Amman is full of hills, and home to many ancient ruins. The Citadel is in the heart of the old city, with its oldest ruins dating to the Romans, and the dramatic lovely domed audience-hall dating to the Umayyad dynasty. That building with the dome is the most intact structure remaining. Since we have so very many photos still from both Jerash and Petra to work our way through, I’m going to be doing larger posts with more photos from Amman. It has a reputation among some as being a “boring” city in the Middle East. I think boring might be welcome to many residents of other cities, but what do I know?
So Jerash is certainly not as enormous nor as awe-inspiring as Petra, but it’s pretty darn big and has a remarkable number of fairly-intact structures, and simply gazillions of gorgeous columns, beautifully weathered (as in below)and with lovely hilly backdrops (ibid). As an intermezzo before your armchair tour-guide returns you to Petra, not too shabby, eh? Oh,and btw, as in Petra, succeeding generations of empires also built stuff here, so you’ll see some Byzantine churches, and some of the shot below is Byzantine. But note, in the shot below, that you are also seeing Hadrian’ Arch, which is the entance to the whole complex — it’s near the middle, just left of the tall column. I’ve conveniently placed another photo taken from inside, but closer, so you can look for the right roofline profile :-).
This shot was taken from Painted Triclinium, looking at Roman Soldier’s tomb: both on the Wadi al Farasa side trail, below the Garden Tomb of which I posted many photos in Petra.4. Your first view of Painted Triclinium came with Petra.7 — and I believe the colors are all natural rock, not actual paint. But I didn’t scratch to see :-). There will be more of Painted Triclinium ahead – it’s off the main path, so less noticed, but truly remarkable. As I sort and set up this post, it’s a week since I flew out of Jordan back to A’dam, and two weeks already since my full day inside Petra. I’m so grateful for the many kind comments and emails you’ve sent! I’m doing precisely what I recommended to you, my readers: looking at the map, checking the time stamp on the photos themselves, and reminding myself what I did when. I have to finish sorting and naming all of these before I forget! And there are so many! It’s an endlessly amazing place! And I barely showed you one photo of Amman, a week ago…and have not yet even given you a glimpse of Jerash!
Ok, ok, fine: there’s a lot more in store, if you stay tuned. For today, we’ll focus on the Painted Triclinium, and all that can be seen both within, without it, and from within it looking out. Enjoy 🙂
(so much world, so little time....) 