Jordan by www.born2travel.it

The story

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02. 12. 2007 Amman (JORDAN)

We land in this mysterious city. From above, only a few lights... We are in Jordan, what a thrill! These are the places where Jesus lived. In these days we will cross many mystical places, heard so many times while reading the Bible or the Gospel or our parish priests' sermons during Mass... I, who am a bit ignorant on the subject, today can still tell little, but I will know more during our tour; after all, travelling also means learning. Amman welcomes us like an Arab Cancun. Plenty of McDonalds, KFC, Burger King with the characteristic colourful signs written in Arabic. Jordan is a pro-Western nation. King Hussein, architect of the blood-soaked September of 1972 in which he had thousands of Palestinians massacred, was saved only thanks to American support. It was his son who calmed tempers: Abdullah, by marrying the beautiful and noble Palestinian Rania.

A diplomatic marriage? I don't know; I only know that the current queen of Jordan is marvellous! 03. 12. 2007 Umm Qeis (JORDAN) We visit the town of Umm Qeis (biblical name: Gadara). From here we could admire the Golan Heights and in the distance the Sea of Galilee. A pity that I don't know the sacred texts, I would have appreciated this visit even more. This town, now uninhabited, preserves the remains of two ancient civilisations: the Roman and the Byzantine. There were Roman amphitheatres, Byzantine mosaics, even the remains of a church... From here we proceed to Jerash (the old Gerasa), along roads with nothing but ruins, dirt and destruction. What an ugly sight! We stop to visit a small olive press... A spectacular olive oil... What a scent! That golden colour... I imagined, with my mouth watering a little, a slice of warm bread and a drizzle of that oil...

I got such a craving that, once at the hotel, I had a big plate of green salad prepared with olives floating on that oil. So good! Natural things are always the best. Jerash was a mix of Luxor and Pompeii. Very large, also full of remains from the Roman period and with the whole white town perched on a hill as a backdrop. Beautiful are the Cardo, the oval plaza, the Nymphaeum, the Temple of Diana (or Artemis). Every now and then you could hear the call of the "muezzin" from the minaret, which made the exploration of the site even more unforgettable. Almost all the houses are built with blocks of white stone that come from the many Jordanian quarries. Back in Amman we try to organise a visit to the Holy Land by contacting various local travel agencies. What an adventure... In the late afternoon, by taxi, we go to the centre. How lovely to stroll along the city avenues... Amman.

Just the name fascinates and moves me. When I think of it, I remember when I was a child and my father used to quiz me on capital cities. "The capital of Jordan?" - "Amman". And now here I am! How strange to walk among people with red checkered "kefia", veiled women, some even with the impressive black burka, near shops selling gold and displaying it as if it were sausages outside a butcher's, without armoured doors or guards... After all, no one steals here, or they'd cut off your hands! Only the "suq" (the Arab market) disappointed me; I expected something more romantic instead of the jumble of little shops, all strictly displaying portraits of King Hussein or Abdullah in the most varied poses...

04. 12. 2007 Qasr Al-Kharanah (JORDAN)

[Nick]: Amman is entirely built on seven hills (like Rome), now it counts nineteen, and there are also some areas inhabited by Palestinian refugees. Yesterday in Gadara I was struck by an inscription left near a Roman tomb... It read these lines: "To you who pass here today... I yesterday was like you and you tomorrow will be like me... so enjoy yourself"! They already knew it in Roman times, and yet today, in 2007, there are still people who haven't understood it... This morning we visited Bethany, the place where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist; the site is nothing exceptional but it is moving for its historical-religious significance. We were five metres from the border with Israel marked by the course of the Jordan river. Afterwards we went for a swim in the Dead Sea. Its salinity is 33%, what a strange feeling the forced floating.

The water was quite cold and I had neither a towel nor anything dry to change into! But I certainly could not let such an opportunity slip... In the land of Sodom and Gomorrah we undressed and plunged into the water... I immediately thought of when I was a child and saw a photo in a travel brochure: a gentleman floating comfortably on his back reading a newspaper, almost as if on an armchair. We did it too and had great fun. In the afternoon we reached some caravanserais: "Qasr Al-Kharanah", located on the road that goes into the heart of the Middle East. In the past it was a very important point, a resting place, a "motel", to use a more modern term, for the camel drivers heading to Persia. It was exciting to see the signs indicating the border with Saudi Arabia (50 km) or with Iraq (250 km).

A few hundred km from us there is a bloodiest war! Driving along that long strip of asphalt in the middle of the desert, the same one that Western journalists drove along when, during the two Gulf wars, they tried to enter Iraq through Jordan... [Nick]: Today I had confirmation that Jordanian taxi drivers are too much! Tonight's told us that he had been in Germany as an illegal immigrant thanks to a visa and false documents bought in Czechoslovakia for 1000 euros... He had also been to Oslo and showed us all the photos, which, by the way, he displayed in the taxi! He had no idea where our hotel was and stopped 800 times to ask for directions, offering us a free Amman by night tour!