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As for today, we have begun to wear down a little. Being in the desert sun and hiking for five days takes a lot out of you. But today was still enjoyable. We began, as usual, at 9 a.m. and headed out to three seperate desert castles from the Umayyad Islamic period. I won't go into much detail about them, because I sadly know close to nothing of this regions history during that time period.
Ben, a Ph.D candidate in the States, joined us today and taught us quite a bit about the sites we visited. The identity of the first castle remains a mystery. I say castle, but it may have served more as a joint castle--administrative-hotel purpose. The comparison that I made, that seemed to work, was with Camp David. In the Umayyad period, this site probably served as a place for the government administrators to visit the local chief leaders and to pamper then in order to retain their loyalty.
The second site was an Umayyad bathhouse that was fascinating, for it reflected the Roman style of bathhouse.
The third site was a castle that Lawrence of Arabia actually visited and studied (he was originally an archaeologist before joining the British army). One of the Jordanian excavators happened to be at the site, and he took us on a personal (and free!) tour of the castle. He showed us a layer of strata that his team excavated and explained to us each separate level of excavation (from the Neolithic to the Ottoman periods!).
On our ride back we saw two dust devils spinning out in the desert. They were pretty big and pretty entertaining.
This is a short entry for I will be going to bed soon hopefully. Tomorrow will be a full adventure as we begin to make our way down south. Thanks for reading.
Brad
P.S.: I apologize for the spelling and grammatical errors. I am writing off the top of my head and am not proofreading it before posting.
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