The one other place we visited in Jordan was Jerash, a beautifully preserved Roman ruin that is about 45 minutes from Amman. I’m not usually a big fan of historical ruins or big piles of rocks that people flock to see, but Jerash was magical. It was my favorite place in Jordan, even coming in ahead of Petra.
Part of the magic could have come from the storm clouds that were rolling in and out all day, scattering rain here and there. It made for some beautiful skies against the mostly deserted ruins.
(This photo is of Amman as we were heading out of town.)
Coming up on Jerash. I included this picture because of the air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror. Later in the week Caleb and Carter had such foot funk from wearing their barefoot shoes nonstop that I took the air freshener down and made them rub it all over their feet on the way to Petra. It helped a little bit.
I don’t have a ton to say about Jerash because Calvin was the one with the guidebook and was busy telling us that these supposedly Roman ruins were using the Greek god names for their temples so he wasn’t sure if the guidebook was right . . . meanwhile I didn’t care who built it or what it was called — I was just happy to be there, climbing around the ancient city. And it was an entire city — Jerash is huge. We spent several hours walking around and didn’t see it all.
my attempt at a group photo while walking
Some of the more detailed “bricks” they have found — flowers on top, pomegranates on the bottom.
another giant coliseum
with many steep steps
view from the top of the coliseum — it’s a long way down.
We broke down and bought the boys “fa-lutes” (as Carter calls them). Fantastic cheap comedy. They were made out of pieces of bamboo that were taped together with colored electrical tape.
Fa-luting along
Caleb thought they needed a statue of Liberty
Trying to solve the Greek v Roman puzzle
because of the scattered showers, the boys were finding bunches of huge millipedes — this one was longer than the length of my hand.
In front of the temple of Diana, watching the storm clouds roll in and feeling the first drops fall. It was so much fun being there in the rain.
Headed back to Amman and happy to be in a warm, dry car.
Instead of Christmas tree lots, people were visiting the sheep lots to pick out their Eid sheep for slaughter. We passed 3 or 4 different ones along the side of the road on our way back to the city.
I have more photos of Jerash, but they are in the air somewhere as I’m transferring things between my netbook and my MacBook. There’s one more fun thing we did at Jerash, but since I haven’t found those pictures yet, that will have to be another post.
