The Roman Amphitheater

So after the Citadel we wandered down the hill to the Roman theater. Just getting down the hill was cool. You have to weave back and forth down stairs that run in between homes and little streets... like this:



This little girl was running so fast that I got my camera out at the last second... but I'm glad I did.

We wandered into the park that sits before the theater and meandered around a bit before entering the theater. There was an outdoor restaurant where you could potentially sit and have coffee, tea, sodas, or hookah, and a small row of shops. Alot like a town square park. Many locals and tourists... but lots of watchers.

The theater was built during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (169-177 AD). It's fairly large and quite steep to climb but was totally worth it of course, and it seats about 6,000 people. It is built into the hillside, and oriented north to keep the sun off the spectators.

Walking into the amphitheater:


This is one of my favorite pics from the theater because you can see the Temple of Hercules from it. In the previous post, I included a shot of this theater from up there. Pretty cool seeing it up there so high and knowing we walked all the way down to get the "full experience."


The theater is thought to have religious significance for the people of Amman as well. It's still used today for performances.


Taking it in.


Possibly one of the coolest things I've done since coming here is meeting Zaid. Scudder was eager to take me to his dagger/sword shop in the small market area that's outside of the theater. Last time he was here with Bob Mayer, they bought daggers from him and were thoroughly satisfied with the experience. Zaid has been in business for 20 years and has always held shop here. The people of Jordan are so friendly, if I haven't said it enough, and Zaid is the epitome of the kind. He will make you a custom dagger and personalize it for you. There's no pressure to purchase--which is something that the Jordanian vendors are known for, by trying to entice you into their shops--but not him, which makes you more willing to take it all in. The experience is worth it. He will bring tea or turkish coffee while you wait, (Scudder was upset that there was no more hibiscus tea that he and Bob had last time which was apparently memorable) and is eager to show you all the processes and impart as much information as he can. He will even encourage you to try practicing the design-making into the handle on practice daggers he keeps for customers to try. Using an age-old process, he will inscribe your name (or whatever you want) in Arabic into the blade, along with his information on the other side. There are pictures on the wall of him offering blades to the royal Hashemite family. In fact, he takes pictures with almost all his customers and will email them to you as well as will print them and put them up in his shop. He is a one-of-a-kind guy. I took the greatest video clip of him making daggers for us. It was amazing.


Scudder, Zaid and myself.


Zaid's store - next to the camera shop.



After the dagger shop we wandered around the downtown core. This city constantly surprises me with it's diversity and variety of eras just next door to eacht other. You can go from ancient Roman ruins, to a bustling, antiquated downtown that's dirty from car fumes (the oil seems very dirty and stinky here), traditionally Arabic and very busy... all the way to shopping districts that literally look like they belong in Paris or New York, complete with Starbucks and Mac Cosmetics. As a woman in the downtown area, I get a lot of looks, but it's not uncomfortable, just many glances from curious onlookers. Honestly, women are probably safer walking alone here (although I wasn't... relax Mom :), than in Burlington. Women are not viewed that way here, or in Islam; there is a lot of respect for women.


Downtown Amman - not a very good pic cause it was getting dark.


Gold - shops like this everywhere


Street vendor - some sort of beans


How books in Arabic, from texts to romance, are sold downtown.


After our adventures downtown (and getting sweets... oh my god Arabic sweets are so indulgent, I wish I could bring them home but most of them should be preserved or chilled)- we decided to go on a quest to find the only Mac (Apple) store in Jordan. Somewhere in the shopping area of Sweifeyeh (?? SPELL??) we were "told" (but we had no real clue what we were doing) there was a Mac store. If I haven't mentioned it already, I haven't had the use of my laptop since coming here because Burlington security forgot to give it back to me and I didn't realize it until JFK. So I needed a new charger for my MacBook, and we were on a quest.

It was the strangest thing--this shopping area turns out to be HUGE and pretty much the lunar opposite of the downtown core we just came from. Modern, clean, extremely Western, with all high-end European and American shops. It was surreal. Without any problem (surprising), we found the store and I squealed like a schoolgirl and skipped into the store. It was perfect! Looked like any other Mac store in America... I was pumped. EXCEPT WHEN THEY DON'T HAVE ANY MACBOOK CHARGERS IN-STOCK. Arrghhhhhhh!! It was such a bittersweet moment. I was in heaven but couldn't have my cake and eat it too. The manager kindly said they just ran out but that they had other Mac chargers... he offered to call Dubai and have one mailed, or to order one that would take 4 weeks! Oh well.

Mac Store - notice all the Paris shops surrounding it. Talk about typecasting customers.




I had to take this shot because of all the American shops all piled on top of each other... again, surreal.


Well that's all I can post for now, have to get packing so I can come home tomorrow. This all went by so fast. Will be in around 11pm on Sunday and I will be posting and catching up as best I can.

Love to all.
J

The Citadel updated

As promised - some descriptions. On Tuesday, we went to the Citadel in the center of Amman. It was pretty amazing to see. I was obsessed with the doors and must have a hundred door pictures.

