Jordan Day 2

Thursday 28 Jan

We left at 7.35 am, heading north to Um Qais. Had an hour there. A wonderful, junky old ruin, that has not been developed as a tourist site. It was Greek, then Roman. Up above is a Moslem village, now overgrown with weeds. There's a theatre, a main street that stretches for 2 km, ruined temples. Only four other people there. Because it's the off season, there are very few tourists, relatively speaking.
It's great to do things early in the day. I found a lone red anemone and pinned it on my jacket. Ibrahim said that the area would be covered with them in a month.

It's a beautiful day. We can't believe how warm it is and neither can Ibrahim. This is supposed to be winter, but the cold snap disappeared just before we arrived.

Next visit was Ajloun Castle, a massive fortress with a great 'fosse' (ditch) around it. Think 30m deep and 15m wide. I was sure it would be impregnable.

The highlight of the day - in fact it took the rest of the day - was Jerash (with the emphasis on the 'Jer'). This is the best Roman ruin/excavation I have ever seen. We started at 2.15 with the Roman show. James would have enjoyed it.

First a very small legion of about 20 men marched onto the hippodrome. They demonstrated their weapons. The pila is the throwing javelin made of steel and wood. Use that for poking holes in your enemy or his horse. The scuta is the shield. Bash your enemy with the knob on the front, or thrust the top of the shield up under his chin. The way they fought was: they lined up in nines. The front nine fought for 8 minutes then withdrew to the back (if they hadn't been killed or severely wounded). Thus there were always fresh soldiers coming forward. They showed us a formation with shields in front of them and the famous testudo (tortoise) with the shields in front and over their heads.

Then the gladiators came out and fought. We had to put thumbs up if we wanted the vanquished one to live, and thumbs sideways if we wanted him to die. NB: not thumbs down - they said that was incorrect. After that three chariots had a race round the hippodrome.

We spent an hour and a half walking around the site. It is huge, with massive temples, a great oval market place, three theatres. And only one third of it has been excavated. After a huge earthquake in 749, the people abandoned the city and built Baghdad, which was completed in 756. Debri blew in for almost 1300 years. Excavation began in the 1920's. It is amazing!!!!!