The Dead Sea & Petra

I apologize for my lack of blogging but life is quite boring when you’re in an intensive language program. I have managed to take two trips over the past few weeks.

The first trip was to the Dead Sea- the lowest place on earth. As we all know, you can float in the Dead Sea because of the high salinity. What you may not know is that your skin will not wrinkle in the Dead Sea- it’s quite amazing. Other than that, there’s not much to say about our trip. It’s relaxing, salty, and hot. We stayed at a nice resort and had a lovely time.

Our second trip was to Petra. Petra is one of the New Wonders of the World and it’s absolutely beautiful. It is a massive city built by the Nabataeans more than 2000 years ago. To enter the city you walk through a narrow canyon with huge rock walls.

What truly adds to the experience is the strange encounters with Bedouins. Sexual harassment is notorious in the Middle East but Jordan has fewer problems than most countries. In Amman we just get a lot of stares and the occasional comment. The harassment in the desert is significantly increased. Men will follow you, make overtly sexual comments, and offer free services in exchange for sex. We even heard some extremely obscene comments from young children- it was quite disturbing.

A lot of movies have been filmed at Petra so you might recognize it from Indiana Jones, Arabian Nights, or Transformers.

The Treasury





On a another note- I’ve decided to stay in Jordan until December. As I’m sure you can imagine, Arabic is extremely difficult so I’m going to increase my proficiency by staying another semester (Insha’Allah- God willing).

Ajloun Castle & Amman

Here’s a recap of a couple trips we’ve taken. Our first week here the school took us on a trip to Ajloun Castle in northern Jordan. The castle was built in the 12^th century as protection against Crusader attacks. We had a very knowledgeable tour guide who is an archeologist that has worked on the excavation of the castle.

The trip to the castle took us through rural Jordan. North of Amman there are hills filled with filled with olive trees. Ajloun sits on a mountain (Qalaat al Rabad). On a clear day there are views of the Dead Sea, the Jordan valley, and Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee). Unfortunately, there was too much haze on the day that we were there for a clear view.

A few days later my roommates and I went to downtown Amman. Downtown is much older than the neighborhood we live in so it feels like another city. Sitting on top of a hill are the Roman ruins of the Citadel. The ruins are quite extensive with tons of little rooms to explore. Early Neolithic pottery has been found at the Citadel, making Amman one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited places.

A short walk down the hill you can see the ruins of a Roman Amphitheater. Known as the Odeon, it was built in the 2^nd century for musical performances. The acoustics are supposed to be so good that someone standing at the top of the amphitheater can hear another person whispering at the bottom.  We did not try this- probably because we were so concerned with getting down without killing ourselves. The steps are extremely steep so coming down from the top is a bit worrisome.