The Hill of the Citadel (Jabal al-Qal'a) is in the middle of Amman and was occupied as early as the Neolithic period, and fortified during the Bronze Age (1800 BC). The ruins on the hill today are Roman through early Islamic. The name "Amman" comes from "Rabbath Ammon," or "Great City of the Ammonites," who settled in the region some time after 1200 BC. The Bible records that King David captured the city in the early 10th century BC; Uriah the Hittite, husband of King David's paramour Bathsheba, was killed here after the king ordered him to the front line of battle.

The Temple of Hercules
The great temple of Hercules was built between 162-166 AD and is larger than any temple in Rome itself. The temple portico is framed by six 33-foot tall columns. The absence of columns on the rest of the structure, has convinced the excavator that the temple was actually left unfinished. A model of the temple is displayed here at ACOR, the American Center for Oriental Research in Amman.





View of Amman from the Citadel hill


Ampitheater from Citadel - more pics of this to come. We walked down the hill and went inside.


More temple of Hercules




Inside the Byzantine church on the Citadel site - this dome is a recreation, the real one would have been covered and plastered.


Byzantine church


Pictures of the area (namely doors, but I have many more) around the church and the the Omayyad Palace--an impressive structure dating back to around 720AD and the rule of the Omayyad Arabs. Its exact function is unclear, but the building includes a monumental gateway, cruciform audience hall and four vaulted chambers. A colonnaded street runs through the complex and to the north and east, ruins of the palace grounds are visible.








View from Citadel - said to be the world's largest flying national flag


Edge of the Citadel looking down into the city of Amman.

Amman - Day One!

First "real" day one in Jordan. I woke up to the call to prayer at about 5am, I think. I wasn’t sure at first what was happening because I heard it in my dreams. You know, like when your alarm goes off and somehow you dream about it before you actually wake up, and I had only gone to sleep about 3 hours before that with the help of a sleeping pill—and it was very, very dark out still. I was expecting to hear it at some point, well probably at many points, however I certainly wasn’t expecting it to wake me up. It was strange, yet comforting, and not scary at all. It’s a very soothing, and clearly very Arabic, rhythmic chanting. All the mosques play the call to prayer five times a day, and I believe we must be in the center of it all because it went on for about a half hour. Right when I thought it went away, it would roll back around and get louder and louder again. I think I must have fallen back to sleep because when I got up again, it was very sunny and bright in my room and I guess around 630-7am.

View from my room - UJ is down the hill and to the right.


So this was my first time looking out my window and really seeing where I was. It’s pretty spectacular. We are perched on one of the sides of one of the many hills that make up Amman. Square, white-ish buildings surround ACOR with some large patches of dirt here and there, basically the equivalent of empty lots—just much dustier and no vegetation. As far as I can see, there are large portrait pictures of King Abdullah scattered about. Many cats around – no dogs. A fairly busy main drag down the hill and across that street and just down to the left is the University of Jordan.

Cats everywhere - no Elaine, you can't pet these ones - although they look like everyday housecats, not tomcats or alleycats. No dogs anywhere.


I hadn’t spoken to Gary yet and suddenly I felt some manic rush to get ready for whatever today was going to be, so I drank my EmergenC got in the military shower (not a real one, you just can’t keep the water running the whole time, water conservation is simply a way of life here). Because I only have one outlet adaptor, everything has to be timed. Things need to be plugged and unplugged and everything gets their turn with the juice. My hairdryer almost blew up because sparks flew when I plugged it in and it started to smell like it was burning – thank god I only needed it for a short time, otherwise I might be bald right now.

I got ready in record time, and went downstairs to grab coffee and breakfast from the kitchen and wait to see Scudder. There’s a dining area next to the lobby with a large kitchen where everyone can grab what they want to eat for breakie that you have to prepare yourself: eggs, toast, cereal, coffee, tea, milk—whatever’s around. Then lunch is a more formal affair and served @ 2pm. You must tell them if you are going to attend because they are big on NOT wasting food. There is a family that has been cooking here for something like 30 or 40 years and because they are Muslim, there will never be pork served here, nor can you bring it in out of respect.

The dining room adjacent to the lobby at ACOR - kitchen is through a door to the right.


Lobby of ACOR


Scudder arrived somewhat disheveled – the airline lost his luggage again. Ack! This happened when he went to Morocco during his past trip. He got in later than expected (3am) due to filling out the missing luggage forms and all that jazz. I was introduced to Char at breakfast who I’ve heard a lot about. She is a professor from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, (near where I grew up) and a good friend of Scudder’s. She is in the heat of her sabbatical and teaching online classes for now. Last time she was here she brought a troupe of students from Washington—a neat lady who we will be having dinner with later tonight.

I went with Gary to grab some toiletries so he could be somewhat groomed for his presentation at the University of Jordan this morning. I think men aren’t supposed to sit with women, or maybe they are supposed to sit up front for directions. But I sit in the back and Gary sits up front. It cost him about 30 dollars to grab some shaving essentials, shampoo, etc. Yikes! However, there wasn’t any time to get him any new clothes, so the two-day old clothes were going to have to suffice for now.

Front of ACOR


Front Courtyard of ACOR


One of the views from the deck - there are many plants and flowers Mom would love.


View from back of ACOR - my room is second window down from far left


Olive trees everywhere