Exploring the Archeological Wonders of Jordan
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THE JERUsalem POST . SUndaY, janUary 21, 2018 TRAVEL TRENDS 7 Exploring the archeological wonders of Jordan • By NORMA MEYER nicknamed “Valley of the Moon” “Yankee Doodle Dandy” on bag- for its rippling peach-pink sands pipes in the Corinthian-columned n Jordan’s extraordinary rose- pierced by titan sandstone and gran- amphitheater near the chariot hip- red “Lost City” of Petra, I have ite peaks. Lawrence and his guerrilla podrome. just huffed up 700 zigzag- rebels made their base here in 1917- Petra, though, is the jackpot. Aban- ging stone-carved steps to the 18, and decades later director David doned in the seventh century, it was Iancient mountaintop High Place Lean filmed the cinematic classic rediscovered by a Swiss explorer in of Sacrifice with its sacred altar and in this otherworldly locale. (Plan- 1812 and became a UNESCO heri- goat blood drain. And now, along a etwise, Wadi Rum also subbed for tage site in 1985. Hidden away, to dirt trail, I rest in a rug-draped souve- Mars in the 2015 Oscar nominee The get to the ancient city, you have to nir stall while an octogenarian Bed- Martian.) trek through the dramatic narrow ouin woman – who is traditionally Near a commemorative rock carv- Siq, a nearly mile-long slot canyon clad in a long embroidered madraga ing of Lawrence’s face, we stop at a sandwiched by 24-story-high veiny dress and grew up in a cave – deftly rectangular tent woven from black rock edifices and at times only 10 strings a fragrant necklace of dried goat’s hair and occupied by hospi- feet wide. Nature-created formations cloves to sell me. table Bedouins who offer us carda- stare down in the shapes of elephants Way down below, camels with mon-and-sage tea. First, one of them and skulls. At the end, the Siq cracks tasseled bridles emit rumbling, has us stick out our forearms and open to reveal the grandstanding, dinosaurlike roars while being led rolls on a soaplike perfume. “It’s rock-whittled funerary-urn-crowned by robed Bedouin tribesmen whose gazelle innards,” Omar says after- Treasury, likely a former temple. Har- eyes are rimmed in jet-black kohl wards. Yuck. rison Ford galloped up to the fantas- liner. Other indigenous Bedouins, Most of the Bedouins I meet speak tical facade in the 1989 movie “Indi- head scarves atop their flowing only Arabic, so Omar gladly trans- ana Jones and the Last Crusade” in ringlets, strangely resemble Johnny lates. “He says, ‘You are a camel.’” search of the Holy Grail. Depp’s Jack Sparrow as they trot on A what? After dark, I return for the corny- donkeys (“you want air-conditioned “It means you are beautiful, cool “Petra by Night” ceremony. taxi?”) past monolithic, 2,000-year- because camels are beautiful with Even with my flashlight I can barely old tombs. their long eyelashes.” see as I stumble through the ghostly Mystical, mind-blowing Petra lit- Siq, lit only by hundreds of luminar- erally rocks. Around the first centu- I SIT MY hump down and enjoy ia candles, and then sit in the lumi- ry B.C., the now-extinct Nabataean the steaming sweet tea, cooked in naria-lit dirt in front of the shad- people ingeniously chiseled the cap- a charred brass kettle over a rudi- owy Treasury. Bedouins play a flute ital of their Arab empire from sheer mentary fire pit. Because Muslims and rababa string instrument before sandstone cliffs; at times 30,000 avoid alcohol, tea is a main social the big reveal – spotlights suddenly inhabitants bustled about the afflu- drink in Jordan, and you’re constant- bathe the Treasury in changing psy- ent metropolis that was a major trade ly offered a cup in friendship. (You’ll chedelic colors. stopover for incense – and spice-tot- find nonalcoholic beers and nonal- Over two days I walk 23 miles in ing camel caravans. Stretching across coholic wines on some menus, but Petra because the scenes won’t quit. harsh desert terrain (Petra’s archaeo- the rare place I hoist a glass of Cab is On the High Place of Sacrifice climb, logical park encompasses 102 square outside Petra’s gate at the 2,000-year- I smell the pungent smoke of juni- miles), the once-forgotten marvel old Cave Bar, touted as the world’s per branches, and soon a Bedouin includes intricate temples; obelisks oldest saloon. Indeed there are spir- man is hawking me a morning shot honoring pagan gods; etchings of its; it’s a former Nabataean family of Arabic coffee heated by a camp- snakes, lions and eagles; cave dwell- tomb.) fire teetering on a killer-view ridge. ings; a theater; and more than 600 In Wadi Rum, I sleep inside a goat- Later, as my elderly new friend massive burial chambers, all hewed