Jordan
Jerash

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    • Day 208

      Gerasa, Teil 1

      March 27, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

      Nach einer etwas unruhigen Nacht an der Zitadelle in Amman machen wir uns zur zweit wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten in Jordanien auf:
      „Gerasa oder Jerasch liegt im Norden Jordaniens und etwa 40 Kilometer nördlich von Amman. Die antike Stadt Gerasa war Teil der sogenannten Dekapolis.“ Die meisten Gebäude stammen aus dem 1 bis 7 Jahrhundert n.Chr.

      Auf einem riesigen Gelände finden sich 2 Amphitheater, ein Zeus-tempel, mehrere Kirchen und gut erhaltene Prachtstraßen, wovon der Cardo Maximo 800 m lang ist. Der Hadriansbogen ist der größte erhalten Triumphbogen der Römer. Er ist 21m hoch und 25m breit.
      Das Hippodrom ist das kleinste, aber auch besterhaltenste römische Zirkusbau.

      Eine Besonderheit ist auch das ovale Forum. Seine Maße betragen 90 × 80 Meter. Das Oval ist mit Kolonnaden gesäumt und untypisch für die Römer, die lieber geometrische Formen verwendeten.

      Gerasa ist auf jeden Fall ein Besuch wert, wobei die Ausgrabungen im Amman wir beeindruckend er fanden.
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    • Day 208

      Gerasa, Teil 2

      March 27, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

      Es ist Frühling und wir haben es genossen durch eine blühende Landschaft zu laufen.

      Ansonsten gab es zum Frühstück frische Pancakes vom Bäcker. Scheint hier zum Ramadan zu geben, hatten wir vorher noch nicht gesehen.

      Nach der Besichtigung machen wir noch weiter, jetzt Richtung Osten zu den Wüstenschlössern.
      Zum Übernachten fahren wir bis Qasr al-Hallabat.

      Die Besichtigung machen wir morgen, heute sind die Beine schon schwer.
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    • Day 3

      Naturreservat Aljun

      March 11 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      Jordanien hat mehr zu bieten als nur Wüste auch grünes Land. Heute haben wir die Burg von Aljun aus dem zwölften Jahrhundert besucht. Sie thront auf einem 1240 Meter hohen Berg und wurde von einem Neffen Saladins erbaut. Mit fünf Stockwerken bietet sie
      beeindruckende Ausblicke.
      Danach folgte eine Wanderung durch die Eichen- und Olivenbäume des Aljun-Naturreservates, die Heimat des Propheten Elias.
      Am Ende Tages haben wir noch die Ruinen der größten
      byzantinischen Kirchen Jordaniens angeschaut, sie war zu Ehren Elias errichtet wurden.
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    • Day 7

      Jerash-ic Parks

      March 2 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

      It's our final day in Jordan, and we wanted to explore the castles and ruins north of Amman. We found a bus company that makes a daily run to the region and back, so we purchased seats for a day trip.

      We drove two hours north to see Ajloun Castle, a hilltop fortification built to drive out the Crusaders. It was interesting to visit a Muslim castle, after seeing the Christian Crusader castles of Shobak and Kerak. And color me happy to have a little minibus to drive me up that hill, so I didn't have to slog up another 500 stairs.

      Ajloun Castle is much like Kerak Castle: Seven storeys of rooms, a massive rooftop overlook, all made of cold stone and completely empty except for exhibit lighting. We spent about an hour viewing it in its entirety, and had an hour left to kill before the bus left. So we sat for an hour in a vendor's small tent in the parking lot and had tea with the many stray ginger cats.

      The bus made a quick lunch stop, where I tried a local Jordanian beer called Petra. Alcohol is not commonly served in Jordan, so I was surprised to discover that Jordan has its own beer. I was also surprised to see that it cost six dinars on the bill, which was about three times the cost of each of our salads.

      After lunch, the bus headed to the ruined city of Jerash, the finest archaeological site in Jordan. It's an extraordinarily well-preserved Greco-Roman city, first settled in 7500 B.C., and often called the "Pompeii of the Middle East." It's also huge. Like, literally the size of a small city (which, duh, is exactly what it was). I was unaware of Jerash's massive size, and when told by the bus driver that we had ninety minutes to visit, assumed this would be plenty of time.

