PELLA HERE AND THERE

Sorry this is turning into a once-a-month blog! Excuse is I don't have internet at home and only can use it during lab hours (very limited and fickle) at the U. of Jordan.

March has been a month with lots of local travel thanks to a woman at the US Embassy here, Doretta, who is in the same Anglican Bible study on Sunday nights here. Doretta gets her car free from the State Dept., so I can't even help pay for the gas. Life is hard ... (And without a car, I very likely would not have gotten to see 1/10 of what I've seen so far!)

First trip was an afternoon trip to check out the road to Mt. Nebo (1/2 hour south), where the Easter sunrise service was planned. Doretta wanted to make sure she could find the way in the early morning dark!

The next trip was an overnight to the Desert Castles to the east, out in the desert. We stayed at an old army hosptal converted into a guesthouse by the Royal Society for the Preservation of Nature overnight. The only guests! It's located near an ancient marsh reserve with plenty of fresh water in the middle of the desert. Perfect weather the night we were there.

A colleague from Japan, Marian Wang, passed through town in mid March after a conference in Duba, so it was a good excuse to get down to the main attractions to the south, namely the Dead Sea and Petra. It rained the day of her arrival, and my heart sank, but it cleared up giving us some of the clearest views of the Jordan River valley and accross to the Country-that-shall-remain-nameless. We could even catch a glimpse of Jerusalem on top of a mountain across the Dead Sea. Petra was spectacular if hugely touristy now (there was only one one-star guesthouse when I first visited in 1974 - now there's an entire town of hotels, businesses and full-year residents!)

The next weekend, Doretta and I headed north in full spring weather (the wild flowers of Jordan are famous this time of year!) to Ajloun Castle, the traditional birthplace of the prophet Elijah (Mar Ilyas, in Arabic) near it, then down to the very economically depressed Jordan River valley to get to Pella, an ancient Greco-Roman city for which Pella, Iowa was named - the town I went to high school in. Lots of layers of civilization dating back to early agricultural (neolithic) times. You can see a large Canaanite temple to Baal, several Byzantine churches, a temple to some Greco-Roman deity (can't remember), and an Islamic mosque dating back to crusader times.

We ended up at Umm Qais (Gadara, of New Testament fame - where Jesus allowed the evil spirits to enter the pigs), with a breathtaking view way up over the Sea of Galilee to the northwest. An excellent restaurant is run in the ruins of the old city, and the views off the patio are world class! Field of yellow flowers everywhere we looked. Spring is a great time to visit Jordan!