Drive into Jordan, The Dacapolis (Jerash) and Amman (T)

Jordanian Flag

It was quite the experience to cross over into Jordan from Israel. Lots of security steps to go through. We walked across and had our luggage scanned, paid fees,  showed our past ports several times and finally boarded a Jordanian bus and met our new tour guide. A tourism police with a gun was on our bus for the whole  trip through Jordan. I was surprised to see such large mountains as we drove north of Amman in the fertile heights of the Gilead.

The mountainous region east of the Jordan River.  This area is called Gilead or The Mount of Gilead. It is mentioned many times in the Bible. This area was divided among the tribes of Gad, Manasseh and Ruben. Gen. 31:21,22 and 25, Numbers 32:40 and Deut. 3:12-13 are a few of the places in the Bible that you can find the word Gilead.

Jordanian Children

A home we saw from the bus as we drove through the Gilead region.

A MountainTown in Gilead

More of the Gilead Region

This man was making bread and cooking it in an outside oven outside the restaurant where we ate lunch.

 Artemis Restaurant for Lunch
Jordanians know how to fix delicious salads like the Israelis.
We had mostly Spanish people on our bus so they had a guide that spoke Spanish and we had an English speaking guide for just the five of us. Kristin is sitting by dad and her mother Jane is in the brown coat and her very good friend is next to her.  I admired these brave souls because they  rented a car in Israel and explored the sites on their own. They decided to join our tour group to see Jordan.  They were fun to get to know. Jane is an adventurous person and was excited to know we had gone to Calcutta and seen the children in Mother Teresa's orphanage because she had spent a year there helping to take care of the orphan children.             

It was thrilling to see this sight from the bus window.

The ancient city of Jerash(Gerasa) is one of the cities  of Dacapolis (Ten Cities) which the Romans built in the Middle East. These ruins are the best preserved Roman ruins in the region. .Jerash is 30 miles north of the capital of Jordan, Amman.

The South Gate of the ancient city Decapolis

             

The Cardo

                   

Colonnade

It is amazing to see ruins that are 2,000 years old.

This Jordanian Scottish Pipe Band performed for us in the South Theatre.  After they finished, I got a photo with the group.

                                           

Standing by the bag pipe  player is our Jordanian guide, James.

The south Theatre can seat more than 3,000 spectator.  

The theater has incredible acoustics. I spoke into one of these circles to Kristin who had her ear up to another circle clear across on the other side of the theatre.  It was amazing how she could hear every word I said even though I wasn't talking very loud.

These seats in the South Theatre are for important people because they have backs on the seats and this area is shaded in the afternoon.

Jordanians passing through the Roman Ruins

The Arch of Hadrian was built to honor the visit of Emperor Hadrian to Jerash in 130 AD

                 

The Hippodrome was used for horse and chariot races.

             

Sun set in Jerash

Our 5 Star Hotel Room
During our trip we were up graded to 5 star hotels to help make up the cost of  canceling out on our trip to Egypt. We couldn't get  a refund because we backed out to close to the start of the Egyptian trip. 

It was fun to see the Christmas decorations in the hotel.

                                                         

                     We traveled to Amman, the capitol of Jordan.  This city is the political, cultured and       commercial center of Jordan. A lot of multinational corporations set up regional offices in Amman. This city is located in a hilly area north-western Jordan

Jordanian Road Sign

There are a lot of cars in Amman and at this corner there is a special man that directs traffic. 

                                                                 

The people driving through this intersection do not obey the traffic lights but this man's hand signals  that cause the traffic  to move more smoothly.  He tried to retire but the people persuaded him to return to his job of telling drivers when to go through the intersection and when to stop to let others go through.

Amman is a modern city.

 A home we saw driving through Amman.

                                                                 

A  Jordanian License Plate 

The King Abdullah, Mosque in Amman built in 1989 as a memorial by the late King Hussein to his grandfather.  The mosque can house up to 7,000 worshippers inside and another 3,000 in the courtyard.

People waiting outside the Syrian embassy. 

The largest home in Jordan and is located in Amman.  It has 63 rooms with 8 people living in the house.