06.19.05
Wild Jordan and Jerash
The next morning I slept in a little bit then went to meet Laura
at her work place: Wild Jordan. Wild Jordan is part of the Royal
Society for the Conservation of Nature, and the center is a gift from
America through US Agency for International Development.
The taxi to there was a bit of an adventure. The driver knew just
enough English to misunderstand me. It wasn’t until Laura called me
and got someone who knew Arabic to give directions that everything
was sorted out. The center is really nice. There is some office space
that helps coordinate the ecotourism in Jordan, a gift shop and a
cafe. There is a great view looking out over Amman
from the balcony.
From here we picked up Laura’s friend Sonya who had also come into
town the night before on a different flight. The next destination was
Jerash which are the ruins of an ancient city. The area has been
settled since prehistoric times. The city itself was founded around
170 BCE and was centered on the Temple of Zeus. However most of the
ruins are Roman from after Pompey liberated the city in 63 BCE. There
is a very well preserved theater (with an Arabic
bagpiper wandering around) and a nice mosaic. There’s lots of other stuff as well; those are the nice pictures I have.
A lot of the city was damaged or destroyed after a number of
earthquakes. At the Temple of
Artemis there are a bunch of columns still standing. A really
nifty thing about these columns is that if
you stick your fingers in at the
base you notice that they sway in the breeze. It’s almost like they
have a pulse.
