Christian Hajj

I took another day trip with Susan today, to the nearby town of Madaba. The town itself has a large, healthy Christian minority, but we took two side excursions in addition: to Mount Nebo, the site of Moses's death, and to Bethany-upon-the-Jordan, the site of Christ's baptism. Susan joked that, because of the religious significance of these two places, we were embarking on Christian Hajj.

I'm not particularly religious, so I of course came to the sites with a very different perspective from the many tourists at the sites who were no doubt devout Christians. I mentioned afterwards to Susan that neither place was particularly impressive (especially compared to our trip last week), but both were very interesting to see. 

The view from Mount Nebo

Mount Nebo was the first stop. Mentioned in the Bible, it is reputed to be the place from where Moses glimpsed the Promised Land, and also where he died. There are ruins of a church dating from the 4th century, but they were under restoration and so were off limits. The view of the Promised Land was also a disappointment - haze blocked all but the closest sites, marking my third haze-obscured panoramic view in Jordan. Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan was also sad. The area has only been open since the late 1990s, after the Jordanian-Israeli peace agreement allowed the land mines to be cleared from the area. We took a guided tour of the area, saw the ruins of a church marking the reputed exact spot of the baptism, and had an opportunity to head down to the river's edge. But decades of environmental degradation and poor management of water resources had taken their toll. The once-mighty Jordan was reduced to a stagnant green trickle of a river, and the baptism site itself was bone dry. I warily stuck a finger into the river, and watched in horror as those in my group washed their hair and faces with the putrid water. 

So while neither site was impressive or awe-inspiring, both were quite thought-provoking. I'm always skeptical of archaeological sites that claim direct ties with biblical history - and the more certain the claimed connection, the greater my suspicion. I simply don't believe that modern archaeology can to discover with any certainty the locations of events that, even if they happened, wouldn't have left any archaeological evidence. Can we pinpoint with certainty the location where Jesus removed his robe before baptism? Our guide certainly thought he could, based on the ruins of the church that post-dated the baptism by centuries. Mount Nebo's claim to be the place where Moses stood, looked, and died rests on the ruins of the 4th century church - itself built hundreds of years after the event would have taken place. I'm not convinced that 4th century Christian clergy did the proper due diligence to make sure they were building on the right mountain. Mount Nebo is surrounded by other peaks, a few of them higher - might they have been wrong?

What I saw at these sites was similar to other biblical/archaeological sites I've seen across the Middle East. These sites are advertised as the "exact spots" of biblical events with great certainty, while the evidence supporting these claims is rarely elaborated. I climbed Mount Sinai in Egypt, which possesses deep religious significance for all Abrahamic faiths. Yet this mountain's claim to be "the" Mount Sinai is tentative at best. The location has moved throughout the centuries, different religious sects disagree on which mountain is the biblical Sinai, and modern scholars dispute the mountain's claim for many reasons.  Yet this didnt stop the Egyptian tourism industry from hyping the peak's religious significance - I even saw a bush that was supposedly descended from the famous Burning Bush of the Bible.  In Israel, there are many sites that claim to be the ruins of biblical places or of the ancient Jewish kingdoms. The certainty with which these claims were made just made me more suspicious of their authenticity. 

The (once) Mighty Jordan River

In both places, archaeology was being exploited for different goals. In Egypt, the government valued the tourist revenue from pilgrims flocking to see "the" place where Moses received the Ten Commandments. In Israel, much archaeology is undertaken with the clearly political goal of emphasizing the ancient Jewish presence in the region, and thus the Israeli claim to the land today. 

I think this is sad. It cheapens archaeology, by requiring that its findings fit into pre-prescribed conclusions, and harms its credibility by forcing archaeologists, like my guide today, to make unsupportable claims about a site's significance. In my view, it also cheapens, rather than strengthens, Israel's right to exist; Israel should exist for many compelling, important, and currently relevant reasons, not simply because there was an ancient Jewish civilization on the same site. And, I believe, this type of biblical archaeology cheapens faith. Religious people don't need their faith buttressed by dubious archaeological evidence - their reasons for belief go far deeper than stones, pillars, and ruins. But when archaeologists come forward with weak claims of direct biblical significance for their finds, it creates the impression that religious belief is resting on these unimpressive foundations. 

