Day 9: The Red Sea

Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been writing on my computer but unable to post due to our hotel's internet being down. Here is the post from our free day in Aqabah, before we started the dig.

I often forget about the vibrant life that remains unseen around us. The Red Sea was a perfect example of this. After grabbing a quick coffee at a local shop, a group of six of us hopped into two cabs and headed to the Royal Diving Club (a British run diving establishment in Jordan-- possible a throwback to Jordan's earlier times as a British mandate). Upon ariving, we learned that it cost 15 JD (1.40 USD = 1 JD) to enter for they day. Our entry included a locker, a towel and beach entry for the entire day. Most places cost 25 JD, so we managed to save a bit even with the cab ride. We got in and I began talking with one of the dive managers and learned that it cost 65 JD to go SCUBA diving, and if you paid, you got back your 15 JD entry-fee. Even better, the dive would count two dives toward your nine dive requirement for PADI diving certification (something that costs around 170-180 USD at home!). I couldn't pass up the opportunity to I signed up for a slot at 1:30 p.m.

After settteling on the beach, I immediately got my fins and one of the snorkel sets I brought withe me (I had brought three from home) and headed to the sea. What appeared calm above the water proved to be vibrant and astir with life below. Immediately upon lowering my mask into the clear, blue water, I saw a mass of fishs around me--zebra fish, angel fish, clown fish, and more. The coral reef stretched before me, and I followed it closely. Every turn awared me with a new, breathtaking site. I saw dormant snakes, eels, and cat fish type bottom feeders. All this, I hadn't even gone diving yet!

When my time to dive came around, I met my instructor and we went over the basics. After about 15 minutes of practice, we headed to the beach. We only went down around 5 meters, but the fish became larger and the sites became more beautiful. Coral like flowers exploded into my vision--blue, red and the most beautiful--yellow. I wish I could describe some of the fish that I saw, but the capacity to do so continues to escapes me. After 30 more minutes, we came up and my time was done. I wish I could have stayed down longer, but I was pleased with receiving two dive credits for my adventure.

What appeared calm (and, if I may admit, somewhat boring) on the surface, exploded with life only inches below the surface. If you will allow me, I will make a comparison with archaeology at this point. What may appear boring at the surface may only serve as a facade of the excitement that waits below. An entire world exists just under the surface--waiting to be discovered. Thanks for reading.

Day 7-8: Dana Nature Preserve and Aqabah

As our world continues to industrialize in the name of human progress, "pure" nature has begun to recede. We were fortunate enough last night to camp out in a part of Jordan's Dana Nature Reserve where we ventured into some of the purest nature that I have ever experienced. We left early on Friday morning to stop at Karak Castle before heading to the nature preserve.

Karak Castle is a very famous crusaders castle that was assaulted and besieged many times by Salah al-Din (Saladin). A very ruthless Frenchman lived in the castle and abused the local Arabpopulation beyond imagination. Saladin tried and tried to establish piece but could not avail the ruthless invaders. Saladin was ultimately forced to invade and siege the castle, and after several attempts, Karak fell to Saladins troops. The castle itself is incredibly well preserved and we were given free rang to walk and explore. We had one hour to explore, but I was only able to see a fraction of what the castle had to offer.

From the balustrades, on a clear day, one is able to see the city of Jerusalem in the distance. It was however not a clear day, but it did offer a breathtaking view of the dead sea and the surrounding landscapes.

After the castle tour, we traveled to the Dana Nature Reserve and a small group of us immediately embarked upon a mountain hike. It was supposed to take two hours, but we did it in just over one. It is incredible to think that people were afforded the opportunity to live in environments like the one we walked through for their entire lives. It is only in recent history that industrialization and irrigation has deteriorated the natural state of the environment. I have placed some pictures of our hike on Facebook for any who are interested.

We had a nice dinner and then enjoyed some Bedouin tea under a large, open air tent. I stayed up a while to look at the starts--there seemed to be thousands visible, in a mostly dark landscape. I could have stayed out lying on the ground all night but I was eventually forced to turn in (I did not care to meet a hyena or other wild animal). A group of us woke up early from another hike with Byron McCane to a series of caves where a local Byzantine church had been carved out of the sandstone. We awoke early and set out by 6:30 on our quest to find it.