      It was not.

      It takes a fifteen-minute walk through the massive handicraft and souvenir pavilion and several structures just to reach the ticket office. Those "structures" include a 2nd-century arch built for Emperor Hadrian- he of the famous wall- and a huge hippodrome (horse and chariot racing stadium) that holds daily races. I had assumed this was the entirety of the Jerash site until we turned a corner and arrived at the actual entrance. That's correct: Jerash is so huge, and so overfilled with archaeological riches, that Hadrian's Arch and the entire hippodrome are open and free to the public.

      Jerash is astonishing. And with just ninety minutes to view it, it's also overwhelming. The city's colonnaded streets- so pristine that you can still see CHARIOT RUTS in the flagstones- go on for over half a mile. And along that half mile is a massive Nymphaeum (decorative fountain), the Temples of Zeus and Artemis, a central 90m by 80m plaza, a cathedral, TWO amphitheaters, baths, a forum, city walls, and statuary. We of course wanted to see all of it, so we ended up running up and down MORE F*CKING STAIRS for the entire ninety-minute visit. We arrived back at the bus precisely on time, but wishing we'd had an extra hour. Jerash was definitely a highlight of this trip.

      For our final night in Jordan, we met up with a former Expedia colleague and his wife for a fantastic dinner at Sufra. Last night was elevated Levantine elegance at Fakhreldin; tonight, Sufra served Jordanian classics in a relaxed dining room, cooked to perfection. I discovered that I love fatteh, a scrumptious dish of eggplants, pistachios, tomatoes, and crispy flatbread. Faisal was so pleased that we loved the food that he insisted we go get kunafa for dessert, a bizarre cheese, wheat, and honey street food that is inexplicably considered "dessert." It's more like late-night stoner food, and after the massive Sufra meal, putting that in my stomach was not one of my wisest choices. I can sense another food hangover tomorrow.

      So this ends our Jordan adventure- we fly home tomorrow morning.
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    • Day 4

      Jerash

      December 5, 2022 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      This afternoon we explored the ancient Roman city of Jarakesh. Although there is a newer city, this part is protected and cannot be built on. We saw the massive gates and hippodrome. After watching a bagpipe performance we had some free time to explore the archeological site. Miki climbed to the top of the amphitheater with Mary and I stayed at the bottom - my legs would have become jelly.

      After that, we climbed to the Zeus temple and a local took some epic pictures for us (for a tip of course!). There are still parts of the sight that are being restored while some are still being uncovered.
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    • Day 2

      Ausflug Teil#1: Jerash

      September 30, 2023 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

      "Die antike Stadt Gerasa war Teil der sogenannten Dekapolis; die gut erhaltenen Ruinen sind heute eine Touristenattraktion." Dem ist eigentlich nichts hinzuzufügen. Details hält Wikipedia bereit:https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerasa
      Interessant fand ich auch, das die neue, moderne Stadt nicht irgendwo ganz anders entstanden ist, sondern rings um die alte Stadt liegt.

      Ach ja: heiß war es, irgendwann war das Gleichgewicht "alte Steine vs Temperatur" gestört. Weshalb wir nicht jeden Winkel erlaufen haben, sondern uns lieber zum zweiten Tagesziel aufgemacht haben.
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    • Day 3

      Berg und Tal

      March 13, 2023 in Jordan

      Heute machten wir uns mit unserem treuem Begleiter (Nissan Sunny) 🚗auf nach Jerash.
      Als wir den chaotischen Verkehr von Amman hinter uns ließen bot sich ein Blick auf die Berge und Täler.⛰️Das ganze Gegenteil von gestern . Auch die Fahrt war heute schöner ,denn viele Gärtnereien und Keramik Läden säumten die Straßen- Ränder.😀
      Unser erstes Ziel war die Ausgrabungsstätte in Jerash .🏛 Diese gilt als besterhaltne römische Siedlung .Uns bot sich ein beeindruckendes Bild der weitläufigen Anlage .
      Danach schlenderten wir durch die ebenso chaotische Innenstadt😲
      Weiter ging es nach Ajlun auf die Festung Qala'at ar-Rabad .Im 12.Jahrhunder errichtet von Sultan Saladin .
      Um dort hin zu gelangen hatte unser Sunny ganz schön zu kämpfen ,es ging extrem steil bergauf. Die Festung liegt 1200m über dem Meeresspiegel .
      Die Auswahl der Bilder gibt die Wahre Schönheit nicht im vollem Maße wieder.
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    • Day 3