Ignoring my skepticism and the lackluster beauty of the two sites, I still had a nice time. We saw some nice countryside, as well as cool mosaics in Madaba, which was a neat little town. I managed to haggle our taxi ride down to 20JD from a start of 50JD, a minor personal triumph. And, to celebrate her last night in Amman, Susan agreed to take me out for margaritas and Mexican food at the Intercontinental Hotel. Hard to argue that any day that ends like that is a bad one. 

Jerash Report, and Photos

Yesterday's trip to the ruins at Umm Qais and Jerash was great. Unbelievably hot, but great. Susan and I improvised most of our transportation, with a patchwork of minibuses and taxis, but everything turned out safe and relatively quick. Despite quirky internet, I was able to upload my pics here. Some highlights of the trip:

• Scrapping our plans to travel by fancy motorcoach once they sent us to the wrong station at 7:30 AM, opting instead for the cheaper, more informal minibus network. 
• Arriving at Umm Qais remarkably painlessly, and having the deserted site to ourselves for about half an hour.
• Scrambling through Roman theaters, Byzantine churches, and an Ottoman village built from the stone of the two older civilizations.
• Gazing out at the Golan Heights and Sea of Galilee, wishing that our itinerary included a swim.
• Chatting with an old man at the bus stop who, after living for 15 years in Germany, spoke great Arabic and great German, but no English. I found my German vocabulary from years of voice lessons to be a little bit useful.
• Hitching a ride from Irbid to Jerash with a friendly off-duty Jordanian military officer, saving us an hour's wait while the bus filled up. The air conditioning in his car was most welcome.
• The all-you-can-eat buffet at a restaurant just outside of Jerash, featuring traditional hummus and mansaf, as well as less-traditional pasta with meatballs and marinara sauce.
• A surprisingly empty Jerash - tour groups came and went, but we had plenty of time for pictures at empty monuments.
• Overhearing the Jordanian Bagpipe Ensemble practicing in one of the site's theaters.
• Watching a local guide move a stone pillar with a metal spoon - apparently, an earthquake set the standing pillars off-balance and made them incredibly easy to wobble back and forth.
• Testing the acoustics at the empty North Theater, performing for a crowd of zero.
• Consuming three ice cream cones, as well as water in one day than I went through during all of Petra
• Communicating smoothly for the entire trip. My spoken Arabic isn't great by any stretch of the imagination, don't get me wrong. But I got directions, chatted with drivers, bargained for souvenirs, and even defended myself against an attempted scamming taxi driver, all in Arabic comprehensible enough to be understood. Baby steps... 

I'm now looking at less than two weeks left in Jordan. It's been a great run, but the little annoyances are quickly adding up. Ramadan starts in the middle of the week, so I am looking forward to that new experience - I'll write more once I have exciting news. 

Heading North

Susan and I are taking a road trip tomorrow. It's wicked hot in Amman and, with two weeks left before I head home, I'm running out of time to get out and see the country.

We'll be heading to Jerash and Umm Qais for a day trip. Both were once important Roman cities, and Jerash supposedly has some of the best preserved Roman ruins in the world. We passed Jerash on our way to Ajloun earlier this summer... but I think it deserves more than a drive-by viewing. Umm Qais is smaller and more remote, but this also means that it isnt going to be teeming with tourists like Jerash most likely will be.

Public transport to Umm Qais is a bit iffy, so I will hope that my remedial speaking skills hold up under pressure. I'll also do my best for some nice photos, but with my camera, I wouldn't cross my fingers...

Petra Photos

For anyone plugged into Facebook, the Petra album is old news. But for everyone else, I just posted my Petra pics online, and you can check them out here. No need for a Facebook account to view them.

Just keep in mind that I had to upload these one by one, with about 2 minutes for each upload... so you'd better enjoy them.

Petra Notes

Finally getting around to writing about my Petra trip. In a word, it was fantastic. Though I tried to arrange a group trip down with some classmates, those plans fell through and I ended up spending most of the time alone. Still, the desert scenery and the ruins were well worth the travel and were truly unforgettable.


Some Highlights:

• The very bearable weather and the surprisingly light crowds. I never felt like I was dying, and had a lot of the most spectacular vistas to myself.
• The walk through the narrow cavern, or Siq, to the city itself. The geological formations in there were fantastic - I could have gone home happy even after seeing just that. 
• Hiking up to the High Place of Sacrifice with some Qasid folks, and then returning down via another path through a bunch of cool tombs. Again, totally empty, except for myself and the other students. 
• Meeting up with some local archeology students after the Qasid people went home. We chatted over dinner and met up in the park again the next day - they do excavation and old things full-time, so they certainly added a new perspective to my trip.