hair tent in a rustic Bedouin camp set Hammadeh strings that clover neck- from soaring rock faces that bewitch- against wind-buffeting cliffs on the lace in her ramshackle stall, she tells ingly glow in swirling hues of terra desert floor until at 4 a.m. I am awak- me through interpreter Omar how cotta, apricot and blush pink. ened by a distant muezzin’s melodic she once lived in a cave in Petra and “Petra is one of the world’s biggest call to prayer and, after that, a roost- still follows the old ways, herding mysteries,” says Omar, my Jordanian er’s shrill cock-a-doodle-doo. her sheep and goats. Without tour- guide with Exodus Travels. “There Next I wake up the entire camp ism, she frets, she has no money. “I is no record of history. And 65% of shrieking as I clumsily mount my thank God. I thank God for every- Petra is still underneath our feet, hid- ride. “Yalla, yalla,” Rashid gently thing,” she says as I buy three more den by dust.” urges his herd of five sibling camels, necklaces. For almost two weeks, I traverse meaning “Let’s go,” and soon with Petra’s most jaw-dropping high much of Jordan by bus with Exo- just one other traveler, we have the place is the Monastery, accessible by dus, an adventure company that also pre-dawn moonscape to ourselves. hoofing up nearly 1,000 Nabatae- brings us 16 intrepid voyagers to the Atop cud-chewing Aliya, I hyp- an-cut steep steps. After the path’s less-visited far reaches of this Middle notically watch the flaming sunrise last bend, this mammoth stone tem- East nation. Petra is Jordan’s primo turn the unending vastness a radi- ple – it’s 155 feet wide – magically tourist draw, but elsewhere we’re the ant gold. For 90 beyond-belief min- pops out of a remote mountainside only ones clambering over archae- utes, the only sounds are the camels’ towering over my puny presence. ological ruins of a mosaic-splashed feet softly sinking into the powdery From the Monastery, I continue Roman fort and a Muslim dynasty’s dunes and the chirping of Sinai rose- ascending a boulder-strewn trail frescoed castles in no man’s land. finches. A well-fed stray dog joins until next to a grazing gray donkey History mixes with the present – TOURISTS WALK through the narrow Siq, the same passageway traders took to enter Petra 2,000 years ago. our pack, funnily bringing up the I see a piece of scrap wood lying driving through the bleak parched (Norma Meyer/San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS) rear. against a pile of rubble and hand- desert, we pass a sprawling Syrian ref- Every day of our itinerary, we hit scrawled, “Welcome to Top of the ugee camp housing 36,000 in rows and when I say “America,” they all It’s the start of a cultural odyssey. ly quiet courtyard of Qasr Al Azraq, an archaeological treasure. I feel like World Cafe.” Up further, I reach the of white shelters; Jordan has taken warmly reply, “Welcome to Jordan,” With Exodus, I also retrace exploits the storied black basalt fortress I’m in Italy as I wander the immense “cafe,” a tattered, tented platform in about 1 million people who have often with their hands placed over of Lawrence of Arabia, the dashing where T.E. Lawrence and his Bedou- 2,000-year-old Roman city of Jerash, precariously perched over a rocky fled the war-torn nation to its north. their hearts. I’m probably welcomed British officer who gained fame in in troops plotted attacks during the dubbed the “Pompeii of the Mid- ledge in the heavens. And there, a Before joining our group, I spend 100 times – in taxis, cafes while I eat World War I for leading the legend- winter of 1917. dle East” for its well-preserved ruins 17-year-old Bedouin named Lost two days in the vibrant old quarters mezze plates of hummus and falafel, ary Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Another day, I’m bouncing in the buried by blown sand for centuries. (“because you’re always found,” he of capital Amman and clearly stick shops, hookah bars, streets lined Turks. Pre-trip, I re-watched the 1962 blanketed bed of a Bedouin-driven Cultures humorously collide: Two smiles) offers me another cup of tea, out – locals repeatedly ask where with bowing worshipers outside a Oscar-winning epic Lawrence of Ara- Toyota pickup tearing across the Bedouins, head-scarfed with red- this one with a sprig of mint. I’m from. This is a Muslim country, minaret-topped mosque. bia, so it’s eerie to stand in the grave- UNESCO-listed Wadi Rum desert, and-white checkered keffiyehs, toot – The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS The sound of music at Kfar Blum TALY’S TRAVEL Culinary excellence One of the highlights of staying at Pas- • By TALY SHARON toral Hotel-Kfar Blum was the food.