Leaving Israel (temporarily) and Entering the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

After a very history-packed three days in the Ein Gev Kibbutz at the Sea of Galilee, we departed for Jordan and drove about an hour for an eventful, strictly controlled passport check at the border. Our regular Israeli bus driver dropped us off as we picked up a new driver and Jordanian tour guide along with our own individual police officer who traveled with us for the remainder of the day. Ronen, our Israel tour director, remained with us as a fellow travel passenger for the rest of the Jordan trip. Once our group was cleared by security, our passports were handed back to us and our luggage and hand carry-ons could load the new bus and take off. The whole process took about one and one-half hours and was very tedious as it was quite busy with many other tour groups as well.

Our new tour guide from Jordan gave us some general information about Jordan and we climbed higher and higher into the hills above the Jordan River where we started. The country is ruled by a monarchy and their current king is named Abdullah. Much of the terrain up to this point was very barren, but many oak trees began to appear along with their main agriculture producing tree, the olive. We climbed to about 2200 feet winding round and round the curves as we drove towards Jerash, an ancient city from Roman times which was discovered previously, but not uncovered until the 1930’s when enough funding was provided to complete the job.

Lunch was awaiting us at the Artemis Restaurant high on top of the hills, providing typical Jordanian cuisine in a large buffet style. It was a large place with many other tour groups enjoying their meals at the same time as ours with many choices of different delicious things to eat. The favorite seemed to be the white coconut yummy pudding along with the deep-fried sweet dumplings in some kind of a honey sauce. After lunch, our bus driver took us a short distance to the ruins on the site of the ancient city of Jerash which had been a city of almost 35,000 at one time. It was a huge archaeological dig uncovering many of the typical Roman structures such as Hadrian’s arch entering the gate, the hippodrome, amphitheater, etc. The columns were decorated in the Corinthian style and there were plenty of them all around the area of almost a mile in length. Our group had our photo taken by a young Jordanian man for $5.00 and a CD with accompanying pictures of the structures on site included. Many of us purchased this group shot.

We left Jerash about mid-afternoon to head for Mt. Nebo where Moses was shown the Promise Land by God, but never got the chance to enter Canaan. The most accepted theory is that he had let his pride overtake him earlier in his life, or perhaps, 120 years old may have been long enough for him to live? When we walked a short distance to the edge of the mountain cliff, it was quite breath-taking and one can only imagine how Moses must have felt when he saw this land flowing with “Milk and Honey.” The view below was spectacular and the Dead Sea was visible beyond the valley below. The property is currently protected and shown as a visitor’s showplace by the Catholic Church’s Franciscan monks.

After a long day, we headed down the winding road to the area of the Dead Sea just as the sun was setting behind the clouded sky. Beautiful surroundings of history all along the way, structures of homes, most still unfinished, but so much trash everywhere one looked.
Nellie West-Small