Dating from around 160 AD. Just a part of the impressive Roman remains at the Amman Citadel overlooking the city. Catching up with holiday photos.
Though the hotel bed was very comfortable, we had to turn off the aircon for a bit as it was well fierce. Breakfast buffet was exceptional with eggs cooked to order and everything else you could think of: fruit, cereal, bread, pastries, cheese, halva and trays of cooked meat and veg.
8.30 was the briefing meeting with our tour leader Saleh where Dave somehow managed to get himself volunteered to look after the kitty. All the participants introduced themselves and we found that a third of the group was one family - Gill celebrating her 60th with her partner, two sons and their partners, and her daughter. They proved to be a good laugh the whole trip.
It was an incredibly hot day unsurprisingly with not a cloud in the sky setting the pattern for the week - and by the end of the day, there were a few blisters and pink patches despite lavish use of sun cream and hats.
Saleh would regale us with interesting facts throughout our many coach trips. One interesting fact contributing probably to Jordan's continuing stability in a surrounding mess of instability is that Jordan has no oil so no one wants to bother it.
Our first trip was to Amman Citadel, impressive Roman remains on the highest part of the city including the striking temple of Hercules and a Byzantine chapel. There was also an interesting museum with all kinds of ancient artefacts including allegedly the oldest figures created by man dating from 8000-4000 BCE.
We travelled back into the city to visit the Roman theatre, a marvellous amphitheatre which had been visible from the citadel. It went up in steep rows but I couldn't get up to the top levels as the stairs were so high and steep. K, a budding actor, declaimed some Shakespeare from the stage in between the impressive bagpipe playing from a couple of local musicians.
Saleh took us for a walk through the downtown area, busy with food stalls and shops, scruffy mannequins standing guard outside. We stopped for falafels and also sugar cane water which was refreshing if odd. We watched the guy shovelling whole sticks of sugar cane into the juicing machine. Discovered that one of Gill's sons J and his partner K live up the road from us in Walthamstow.
An hour or so drive after to Roman Jerash stopping for lunch at Artemis tourist cafeteria, a buffet of pasta, salads and cooked aubergine plus nice desserts like lokma and rice pudding. Sat outside on the terrace with Hilary, Clare, Gill and Dave.
Saleh gave us a tour of the Roman city - an incredible range of remains over a huge area: an impressive entry in the shape of Hadrian's Gate, temples, a huge hippodrome. An intersection of roads marked the point where you could travel in all four directions towards the surrounding countries. Incredibly impressive was the 800m Cardo Maximus - the archetypal straight Roman road bordered with many extant columns and the Roman cart tracks still visible.
All the while we had views over the ordinary city, and at one point heard the duelling muezzins calling to prayer from all the mosques. We saw cats and also heard an amazing bird that sang. It seemed to get hotter, drier and dustier as the day wore on and we got through most of our water.
Exhausted after the official tour, we took a few more photos before making our way back to the café for ice cream and orange drink and wait in the cool for the coach.
Back in Amman, we decided to eat at the hotel, fish with rice, as we were too tired to walk to the recommended restaurant.
Cardo Maximus
https://365project.org/boxplayer/extras/2023-09-24
24 September 2023
Amman, Jordan
Wonderful capture