Recalling more of life in Jordan!

Yes I must apologise about certain mistakes made in my last post...for instance as far as warring Nations goes I should have written Israel rather than Jerusalem. And as far as cost of animals ie. goats, I should have written DINARS rather than dollars...1Dinar equals 90 English pence...but what 1Dinar equalled 1 Australian dollar...well I leave those calculations up to you dear reader. Which ever way you look at it GOATS are the most precious animals in Jordan.
Also another amusing bit of information given to us by our local guide was about the cost of units or housing. A unit or building closest to a road is the most expensive. And the unit or living quarters up highest in a building is the cheapest. And the buildings, all flat roofed yet having an unfinished look with wires protruding up into the sky...these looks show how the locals are positive thinkers...they all hope to have some increase in cash-flow soon so that they can extend their building and add another storey.
So while I am onto positive thinkers let's look at the issue of the 'promised land!' Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab,where Moses looked out and found the Promised Land, here the great sense of history others felt on seeing this aspect failed to make an impact on me. Instead the map showing how close we were to Hebron, Jericho and Jerusalem...now that did impress me.

 However our bus took us further south and before we knew it we were stunned by the sight of the massive Jordan Canyon. Looking down on the bare land masses we could not only identify the Jordan Dam but also the Jordan river and beyond where we imagined because one had to have a great imagination to be able to see or recognise Jerusalem.
Ali, our guide was enthusiastically comparing this great landscape with the Canyon found in California, USA. According to Ali, tourists from Israel treck for seven days through the Jordan river valley to arrive at the dam.

Did I mention the trees at Amman that caught my eye? Unusual aren't they? The way they grow upwards to the light? They are not trimmed to grow like that.



And the further south one drives the less greenery one can expect to find and the more important water becomes to the people living in those dry areas.

 We stopped at various historical sights on our way to Petra but the remnants of this church AD174 impressed me the most.
Many samples of Mosaic floor tiling could still be seen, the size of each tile so small and the design lasting hundreds of years made me feel guilty about not having repaired my small mosaic tile outdoor table at home. But it will be done!!

The images of Lions was most important wherever we went. These particular images were found lying out in the weather under sand and were covered with material by concerned Archaeologists. Don,t forget to click on the images to enlarge them.