24 hours in Amman

Amman in the capital city of Jordan, which is known as the city of seven hills as it originally spanned across seven hills. Now spanning 19, the city is growing both in size and economically. Starting at the Citadal on the top of Jabal Al-qal'a I wandered down steep staircases, through markets and past Mosques before finding falafel and humous for lunch. Crossing through protests, churches and 7 way junctions I journeyed up Jabal Ashrafieh in search of the Abu Darweesh Mosque which was at the highest point in the city. Unfortunately I never quite made it on that far, as my map didn't quite stretch that far, and I was side tracked by some friendly locals and the sight of evening prays. Fortunately on my way back through Amman before my flight home I managed to explain to a taxi driver that I wanted to go to the big black and white mosque.

A night time view of Amman from the roof of my hotel.

The Roman temple of Hercules in the Citadel in Jabal Al-Qal'a

One of the many staircases in up and down the hills of Amman.

A spice shop which spilled out into the street. 

A Mosque hidden amongst the winding streets lit by the setting sun.

The magnificent black and white Abu Darweesh Mosque.

Petra - The Rose City

Following in the footsteps of Indiana Jones, while in Jordan we visited the old Nabataean city of Petra. Over 2000 years old this world heritage sight was carved into red coloured stone giving it the name of the Rose City. Our guide started us off on a 'cross country route' allowing us to see many of the famous sights, such as the treasury, from above. The views were spectacular, we saw a lot of the lesser known dwellings and tombs and we avoided being troubled by camel owners and other punters trying to make money out of tourists. Walking back along the 'tourist route' we gained a better sense of scale of the larger sights such as the amphitheatre and the Urn tomb.

A view looking through the valley of the Amphitheatre.

A dwelling as seen from the doorway of a tomb.

A dwelling showing off the multi-coloured sandstone rock.

Camels lined up in the shade ready to save you the walk back to the entrance.

The Palace and the Corinthian tombs.

The treasury and the camel.

A view of the treasury on the way out through the El Siq

Camping in Wadi Rum

The south of Jordan is mostly made up of the Arabian desert and was a spectacular place. Full of large rock formations and orange sand, it was easy to see why it was chosen as the film set for Lawrence of Arabia. We arrived at our campsite at around mid afternoon, and took off in 4 x 4 s across the sand venturing to sand dunes and Bedouin tea tents. Walking back towards the setting sun we collected firewood for later. Despite a night of barbecued goat, shisha and drinking around an open fire I still managed to make it out of our tent in time to capture the sunrise.

A view over the sandstone rock formations of Wadi Rum

Our Jordanian guide, Zuhair, watching the sun go down.

The rock face lit from the light of our camp fire.

 

Our group listening to Zuhair's stories around the camp fire.

Sunrise over Wadi Rum was definitely worth getting up for!