Ajlum Castle - This huge fortress was built by Izz al-Din Usama in AD 1184-1185. The fortress is considered one of the very few built to protect the country against Crusader attacks from Karak. It controlled the three main passages that led to it (Wadi Kufranjah, Wadi Rajeb and Wadi al-Yabes), and protected the communication routes between south Jordan and Syria. The castle is complete with a moat albeit dry as original design, about 10 metres deep. (Wikipedia)
Next we drove about 30 minutes South to Jerash. It was a truly amazing sight, unbelievably large and again full of history. Definitely, next in line after Petra. When we were done we tried to buy a coke and bag of chips. The price was 2JD which is about $3US. So our driver took us to a local store and we paid 5JD for 3 sodas, 3 bags of chips and a big bag of roasted pumpkin seeds. The price differences here are amazing. We experience the same in Dubai. If they think you are a visitor you pay double or triple the price. The haggling is sometimes daunting.
Jerash is known for the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, also referred to as Antioch on the Golden River. Jerash is considered one of the most important and best-preserved Roman cities in the Near East. It was a city of the Decapolis. Jerash was the home of Nicomachus of Gerasa one of the greatest mathematicians in human history. Nicomachus of Gerasa is known for his works Introduction to Arithmetic. (Wikipedia) How cool is that?
Elle taking pictures of herself. Our budding photographer.
Dani and her ant. The ants in Jordan have very long legs. The picture doesn't show it very well however.
Then we drove back to Amman and visited the Citadel and the Roman amphitheatre. The girls enjoyed it, but were getting tired of seeing ancient sites. The ancient name for Amman is Philadelphia.
The image on the right is one of the dead sea scrolls... amazing!
It was getting late and we had not eaten lunch so our driver took us to Pizza Hut near our hotel. The experience was pretty much normal except at the very end. The girls and I left early to walk across the street to buy a bottle of water. Larry stayed behind and paid the bill. As he got up to leave he was SHOCKED that a single woman sitting at a table next to us reached over and took the last piece of uneaten pizza on the pan and THEN the family sitting on the other side took the half eaten pizza from Dani’s plate. I guess it is a good lesson to us that we waste too much.
Later after we got back to the hotel the girls were acting squirrely (a term that my mother always used when I was little). They were lying on the floor next to me laughing their hineys off and could not bring themselves to tell me what they were laughing about. Finally they told me that they had been shooting spitballs for the past 20 minutes at Larry and I. It was pretty funny!
