Author: Keegan

AHLAN WA SAHLAN TO JORDAN!

( Ahlan wa sahlan in Arabic means Welcome)

Our arrival to Jordan started out great because our airline (Turkish Airline) had the BEST airplane food EVER! Wait, can you hear me?? I said it had the BEST airplane food EVER!!! (I highly suggest you to take this airline when/if you ever go to Jordan). So, now we are in Jordan, yes the Middle East, and we have a guide so we don’t have to think about where we are going to go and how we are going to get there! On our first day we went to Jerash, Ajlun and Amman. In Jerash and we had a local tour guide who showed us around.  When you enter Jerash there is a huge arch to welcome Emperor Hadrian that was built in 129 A.D.  It’s a beautiful stone arch – sadly Hadrian died before he came to Jerash so he never got to see the arch they made for him.  While we were there we walked on a street that horse-drawn carriages rode on like a lloooonnngggg time ago and you could see where they rode because they left indents on the street. We also saw a theatre. In the theatre there was a certain spot that echoed so everyone could hear and if you stepped out of the place there would be no echo. The type of stone and how they made the theater was the reason it had that great sound system.  So it was pretty cool!  There were musicians there that played some traditional music for us.  We learned that the theater is still used today for concerts.  What I liked the most were the ruins for a temple specifically for Zeus the King of the Gods.

Hadrian's Arch

This is a picture down one of the main colonnaded streets

Here's one of the indents from the carriages I told you about

Here's the entrance to the temple of Zeus. You walk up the stairs and go a long away again until you hit more stairs, it was a huge temple.

This structure was off one of the main roads - people lived in Jerash over 6500 years ago.

In the amphitheater this musician played for us and then grabbed my dad and started dancing with him...awkward.

Jerash was huge, it seemed like we walked forever.

The columns were amazing. Our guide put a spoon in a crack on the bottom of one of the columns and moved the huge column with his hands. The spoon started moving up and down, they made these columns sturdy enough for very high winds.

We had a great time in Jerash!

We also went to Ajlun, north of Amman, which is a HUGE castle! We were able to explore the castle – it’s amazing how much is still in place after all that time.  The castles are always cool inside because the stones keep the temperature down.  I always wonder how they made these castles way back then.

Inside the Ajlun Castle - it was built in 1184 A.D.

Another shot inside the Ajlun Castle - it was huge and almost everywhere were perfect places to make a movie

One of the great views from the Ajlun Castle - back then it was used to watch for enemy attacks

The hotel we stayed at was in Amman and Amman is Jordan’s capital. We saw ruins at the Citadel and one was the Temple of Hercules built between 162-166 A.D.  We also saw ruins for an amphitheater. It was a full day but it was cool to see all the ancient ruins.  While at the citadel in Amman we ran into a lot of school kids – they were on break from testing in the morning.  Other than the girls wearing headscarves they seemed like anyone you would meet anywhere else.  They actually were really friendly and kept saying “hello, hi” to us. They asked my mom to take a picture of them all together with their cell phone, they were very happy teenage girls and they said they loved the U.S.

Amman, Jordan

Temple of Hercules - much bigger than this picture shows

That's what's left of a hand and elbow from a huge Roman-Greco statue

That's me and Mom running to check out a view of Amman and the ruins from the Amman amphitheater

The Jordan Valley and the ruins of the Amman Amphitheater

Here are some fun facts about Jordan:

1. Did you know that when kids go to school they learn… all at public school

A. The Torah- Jewish

B. The Bible- Christian

C. And the Koran- Muslim

2.  Did you know that Amman is also known as Philadelphia?

Amman means the city of brotherly love.

3. Do you know how Arabic is read and written?

From right to left.  The binding on the magazine in our hotel was on the right.

By for now!

Keegan