Our slowly began scutling down a dirt trail as we continued to wipe the sleep from our eyes. Just as we rounded the first bend, the son errupted from behind a looming mountain's stony veil. Just as the morning heat began to arrive, we reached the end of the dirt trail and began to scale a series of fmall rock walls leading up to a group of caves 50 or so yards above. We explored many but did not find any that resembled a church. We eventually began to see pottery sherds (not shards!) but still not church. After climbing a rather tricky slanting rock-face, we started the discussion of beginning to head back. Just then a few of us decided to explore one more cave. This cave broke through to another side--something we did not expect. As we began searching, Nick, a student from the University of British Columbia, yelled out that he had found it. He repaired from around a rock and guided us across skinny ledge. I chose not to look down as I crossed.

After crossing the ledge, we began to see holes carved into the wall--places that would have been perfect for placing icons. After another few steps we were greeted with a wide stone opening and an intricately carve structure. An apse (a semi-circular vaulted ceiling) adorned the far side from which arches sprang in order to provide support to the sandstone structure. Indentions adorned several locations, possibly providing a space for a cross bean adorning tapestry. Needless to say, I was overcome with feelings of awe and wonder. We stood in the same location where faithful Christians, Muslim bedouin, and countless travelers had camped or lived in the past.

We left earlier this morning and have recently arrived in Aqabah. Tomorrow, a large group of use are planning to go to the Royal Diving Academy, a private beach just south of Aqabah for snorkeling. Monday, we start our leg of the dig. I can't wait.

Day 6: Desert Castles

This may be my last blog post for a couple of days. We are heading to the Dana Nature Preserve tomorrow to camp before we arrive in Aqabah and begin preparations for our dig. Robert, one of our dig leaders, has been at our dig site all week with Bedouin preparing the site for excavation. Tomorrow will definitely be an experience.

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.

Day 5: Iraq al-Amir, Madaba, and Machaerus

Today was powerful, and dare I say it, life-changing. We started out an hour later to allow us to recuperate from our day of intense hiking and playing in the Dead Sea (a hard life, no?). So, we left at 10 a.m. to visit Iraq al-Amir, one of the only Hasmonean (period of Jewish self-rule before Rome took control of the region) site of remains in the Near East. One of our dig director who took us, Dr. Byron McCane (who you might have seen on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic Channel--this guy is amazing!) walked around the site with us and explained different architectural features and encouraged us to ask tough questions about the remains before us. The site is mysterious and no one is really sure what it was used for. Some say as an armory and some say as a palace. Whatever it was, it was incredible. All four of its walls remained standing and intimidating lions adorned many spots along the walls. After exploring the ruins for a while (like many of the other ruins, no one was there and we were able to climb and explore any niche we desired), we headed to our next stop, one that I have been looking forward to since October--Madaba.

Unfortunately, we did not know the way and our van became seperated from our bus and bus driver (who is Jordanian). We tried to call him, but he did not answer so we attempted to find it ourselves. We got a little lost, or should I say we were given a chance to explore teh coutnry side of northern Jordan. We eventually got a hold of the driver, who was very apologetic, and met back up with them.

Madaba is known form a mosaic map on the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Gregory. This church was built in the Fourth Century CE and its floor contained a massive mosaic of the entire Holy Land, stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the far reaches of Jordan's eastern border. This map is important because it has given archaeologists and idea of where to dig and what to expect. Many places on the map have been embellished or placed on a geographically incorrect spot, but it remains a testament to the geographers and theologians of the Fourth Cetnury. I wish I had more time to describe this trip, but it is late and I would like to spend some time on my last and favorite stop--Machaerus.

Machaerus was one of Herod the Great's massive (and great) stone fortresses. I could write pages about the history surrounding it here (thanks to a long and enjoyable discussion between Dr. McCane and our van), but I will spare the details. One important fact to know is that Herod the Great's son, Herod Agrippa inherite the site, and it is at Machaerus that Agrippa imprisoned and executed John the Baptist (Matthew 14 and both the Jewish Wars and Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus).

