Jordan Part 3 - Madaba مادبا, Mt. Nebo جبل نيبو, and the Dead Sea ألبَحْر ألمَيّت
These three places were all pretty cool short day trips from Amman.Madaba is pretty much a tourist town and is best known for its collection of Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics. Checking these out, and old churches, are pretty much the only things to do in Madaba so don't go here if you're not historically inclined.
In addition to the mosaics themselves, some of the churches are pretty old and pretty cool to walk around in, they have pretty cheap entry fees, the city is easy to navigate in a cab (stock 1JD fare to anywhere around but you could easily walk it if it isn't too hot) and it all doesn't take very long.
There is a really awesome restaurant very close to one of the Orthodox churches that we checked out, it was a little on the expensive side but was absolutely worth every fil because it was in this really nice tree-filled courtyard with wooden tables and atmopshere abounding. And there was good hummous and grilled chicken.
After a late lunch we went to one last church before moving onto Mt. Nebo. I can't remember whether this was the church we saw last or one we saw earlier but the thing I liked about it was that it took me back to my Russian Orthodox roots. The Byzantine empire was an Orthodox one and so the imagery and layout of this particular church were very very familiar to me.
After the last church, we caught a cab to Mt. Nebo. This mountain is supposedly the place where God revealed the Promised Land to Moses and where Moses is supposedly buried (although apparently the accuracy of these suppositions are still being debated by historians).
At the top of the mountain (which is apparentl 817m above sea level though it didnt feel that high) you get the view of the Promised Land with a handy basic little map to point out all the biblical places we've come to know and love from The Bible. I believe the first reaction is usually "that patch of brown is the Promised Land? Hmm". Underhwelming, perhaps.
Another cool thing on Mt. Nebo is this stylised cross sculpture that was put up by an Italian sculptor some time ago. It cuts a fairly striking figure on top of the mountain.
The Mt. Nebo site also has a nice old church which is another memorial to Moses.
So after we finished at the mountain and went down (past the old Greek Orthodox pensioners who were making their last pilgrimage and the nuns out and about for some inspiration) planning to make tracks to the Dead Sea which was apparently around 12km away along a road leading directly from Mt. Nebo. The plan was to find a cheap cab or service, or hitch a ride with someone. After asking for advice from the Tourist Police who advised us to sit and wait, and noting that most of the cars were going the other way, back towards Madaba.
After sitting and waiting idly for around 10 minutes we somehow find ourselves sharing cigarrettes and Pepsi with the very friendly tourist police. They spoke almost no English, we spoke almost no Arabic, somehow we got by and had one of the funniest, most random converrsations I am likely to remember for a long time. The police were funny bastards, making fun of all the tourists, ogling all the girls walking past, making fun of the poor woman who was taking a driving lesson and managed to stall her car outside Mt. Nebo, making fun of the couple driving towards the Dead Sea (advising us not to try to hitch with them because they want to make out [this bit communicated by furious kissing noises] and wouldnt want us to watch).
After this broken arabic/english conversation which Saba and I somehow managed to understand between our fairly crappy Arabic (hers apparently, better than mine, according to the head tourist policeman), we decided to finally make tracks back to Madaba, and Amman, and leave Dead Sea for another day.
And we did go back to the Dead Sea a few days later and it was awesome!
We managed to catch the sunset (not really difficult given we are prone to waking up in the afternoon and being horribly late everywhere) and it was super beautiful. The Dead Sea is 420m below sea level and its shores are the lowest points on land earth. The Sea itself is something like 30% salt and has a whole bunch of other minerals and things, so it's supposed to be very good for the skin but horribly horribly painful for the eyes or any other abrasions you may have. It's also impossible to sink (despite Saba panicking the minute her feet left the bottom of the seafloor and attempting to drown herself).
The Dead Sea region is blanketed in hotels and resorts which you can stay at if you're rich, or pay a day fee to visit the private beaches of. There is also a public beach called Amman Beach which costs 5JD to enter. This is the one we went to as it was perfectly fine for our purposes.
Anyways after floating around in this for over an hour, we decided to find a way back to Amman (which is only 45 mins away by bus), managed to get a ride with a friendly cab driver (once again, named Ahmed) and hightailed it back. Below is a picture of me in one of my floating moments. Til the next post, gentlemen and women.
Labels: architecture, jordan, travel
posted by LX @ 3:54 AM
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