Petra.35
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You may recall that your last glimpses of Petra were my tea stop during my walk back down from that lovely morning spent watching the sun rise high enough to shine directly on the whole “Treasury.” That trail brought me back down to the Royal Tombs, which you see in the first photo, taken from a ways down the path. Turning around to look ahead, you’d see what’s in the photo just above: the path leading onward through the Colonnaded Street towards Qasr al Bint, the Church (the real Byzantine Church), the Great Temple, and the paths leading up towards the (so-called) “Monastery,” which was yet a further one hour +/- from Qasr al Bint, which is that large free-standing structure in the distance on the photo above. Make note of it – and remark that it stands out quite literally, in that unlike nearly all other Natabataean ruins here, it’s free-standing instead of carved out of the cliff faces. Below are a few more shots taken along the walk down towards that structure and others in the basin at the base of this path. In the days ahead you’ll see more of the (real, Byzantine) churches, and other sites along the road. If you’d like to follow along and have a sense of what’s yet to come, remember I put a map (click on that word) in one of the earlier posts here. I’ll post most of these remaining Petra posts (I’m guessing it’ll take about two more weeks to wrap up our Petra tour, depending how many posts I choose to break it into) mostly in the order in which I saw things, as I walked those paths you see on the map. It’s a very enveloping experience, being in Petra :-).
Amman.12
Today we bid adieu to Amman, city built into hills which host ancient monuments as well as modern and cosmopolitan restaurants and cafes where I enjoyed quite a few lovely meals and views. It’s also capital to a nation that’s currently celebrating 100 years with its current boundaries and royal family. There were also some signs celebrating the 100th anniversary visible in at least one of the photos from the final Jerash post – if curious you can look for those again, same crown logo as this photo, but in print, not on a stairway gate.
Jerash.12 – Two Theaters & Two Streets
This is the South Theater, and I’m looking north so you can make out the Artemis temple & other parts of the city I’ve shown before. Jerash in its heyday was important enough to have two theaters – just below you see a photo taken over the North Theater towards the northernmost gate. I didn’t walk up to the north gate – turned around and walked back past all that I’ve shown you already. Like this post, that was a farewell walk past the temple to Artemis, past the second street – called the South Decumanus – which I’m also showing you below, and thus to this theater still-working theater: there are outdoor concerts both here and at the Forum, as you might have guessed from modern chairs and stages in a few photos. A sign in one of the photos below reminded me that Jordan is celebrating 100 years since the current boundaries were drawn by a young Winston Churchill in the post-WWI dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. What better place to ponder the rise and fall of human empires than a place like this, eh?
..and with a last walk through the Hippodrome to soak up the atmosphere, we’ll bid farewell to Jerash. Hope you’re enjoyed this armchair introductory tour.
Amman.11
You’ve seen this amphitheater before – in my very first Amman post which I think I even put up before I left Jordan, also as seen from above in a few shots from the Citadel. From the Citadel, I walked through the hilly streets of modern Amman to the base of that hill, where a street runs through a valley on the other side of which rises the hill into which this amphitheater was built. Today we’re showing you more angles on this impressive site as seen on that walk.
Jerash.11 – More Zeus & South Gate
Last photos from the upper and lower temples to Zeus, and of the South Gate.
Jerash.10 – Byzantine Church Ruins
It’s possible I mis-labeled the above photo, but I’m quite confident it came from the same hillside as the Fountain Courtyard and all those other churches named after saints, just above the Cathedral. Ditto all the other pics here, although many of them are looking out through columns at other buildings you’ll recognize – Hippodrome, Hadrian’s Arch, South Theater, etc.
Jerash.8 – Byzantine Cathedral
On the map (last Jerash post), the cathedral and its uphill neighbors, the fountain court and the several churches named after various saints, look close together. As the photo just below shows, though, in fact these are built on a hill. I hope I’ve properly identified and grouped the photos from all these Byzantine-era ruins up and down this hillside 🙂
(so much world, so little time....) 