Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Amman

Jordan

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Around Amman, Jordan. Here's a view of the city of Amman from the Citadel.

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It's funny... I got to see some dead sea scrolls at the Jordan Museum in Amman... When I returned home, I just found out that the Natural History Museum was opening the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit later! Well, I think it was cool I saw some bits of the scroll even though I couldn't make out anything from the bits of the scroll... hee-hee!

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Thirsty?

Jordan

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Can you tell that these are coke cans? It's interesting that they have a different can size/shape there... =)

Oh yeah, there's another cool story in this restaurant, some of the people eating there are archaeologists on a dig! Well, I think it's cool we got to meet in person real archaeologists! Hee-hee! If I remember correctly, they are from Brown University...

Mosaics

Madaba, Jordan

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The Madaba Map is the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem. It dates to the 6th century AD. (As taken from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madaba_Map

The mosaic in the church was interesting... You can actually tell which one is the dead sea, etc!

Taybet-Zaman

Jordan

The views from the hotel is amazing! See for yourself!

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Loved the hotel we stayed at after visiting Petra! It has Bedouin inspired decor, which was interesting... One thing I remember from that hotel though is it may be a little tough to find your room if you don't have a map! Hee-hee!

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Around Petra

Petra, Jordan

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We didn't realize how big the site is in Petra! We were not able to explore the whole thing, I guess a whole day is not enough... What we saw though was impressive! Oh yeah, I tried to climb the 625 steps to the high place of sacrifice, but I ran out of time so I turned back... Back on the bus, when I described where I stopped on the way to the high place of sacrifice, they told me I was just a few more steps from the top!!! Darn! Hee-hee! It's okay though since we were able to explore the other areas there. =)

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Can you see where the start of the Siq is and the site itself from here? I couldn't tell until our guide pointed it to us!

The Treasury

Petra, Jordan

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Tan-ta-ran-tan Tan-tan-tan

Petra, Jordan

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If you guessed Petra, you are right!!! We rode horses ala-Indiana Jones to the entrance of the Siq and just hoofed it to the treasury!

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It was great when we first got a glimpse of the Treasury from the Siq... Our guide was telling us about something on top of the Siq... When we all turned around, we all saw the sliver of the treasury and started humming the Indiana Jones song at the same time! It was hilarious!

On to our next destination

Jordan

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Can you guess where our next destination is? =)

Bedouin Camps

Jordan

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On our way to our next adventure, we saw Bedouin camps on the side of the road. You've got to admire them on how they can survive in a land that looks so barren... (It's just sand that I see, with little scrubs!)