Machaerus sits on the edge of the eastern border of the Dead Sea and looks out over the planes of Jordan, near the planes of ancient Moab. It was a lengthy and steep hike to the top, but once we made it, it was well worth it. Once on the top we realized that we could not step anywhere without seeing fragments of Roman pottery. Some pieces were small, some were large--they were all amazing. Machaerus has ben destroyed by the Romans, who did not salvage much from the site but burned it to the ground. The pottery was left inside and came down with a majority of the stone fortress. I found two very interesting pieces, one that was about an inch wide that contained the lip, shoulder and partial base of a small bowl. I took it to Dr. McCane and he told me that with this little piece, the entire bowl could be reconstructed based on the degree of the lip's and base's curve. I stood in awe and could not believe that such a little piece of clay could be so telling of a people who lived 2000 years ago. After talking to him about this, I started to walk around and see things a bit differently. I didn't see the ruins; I saw those who built the fortress, those who inhabited the fortress, and those who fought and died in the fortress. Someone had eaten from the fragment of the bowl that I held in my hand; that someone had a name and that someone had a story to his or her life. It is a hard feeling to describe, so I may mull it over for a few days before trying to put it into words again.

Thanks for reading. If anyone has any questions of comments, please feel free to post them below. The actual dig starts bright and early on Monday. Looking at pottery today gave me a taste of what we will be doing, and I cannot wait.

Brad

Day 4: Jordan, Dead Sea and Wadi Mujib

We began today with a visit to the Jordan River and the baptism site of Jesus. The Jordan has shrunk significantly in the past 2000 years (it used to be 1 km wide but is now no more than 15 feet across at one of its widest places). The site of the baptism is about .5 of a kilometer away from from the actual river site of the original baptist. An interesting characteristic of the site is that there have been several layers of churches excavated from this site with the baptismal fonts all focused on one specific area. The first church was one built in the late Roman period with alread several allusions to John the Baptist baptizing in this exact location. So the evidence, bot biblically and extra-biblically support this site as the actual site of Jesus' baptism. It was powerful to stand in this area, to say the least. After this, we continued to the site of the actual Jordan today. When we got there, just 15 feet away, sat Israel. It was almost eery standing at the Jordan, next to an armed Jordanian military personel, looking at the Israeli flag across the river. We were allowed to go as far as standing in the actual river, which I did with a friend on the trip. I will try to post that pictures later (it is really later here, and we have an early day tomorrow).

Our next stop was to the Dead Sea. It was equally incredible and a more relaxing experience. We paid our entry fee to the public beach, and we were soon running down the salienated and sandy beach toward the water. We got in and immediately began to float. And when I say float, I mean float. I could not even get my legs below the surface to kick--the salt content of the water made us that bouyant. It was also extremely hot. We assumed it was the son, but one of our dig leaders told us it was because we were at the lowest point of land on earth which meaned we were closer to Hell. We all got a good laugh.

After this adventure, we had no idea what lied ahead of us that day. We knew we were hiking, but we could not have comprehended where. We went to the Wadi Mujib nature reserve and went on the Siq trail. This is a trail through creek flowing through a canyon. There was no land, only water and a lot of rocks. We spent a majority of the time hiking in water from our ankles to our waste over trecherous rocks and fallen boulders. After an hour of our precarious hike we reached the end of our trek and were greeted with an incredible water fall that was billowing over a group of fallen rocks in the canyon. The water fall must have been at least 125-150 ft in height. We had great fun trying to run through the powerful torrents as they spilled in to the canyon only to be pushed below the waters surface and shot down stream. After spending close to an hour playing in the waterfall, we began our trek back.

Needless to say, it was an amazing day, and I still cannot quite comprehend the magnitude and importance of the sites that we visited today. I will post pictures soon hopefully (but it may be a few days).

Brad

Day 3: Around Amman

We spent the day today exploring the town in which we are staying: Amman. The streets were packed with cars and pedestrians and vendors were on the sidewalks attempting the usher passersby into their open stores. The first stop of our day was to the King Abdullah Mosque--the center of Muslim worship in Amman (although there are many other centers--this was built to be the most recognizable in the country). We discarded our shoes by the door and were ushered in to view it. Muslims pray five times a day, and during those five times, the mosque is packed. We visited during visiting hours, which is between prayer times. Two of the times for prayer are at dusk and at dawn. The time for prayer is determined not with a clock but by holding a white thread and a black thread next to each other. Once the two threads can no longer be distinguished from one another--night has fallen and prayer is called. Once the two threads can again to distinguished from one another--morning prayer is called. The mosque was incredible and hard to describe with words.

After our visit to the mosque, we again ventured into the jungled web that comprise Amman's network of roads. After driving for some time through the city, we exited a street and saw a vast hill sitting before us. In the middle of this modern, busy city remains the ruins of the ancient Iron Age city of Rabah and the Greco-Roman city of Philadelphia (built on top of the Iron Age ruins). You might remember Rabah from the story of David and Bathsheeba, when David ordered Bathseeba's husband, Uriah, to attack the city of Rabah while David remained safely in Jerusalem with Bathseeba.

