Bedouin boy we befriend takes us to the top of a small hill, from where, in an almost unnatural silence, we watch the sunset, transformed by the colors and the magic of this corner of the world into an experience as moving as it is unforgettable... After a night that was, to say the least, "on the chilly side," we spend the morning wandering by jeep through the desert, trying to "grasp" some of its secrets.

We meet and stop to talk with some locals traveling by camel, and we take advantage of breathtaking scenery... Then we return to reality and set off again, this time heading for Amman, where after one last night of negotiations for Ilaria...

...back home...

...in the morning we set off and return to Barcelona. Home and work... anything else to add?!?...well, one thing yes, Jordan, its people and the extraordinary wonders it has to offer are absolutely not to be missed... but to be lived with total intensity...