Northern Jordan

Southern Jordan is the desert but in the North, the land is hilly and lush. It is the farm belt with huge groves of olive trees and fig trees. In the Spring, because of the rain, it is green and covered with colorful wild flowers. We were here in January, we saw no flowers, just green grass. It was beautiful.

Umm Qais

Way up North of Jordan is this hilly countryside. There was a Roman settlement here as evidenced by the arena built with black basalt stone. Today it is abandoned but in its earlier days the Ottomans settled here and used the Roman stones as their building material. The columns of a temple is still left standing. So is the long and wide cobbled stone boulevard that was so characteristic of Roman presence. Umm QaIS is the new Jordanian name and is popular among the locals as a place for weekend picnics. But in the days of our Lord Jesus, the name was Gadara. Here as mentioned in Matthew 8:28 to 32, ' Jesus casts out demons and they sent into a flock of pigs who later rushed down the steep bank and into the sea...'

The empty tomb

Matthew 28: 1-5 'After the sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled back the stone and sat on it. The angel said.... you are looking for Jesus who was crucified....He is not here; he has risen.....'
Happy Easter.

Mt Nebo and the Baptism site

Deuteronomy 34, 'Moses climbed Mount Nebo.... There the Lord showed him the whole land..... Then the Lord said to him 'This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said,'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes but you will not cross over into it.' Moses only saw the promised land from on top of Mt Nebo, he never set foot on it because of sin and unbelief. Understand that even though God forgives, yet sin and unbelief carries with it consequences. This was the same Mt Nebo mentioned in the Bible. We couldn't leave the taxi because at that moment the rain was really coming down, we saw it (we couldn't see, it was so foggy) from the parking lot. Then we went to the baptism site, Jesus was baptised in the river Jordan on this side of Jordan. Again it was raining hard and we didn't get to see it. Most people incorporate a side trip to Jordan as part of the Holy Land tour. So tourists to Israel will spend a few days in Jordan also.

The dead sea

It was raining so hard, we only got out long enough to take these photos. The Jordanians are trying to develop this area by building fancy resort hotels. Other than that there is nothing else. Israel is just across over the other side.

A rainy day

This happened to be the rainy months in Jordan. The sun was shining that morning and I discarded my umbrella but as soon as we were a few yards away from the hotel, it started to rain and did not abate at all the whole day. We went around Madaba in the rain. The great thing about this hotel which was in the old part of Amman is, besides being dirt cheap, they have tours to any place. Their staff has their own cars and are able to take you anywhere you want to go. The charge is pretty nominal. We hired this guy for the whole day to take us to Madaba. Food is quite cheap too. We had lunch in Madaba standing in the rain.

More excavation

Jordan is also called 'the other Holy Land'. It, together with Israel form the land given to Abraham and his descendants as written in the Bible. After the death of Jesus, His followers began to scatter because of persecution. They went to Asia Minor which is today's Turkey and a lot of places in Turkey has historical significance in the Christian Bible.

St Mary, excavation

Excavation is going on..... It's amazing to see so many churches in this little town. Some of the beautiful mosaics are still on the floor. Madaba is also called the city of mosaics.

St Mary

Madaba was an important and thriving city in the days of the Byzantine empire. There were numerous churches in this small town, only St George which was rebuilt is in use. The rest including St Mary is in ruins. Excavation is going on in dribs and drabs, this being a muslim country and there is probably little funding to keep excavating. What survived of the beautiful mosaics is on display.

The map museum

Growing up in North Borneo, we had the good fortune of having all kinds of people from all over the world come and teach us and rule over us. The British were the government, our teachers came from Southern India, we had our local natives, we were of Chinese descent, our ancestors were from South China.... the lists goes on. This meant that we need to know where in the Atlas these countries were and what kind of cultures were there. This was good fortune because it caused us to look outside of our little corner of the world. Unlike people in the USA who are so self sufficient and insular, they have no clue where most places are in the world. Even though there might be conflicts in some of these places, still they have no clue and are not interested. I think it is for this reason many do not travel abroad. I work with people who wouldn't touch food they are not familar with. This is a sad situation. I have always embraced the world and probably for this reason I have wanderlust. I have pretended that I was born on Wednesday because Wednesday's child has far to go! Seeing a cartography museum was exciting. The Madaba map is so amazing. I guess only a lover of maps would find this to be so.

the Madaba map

Found on the floor of the church of St George is this mosaic map of the Holy Land especially of Jerusalem. The time it was constructed was the sixth century. Most of it survived, some parts are missing. Simply called 'the map' or 'the Madaba map', it is about the oldest surviving map of any form. The detail is just amazing. I came away with wonder and awe as I do with most antiquity that I have seen. In the olden days there are people whose job it is to map the world. Now all we need is are satellites and Google earth. Cartography sure has gotten easier.