Thursday, May 3, 2012 - Jordon Day 1

Thursday, May 3, 2012 Today our little troupe of 17souls split up to go off in three directions.  Six of us returned to the States on a VERY early flight (as in, out of the hotel at 2a.m.). Three remained in Jerusalem for some quieter visits there and in Tel Aviv, and the rest of us headed across the Allenby Bridge to Jordan to continue our travels fora few ore days, this time on the east bank of the Jordon River with Petra as our ultimate destination.  After the usual formalities at the border, we said a affectionate goodby to our Israeli guide Amir and got on the our Jordanian minibus.   Our first stop Thursday was north of the crossing in the ancient ruins of Jerash (known to the Romans as Gerasa).  The city was among the Decapolis - the ten cities built by the Romans in and around ancient Palestine.  at the entrance, you first see an immense arch erected in honor of a visit by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in about 132 C.E.  The arch was built well outside the city gates because the leaders hoped the city would expand that far, though it never did.  Instead, there was a hippodrome where gladiators once wrestled, horses raced, and other games were held.  We passed on the opportunity to watch a re-creation of the ancient games, though we did have a chance to see some of the costumed actors as we left.  The city was ultimately destroyed and abandoned on 749 C.E.,when a great earthquake destroyed many ancient cities, churches & so on in Jordan.  There were also two amphitheaters, one of which featured a traditionally-dressed Arab playing a series of familiar tunes on a bagpipe accompanied by a drummer.  We were puzzled about when bagpipes might have been introduced in the area - by the British, no doubt. From Jerash we went to Amman, where we had the opportunity to drive through the city and see a number of neighborhoods, including one of the Palestinian refugee camps.  We the. Went up to the Citadel on the top of o e of the hills overlooking Amman.  This site was strategically located on a defensible hilltop and contained artifacts from as early as 2500 B.C.E.  the most impressive item was a giant hand, apparently from a statue.  If the hand was made in proportion to the rest of the body, the statue itself would have been 30 feet high - from which some archeologists suggested that it might have been an image of Hercules. We need our rather tiring day with dinner at the Chams Palace Hotel, where we were fortunate to be joined by James Bowker, a member of Second Parish and a student of Arabic at Tufts who has been studying Arabic in Jordan since January.  We found it very helpful to be able to talk to someone who's been living in the area and getting to know both the people and the realities of daily life and politics in this part of the world.  We peppered James with so many questions that we had to lay off abut so that he could finish his dinner.