• Watching five wedding processions drive by our restaurant on Friday night, horns blaring.
• Realizing that my ATM card was not working, threatening to put me on starvation rations for the remainder of the trip.
• Having my dad fix said problem with the ATM card, giving me plenty of cash to spend on whatever I wanted.
• Foolishly blazing my own arduous trail up above the Royal Tombs, to the summit of the mountain into which they were carved. From here, I could look down on the High Place of Sacrifice, and also to the Treasury facade. Had this all to myself. I would have been pretty screwed if I'd broken an ankle or something, but I got home just fine. 
• Finding a stone staircase back down from said mountaintop, and realizing that my arduous hike up could have easily been avoided.

• Hiring a Bedouin guide, Abdullah, and his donkey, Michael Jackson, for a ride up to the splendidly isolated Monastery. The ruins were of course nice, but the mountain scenery was the closest this planet will ever come to Avatar's Hallelujah Mountains. Breathtakingly beautiful. 
• Gin & Tonic and Dinner at the ritzy Movenpick Hotel in downtown Wadi Musa. A perfect way to relax, especially with the Swiss ice cream bar afterwards. 
• Being the first person in the park on Sunday morning, and getting the entire place to myself for 15 minutes. Silent, deserted, colored by the sunrise... and I may have even snuck into the Treasury to check it out before the guards arrived. 

The major bummer was realizing that my piece of cr*p camera couldn't begin to capture the beauty of everything I was seeing. I'll post more pictures on Facebook eventually, and link to them here, but you'll just have to trust me when I say that my pictures don't do this place justice. 

Petra Plans

An email from Qasid yesterday notified us of a surprise day off next Sunday, giving us an unplanned 3-day weekend. I threw together plans for a quick trip down to Petra, where I will be until Sunday evening. There's a large contingent of Qasid folks heading down, so while I'm traveling solo on the Jordanian equivalent of the Bolt Bus, I will meet up with some familiar faces once I arrive.

I'll post pictures and news upon my return.

Weekend Adventures

This being my first weekend without early arrivals and a crippling time change, I went back into central Amman to do a bit of exploring.

Amman, though much cleaner and more organized than Cairo, is far less fun to wander around. I'm further from the downtown, so any trip in requires paying for a cab. Amman is a much newer city - it didnt become important until the 20th century - so there's very little historic architecture aside from the few ancient ruins. In Cairo, there was always a chance that I'd wander into an old market, or a 1,000 year old mosque, or the towers of the ancient city walls. I wont find any of this in Amman.

I started at the Souq Jara, which is a weekly open-air crafts market near first circle. It was clean and well-organized: nothing like Khan al-Khalili. I found a cool stand that was selling old Arab coins. I browsed extensively and ended up buying some from Mandatory Palestine and Syria, and also from Lebanon and Hashemite Iraq. The stand also had packs of old Arab-Iranian postage stamps, which I bought, along with some old Saddam dinars from Iraq (I bought the latter as a curiosity, and not out of any respect for the former leader, just so we're clear).

Afterwards, I did head into Downtown - the Balad - and spent a couple hours wandering. The atmosphere is markedly different from the western half of the city. It was crowded and hectic on Friday, and I ran into the fruit and vegetable market as well as a huge street market selling shoes, clothes, jeans, and used furniture. I felt lots of energy, crowds, and hustle and bustle - all of which is absent from the area where I live. It was interesting to see, but there really wasn't anything "cool" - no old sights, or mosques, or monuments, or anything that would bring me back a second time.

I ended my walk by the Roman Theater downtown, which may be a venue for the Harvard Glee Club's tour to the Middle East in a few years. In total, I spent four hours and about fifteen dinars. I also finally saw the truth of my roommate's warning that "there's just nothing there" in Amman's downtown.

Having milked Amman for most of its touristic value, I'm putting together my to-do list for the rest of the summer:

• Day Trip to Salt, the administrative center of the region during Ottoman times. Supposedly, this city has all the old architecture that Amman lacks
• Bus trip to Wadi Rum, a beautiful desert area in the south of the country
• Rent a car and visit the crusader castles of Karak and Shobak, via the King's Highway
• Weekend at Petra, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. People are already making plans for trips down, so I may just join up and make some new friends. 

So, hopefully the most exciting excursions are still ahead of me. The thrills of downtown Amman certainly set a low bar...