May 15th: Today we left our hotel in Amman and boarded three 4x4’s. Our first stop was an old Roman/Nabatean site, Umm Aljmael, with multiple ruins of a military barrack, homes and cisterns. We toured many of the ruins and every now and then would stop to analyze the soil. From here we got back in the cars and after making a brief stop at a mine pit, traveled
to Jawa. Jawa is an ancient Roman city with the first recorded man-made dam in the world. Currently it is located in the middle of the desert, but during Roman times it would have been situated in a forested region with rivers flowing on either side of the city. However, the only catch is that to get to Jawa you have to drive quite a distance through the desert. And unless your drivers know where they are going (which in our case they didn’t), it can take quite some time. We found ourselves driving in the middle of the Basalt desert for a couple hours until we were all stopped by a text message that all of the drivers received which said: “Welcome to Syria, enjoy your stay!” Apparently in the desert they don’t worry too much about defining country borders, and we had managed to get fairly close to Syria, it all looked the same though. We stopped and got out of our cars, and as a celebration, we created a pile of rocks on the side of the road. Surprisingly enough, although the desert consists of only millions of rocks and few if any people, somehow every so often we would come across stacked piles of rocks. Sometimes, nomadic and pastoralist people would create these piles as monuments to important sites, but there’s no way that there were that many important sites in the middle of nowhere. Regardless, we felt it fitting to create our own pile of rocks. After finding our way back to Jordan, we managed to eventually come across Jawa. We went and explored the ruins and checked out the remains of the oldest dam in the world. After our tour, we had lunch outside the cistern and then got back in the cars. We made one last journey through the desert where we arrived at our next hotel in Azraq.
May 16th: After spending the night at Azraq Lodge, a restored war hospital, we went to visit the Azraq wetlands. Although surprising to most, Jordan does have wetlands. However sadly
the wetlands have been destroyed compared to what they once were, primarily because of water being pumped from the wetland to supply the larger cities with drinking water. However conservation efforts have been underway in an attempt to save this ecosystem. Azraq used to be the pitstop for roughly 400,000 different bird species on their migration route from Africa to Europe, however this is no longer the case. It is still an excellent bird watching location and many tourists come here to observe the wildlife. Once at Azraq, we took a walk through the wetlands where we arrived at a bird watching hut. Continuing on, we checked out the history museum and then finally wandered back outside. As we were standing looking back on the wetlands, we saw something moving in the distance. With the aid of some binoculars, we quickly realized we had found some water buffalo grazing near the water. Conveniently they were right in front of the bird watching hut, which we remembered how to get back to. Grabbing some cameras, a few of us sprinted, a quiet sprint, back to the hut. Looking out the window, we found ourselves a few feet from the herd (or possibly flock, gathering, or cluster).
After capturing the shot, we got back in the cars and traveled to the next location, Desert Castle #1 (because I forget the name of it). Driving through Jordan’s desert you come across many Desert Castles, which are buildings built as rest stops for trade routes throughout the desert. DS#1 had one of the world’s oldest hydraulic pumps in the world. Inside, the walls and domed ceilings were covered with old fresco
paintings. Desert Castle #2, also known as El-Kharaanah, was massive and resembled a miniature European castle made out of sand. The castle had too floors and many rooms to explore. In the walls were narrow slits resembling slots in a castle in which arrows would be shot from a bow. However, these slots were angled down towards the ground outside. Because of this, wind would blow in from the desert, and any sand that was carried with it would be trapped on the walls of the slot. It was very effective. After the two desert castles, we got back in the cars and headed for the next lodge, Ajloun Reserve.
May 17th: This morning we spent 5 hours hiking through a better part of the valley on an 8 mile trek. The trail was called the “Prophet’s Trail” and was meant to show where Elijah had 
wandered through these mountains. After trekking through a couple forests, a wheat field, and a couple sheep pastures, we made it to the peak of the final mountain. On the top of the mountain were the ruins from an old church. Stone walls bordered and tiled mosaics covered the floor of the old church. From here, you could see the entire mountain range we had just hiked through. Beyond the mountains lay the Jordan Valley and past that, the West Bank. After getting back from the hike, we had lunch at the camp site and were then given the rest of the day as a rest period.
May 18th: Today we spent another day visiting some of the ancient Roman ruins. This time we stopped at a small church at a site called Abila. This site was smaller than the others but there was no one there, which gave us the opportunity to explore most of the site. Through our exploration, we managed to discover a chameleon hiding in the prickly bushes. Needless to say we had some fun taking pictures and videotaping. From here, we then traveled to Umm Qais, another ruins site which overlooked the Sea of Gallilee. 
This was the same site which the bible says that Jesus cast the demons out of a crazy man into a pig (we also had fun taping a re-enactment of this scene). We then had an incredible lunch at the top of the hill overlooking the ruins, valley, and sea. The best part of the lunch though was the bathroom (at least some would argue). To get to the bathroom you walked under a hanging flower garden and then the inside of the bathroom had huge ceilings and the sink was semi-outside. It was pretty awesome. And the food was pretty awesome too. After getting back in the bus, we drove on to our final stop for the day, a Dates Farm. This farm specializes in growing the Medjoun Date and we were given a tour of their fields and production plant. Afterwards, the manager of the farm took us to his office where we talked about the business and he let us all try some of their dates. After this visit, we had a long drive back in the bus to our lodge.
May 19th: Today we left the Ajloun Reserve and visited Ajloun Castle. The castle was the largest structure we have visited yet and was beautiful both inside and outside. From here, we then left and traveled to Jarash, the largest roman ruins we have visited yet. Before exploring the ruins, 
we watched a re-enactment of roman fighting, gladiators, and chariot racing. The show took place in an actual roman theatre which made it one of the cooler things we have done yet (in my opinion). After the show, we went and had a buffet lunch nearby and then continued on to explore the ruins. Jerash is a large ancient city connected through a series of crossing roads. Roman columns cover the site and are separated by market squares, temples, churches, theatres, and baths. One of the ingenious aspects to the city roads was in how they laid the stone. All the stones were laid on a diagonal to reduce the noise from the passing chariots and to prevent chariot wheels from getting caught in the ridges. The roads also had manhole covers scattered throughout the site. 
After exploring the rest of the site, we got back on the bus and drove to Madaba to stay in our new hotel. After getting dinner at a wonderful restaurant, we came back to the hotel to rest, do wash, and rest some more. Tomorrow we are heading to Mt. Nebo and will be visiting a local farm to look at Jordanian agricultural practices. We should have access to internet over the next few days, so you can expect some new posts in the future. That’s all on the Jordanian front, hope things are going well back in the States. See everyone soon!
-Spud
