Mafi Mushkila- No worries

"The River Jordan is chilly and cold, chills your body and warms your soul"



Tonight finds us at the Ishtar Dead Sea Resort, after a very long and bumpy ride up the Desert Highway. The Desert Highway has a long history- it was built by the Turks in 1600 AD, and then rebuilt as a 4 lane highway by Saddam Hussein during the first gulf war to provide a direct route from the southern and only Jordanian port of Aqaba (where El Lawrence stormed with Sheik Ali to finish off the Arab revolt- remember, to Aqaba across the “anvil of the sun”) to Iraq. It used to be a very dangerous road, with many people being killed daily by bad driving. Our guide said that before it was rebuilt, when you were driving from Petra to Amman you told your whole family goodbye. Now it is called in Arabic the Tareq Al Bent, meaning the “girls highway” because it is so safe. Hmmm. Along the highway are 700 yr old Atlantic Pistachio trees- really cool gnarled looking things- I wondered what they had seen in 700 years.

This is the season of the Hajj, which comes 70 days after Ramadan. The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca required by Islam to be made once during a good Muslim's lifetime. There was a bus on the road from Turkey going to Mecca for the Hajj. What is really interesting is that there are sheep and goats in pens everywhere that were shipped in for the Hajj festival. They have problems raising the needed livestock in Jordan because of the plastic litter everywhere. The animals eat it and die- apparently 70,000 of them last year. Along the main roads there is plastic everywhere- I cringe. Hence the goats and sheep are shipped in to Aqaba. If you have the money you are supposed to kill a goat or sheep for the feast and share it with your friends and neighbors.

Our first stop was Shobak, where a crusader castle is located. Like so many other sites, the castle is built on the remains of Edomite temples from the first millennium BC, followed by the Byzantines. You can see the difference in building styles- the crusader castles where thrown up in a hurry using stone already there and the workmanship shows it, while the Edomites and Byzantines took great care. There are four Crusader castles in Jordan, all of which were taken by Saladin during the crusades. Apparently he didn’t kill anyone- just starved them out and let them go home, so he was and is a very popular fellow among Christians and Muslims. As this was a very rural area, we saw quite a few Bedo camps and camels on the road- but schedules to keep and our guide wouldn’t stop for pictures! Dave, the Bedo camps look like the reservations!

From Shobak we trekked up the Desert Highway toward the baptismal site of Jesus. Along the way we passed Al-Qatranah, which is a little town where T.E. Lawrence, Prince Faisal and General Allenby launched the Arab Revolt from the red-roofed train station, which is still there by the way. Al-Qatranah means “the station” in Arabic. Along the way we saw a pick-up truck with a donkey in the back- guess they were headed for a Hajj feast and took the whole family.

We reached the baptismal site at last. For some reason I thought John the Baptist had a temple there, but no. What’s there is a platform into the Jordan River. The Jordan River is not wide, as the Highwaymen song says, but merely eight meters at its widest. Near the platform, it's about fifteen feet wide. Here is the kicker- the Jordan River is the dividing line between Jordan and Israel. There is a similar platform on the Israeli side where there are other visitors also putting their feet into the River. On both sides are military guards armed with AK 47s and Kalashnikovs. So there I sat wiggling my feet in the Jordan River while some Israelis on the other side sang the Israeli national anthem. News of the weird. By the way, the water is very very cold. Must be spring fed. The River Jordan is located in the rift valley that runs from Turkey through Jordan into Kenya. For the geologists among you (Deirdre), the Jordan valley is a grabon. It feeds into the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point in the world, at 430 below sea level!

So here we are at the luxurious Dead Sea Ishtar, after bidding farewell to our erstwhile guide and driver. This is the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and I have stayed in many, many hotels. Good place to kick back for a day and a half before the whirlwind that will be Egypt. The hotel has many Russians guests, and most signs are in Russian and English. Hmmm. Tomorrow, Insha’Allah, we are going to hang at the beach and get a mud bath, where in they rub Dead Sea mud all over you and then you go into the sea to wash it off. We had a lovely dinner by the Sea, looking out at the lights of Jerusalem and Jericho, which is about to celebrate its 10,000 birthday! So nighty night one and all- tomorrow is another day. Let's hope for enough band width in Egypt for pics!