Sunday 31 January 2010

Jordan Day 3. Churches and Karak Castle

On Friday 29th we set off at 8 am to Madaba. Friday is the Moslem holy day, and the first day of their weekend. First Ibrahim drove us through the area where the embassies are. As you approach one, there's a sign, 'No Photos'. Security is very tight. There were four utes with machine guns mounted on top, plus a large number of armed men in grey with army helmets and big guns at their waists. Can you guess which nation's embassy it is!

We drove out of town at 1100m above sea level. The road goes down to 1470m below. At Madaba we looked at three old churches with great mosaics, if only somebody would clean them. The most famous is the map of the Middle East on the floor of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Kerak Castle came after that. I was so excited to visit this Crusader Castle which I knew about from my history studies. It is high on a hill, rearing up above the town as you approach, and three times as high above the fertile fields on the other side. Sandie and I didn't want any lunch, so we dashed all over the place together. You would think that no one could possibly have got in. There's a story about an assault on it. The assaulter was told that a wedding was going on. He asked where this was taking place, and redirected his bombardment to other areas.

Four 14 year old girls chatted to me and I took their photo in their pretty coloured scarves.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Sounds like you're having fun Sister!!!

Geoff