The Jordanian Antiquities Authority have maintained the ruins of Philadelphia very well. A Temple to Zeus sprawls across the front entrance of the city, which provides a prime look into the Roman amphitheater below. A somewhat smal museum adorns a hill beside the Zeus's temple, but what this museum lacks in size is definitely made up in substance. I have never been to a museum with richer artifacts or a more interesting presentation of artifacts. I could talk about the museum for pages, but I will skip ahead a little. Out of the back of the museum sits the foundation of a Byzantine church and a later mosque from the Ummayad dynasty. After exploring the ancient ruins for an hour and a half, we got back on our bus and headed to lunch.

We ate lunch in the middle of the old downtown district, which has retained a vibrant Middle East market-town vibe. We sat at a local restaurant and were served freshly made hummus, falafel, and many other traditional dishes (which we have been eating for every meal but have yet to become boring).

After lunch, we continued to the perfectly maintained Greco-Roman amphitheatre. On the way, I stopped with a friend and fellow Duke Diver, Joe Plemmons, and we purchased some kafiyehs (traditional middle-eastern head coverings to protect your head from the sun). The man originally wanted 4 JD per kafiyeh (1 JD = 1.40 US$--not the best conversion rate!). But when I started to put the 5 JD bill back into my pocket, he agreed to sell us 2 for 5 JD (probably not the lowest we could have gone but still not bad). We continued to the amphitheater, then to a group stop at a smoothie shop, and then finally back to where we are staying. We relaxed for a couple of hours, played some cards, and head to dinner. It is now pushing 11 p.m. here and fatigue has begun to drag us a bit. We haven't even started digging yet, which will require a 4:30 a.m. wake-up every morning, so we better shake this feeling now.

Tomorrow we are venturing to the baptism site of Jesus (a site agreed upon which many scholars agree) and to the Dead Sea. Tomorrow like every other day so far, will be unforgettable!

Brad

Day 2: Jerash and Ajloun

Today was incredible. After a mostly full night's rest (a call to prayer at 3:30 a.m. woke some of us), we split up on a bus and van and headed to our first stop of the day: Jerash. Jerash is the most preserved Roman city in the region and includes a hippodrome (no, not an ancient place to keep hippos but a stadium to race chariots), a bath house, two temples--one to Zeus and one to Aphrodite--, and many other structures. One of my favorite things about Jordan is that most of the police are on the outside of archaeological sites around here, so we have free reign to explore wherever we want without someone yelling at us (well, mostly...I'll get to that in a minute). Our dig leader is friends with the leader of an ongoing dig at Jerash, so we were afforded the opportunity to see the current excavations around the site.

While walking through a site, a man selling flutes approached me and became mesmorized with the bandana that I was wearing around my head. He quickly took off his hat, one that says, "Italia" and asked me if I would trade. I was a bit confused but gladly accepted the trade. I am guessing that bandanas are rare around here, due to the fact that most people wear what is called a Kafiyeh--I will explain this more once I purchase one tomorrow.

After a couple of hours at Jerash and a very nice lunch, we headed to our next stop of the day: Ajloun. Ajloun was a Arabic castle, built in the style of the crusaders, to defend against the Crusaders invasion (two Crusader castles are in close proximity to it). Again, li

ke at Jerash, there is not security in the site, so we were able to explore wherever we wanted. Our freedom lead us to climb over a small wooden fence and also around a small blockade to get to the highest point of the castle. A few of us set on the edge and looked out over the city, imagining what it must have been like defending a castle on such a high hill. Our professors, however, upon seeing us, must have imagined what it would be like (both for us and for their careers) if one of us fell over the edge. After a sound yelling, we scurried down the wall and back into the confines of the tourist area.

The day is not quite over. It is only about 7 p.m. here. In 30 minutes, we are heading to dinner and then have the rest of the night free. Eating has become one of my favorite past-times here. Tomorrow we explore Amman (the town in which we are staying this week), which in the ancient world was known as Philadelphia (the book of Revelations contains a letter to the Philadelphians in either chapter 3 or 4). On Tuesday we head to the Dead Sea and to Mount Nebo (where Moses supposedly died). I will try to post some pictures on Facebook as soon as I can.

Brad