      Jordan and Israel - Day 2

      April 28, 2022 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      If anyone needs a reminder that Jordan is largely a Muslim country, hearing the Islam call to prayer through my hotel window last evening at about 10 p.m. and again this morning at 4 a.m. does the trick.

      The city of Amman has been here since at least the 13th century BC and, so, in a city of 4.3 million people, everything is built on top of everything else. Low-story buildings built of white limestone is mostly the story, along with lots - lots! - of street-level storefronts. And, yup, there are McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, and a place named Donuts Factory; apparently it used to be Dunkin’ Donuts, but they “went local” (though the signage colors look strangely familiar).

      Street-sighting: a guy wearing a Yankees cap with the familiar NY logo. And, nope, no Boston Red Sox cap sightings!

      And here’s a neat fact: during the third century BC, the city was named “Philadelphia” by the Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus - but later changed to Amman.

      Our group is 15-folks, including me. We’re just starting to get to know each other and . . . so far so good.

      Our day started with a one-hour drive to Jerash - the Pompeii of the East - with ruins dating to the Eighth Century and earlier; apparently it is the second most visited ancient site in Jordan (after Petra, where we visit later this week). Only 20% of it has been excavated; while what we can already see is pretty amazing, there’s still much more to dig-up.

      That was followed by lunch at a local restaurant - a joint that seats hundreds but which, at lunch time during Ramadan, was uncrowded.

      Our afternoon took us to “The Citadel,” the primary excavation site in the city-proper. It dates to around the 1st century BC (think “Romans”) but also Byzantines and Ummayads, and includes a spectacularly preserved Roman Theater which is still used for performances.

      As I said to another tour member today, “we ain’t got stuff this old back home.”

      The first five photos are from Jerash; the second five are from The Citadel and its Roman Theater.

      #aktravel #jordan #amman #jerash #ammanjordan
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    • Day 4

      Jerash and Beit Sitti

      May 8, 2022 in Jordan ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

      Yesterday was a fairly quiet day with a wander around the local area around the hotel and then watching people from our room going about their daily activities. Particularly amusing was the street carpet seller trying to sell his carpets to anyone who dared make eye contact with him. Then there were the guys from a local food restaurant who did a bin run.

      We met up with our tour group in the evening - 11 of us consisting of 4 Australians, 3 Brits, 2 Canadians and 2 Americans - and we are starting to get to know each other over a meal of traditional Jordanian food

      We started our tour with a trip to Jerash, about 50km north of Amman. The ancient ruins were only discovered in the 1800's and is still being excavated today. It reminded me a lot of Ephesus in Turkey with similar features as columns, temples and mosaics arches and amphitheatres. In one theatre there was a bagpiper and drummer. Rather than being Scottish, bagpipes were really Roman in origin. Who knew!

      Later in the afternoon we went to a Beit Sitti which means Grandmothers House and is a cooking class of traditional Jordanian food in a locals own home, which we help prepare and then eat. We've never done a cooking class before and it was a lot of fun.

      Great first day of the tour - tomorrow we leave Amman and head to the Dead Sea.
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    • Day 9

      Jerash

      February 19, 2020 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      Hoy hemos desayunado con un chico griego que conocimos ayer en el hostal y hemos ido juntos a Jerash, como decidimos ayer. Hemos tomado un taxi compartido hasta la estación de buses y luego un bus hasta Jerash/Gerasa. Allí hemos visitado muchas ruinas romanas y hemos comido shawarma, para variar. A la vuelta hemos tomado helado y hemos vuelto al hostal. Ha sido un día muy agradable y tranquilo.Read more

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