Day 2: Tour of Amman

After breakfast at Le Meridien (I now love Lebaneh -- it's like Greek yogurt but better), we headed out on our tour of Amman. Our first stop was the Roman Theater. I was suprised to learn that the Roman Theater hosts special events to this day...especially after I climbed the steep stone steps to the top. It was so steep that, standing on one step, I extended my arm and touched (more like desperately gripped) the step 5 steps up. And half of the steps were worn down to nothing more than 6 jagged inches in width...In fact, it was more of a ladder than steps. Paul was brave -- both for walking up and down the steps like a normal person and for his willingness to be seen with me who crawled to the top and crab walked down. Those steps were terrifying! We stopped by the Roman Theater's museum and saw mosaics, traditional clothing, and jewelry. The traditional bracelets were so David Yurman.










Next stop was the Citadel. The Citadel overlooks the entire city of Amman and includes an ancient Umayyad city, the Temple of Hercules, and a museum. It was interesting to see the entire Umayyad city -- we saw everything from the domed palace to a colonaded street to a Hammam (public bath) to residential units -- a whole city spanning a small area. And I loved learning about the city's water management and seeing the large cistern and underground piping constructed to transport and use every drop of rain water (the city's sole water source). At the Temple of Hercules we saw impressive massive columns and a giant stone hand from a 13 meter statue of Hercules. And we saw a lot of interesting artifacts packed into the little museum. My favorites were the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Anthropoid coffins, and plaster statues from the Neolithic period.


Left: Kristen @ Umayyad Palace.
Right: Paul inside Umayyad Palace.

Us at the Temple of Hercules

After the 2 big sites, Mohammed drove us around the city of Amman and showed us a Palestinian refugee camp (the oldest in Jordan, established in the 1940s) and an Iraqi neighborhood. We stopped along a city highway and Mohammed bought us a bunch of Jordanian bananas to eat. Gotta keep up the potassium in this heat. Finally, we stopped at a souvenir shop on the highway, which was an altogether uncomfortable experience. One of the employees insisted we try Dead Sea hand lotion and listen to an explanation of all the special Dead Sea products. He followed us around the store trying to sell everything from rugs to jewelry to key chains. We looked at everything to be polite, and then told Mohammed we were ready to leave. For the most part, we think Mohammed is a great tour guide and honest and helpful, but we were happy to get out of that souvenir shop.

We learned a little of Mohammed's background on our drive. He grew up in Amman and has worked for Jordan Select for 3 years. Before that he was a math teacher in a school in Saudi Arabia, and before that he told us he lost everything in a risky business venture in Iraq during to the Iraqi war. No hard feelings though. And we learned that if Mohammed were to vote in a US election, his pick for president would be Monica Lewinski.

A big thank you to Leila who warned us that driving in Amman was "really, really crazy" and not recommended. "Really, really crazy" is an understatement. The streets are unlined and there are few (almost none) traffic lights or stop signs. The one sign we did see was a "no entry" sign for a 1 way street, which Mohammed decided did not apply to our car. A driver driving up the other end of the street (aka the right way) rolled down his window to yell at us and Mohammed yelled back. Afterwards, we asked what the two had said, and Mohammed said the man told him it was a 1 way street and he responded that he saw the sign. I have a feeling a few more words were exchanged as well.