Jordan Day 3

Salutations!!!

On our third day in Jordan, we woke up in our hotel in downtown Amman, and set out:

Our first stop was the Amman Citadel, which contains ruins from many time periods, and is thus known as one of the oldest continually inhabited places in the world. Among other things, this is where King David sent Uriah the Hittite (Bathsheba's husband) to die in battle in 2 Samuel 11. (this area is where the battle was taking place, and the hill where the Amman Citadel sits is where the Israeli fortress was)

This is the temple of Hercules which was built between 162 and 166 AD

This is Hercules' hand and elbow that belonged to a statue by the temple (this is all that is left of it)--You can imagine that this thing was enormous!!!

This is an Umayyad Mosque from the 8th century that leads to what would have been the governor's palace.

Sidenote: we looked over the edge and saw this flooded park... so sad...

Behind me and Lindsey is the city of Amman, Jordan :-)

I think I am known amongst the people on this trip as the one with the loudest laugh...

Amman from the Citadel :-)

Me and Heidi ;-)

We then headed towards the Jabbok river on our way to Jerash...

While driving, we pulled the bus over and our tour guide picked some "balm of Gilead" plants so that we could see what it looked like. Then we were able to sing Did You Think to Pray? which references balm of Gilead. 

Rachel (my roommate) holding some Balm of Gilead plant

Our next stop was the Jabbok river (where many biblical events occurred including Jacob "wrestling" with an angel and then facing his brother Esau in Genesis 32)

Spencer, Emily, Me, and Paige :-)

Katie in the bus (we are on separate buses, and I took this from my bus looking into Katie's)

We then headed to Jerash, which is a city that dates back to the Bronze Age, and many of the buildings are from the Roman Period (around 63BC)

The Hippodrome (Horse Race Track)

Hunter sporting a head scarf...

Check out those columns! When the city was inhabited, there were shops between each of these pillars and it was a marketplace in the middle of the city 

The theater in Jerash--we had the opportunity to sing a few songs :-)

The seats in the theater--you can see the symbols carved into the stone to designate seat numbers

loving it :-)

Lindsaaaaaay

The temple of Artemis is in the distance

The Cardo (main street) in Jerash

These pillars are imported Egyptian stone, which would have been used to show off the wealth of the city (there is plenty of local stone, but importing stone makes you look like you have lots of money)

Mikkel and Jenessa took some engagement photos...

column picture :-)

Our group (Me, Mikkel, Ragan, Jenessa) in front of the Temple of Zeus (I snagged this picture and the two above it from Jenessa's blog)

Our final stop of the day was at the Royal Automobile Museum, which houses some of the former Jordanian King's cars and motorcycles (there is an insane number of expensive vehicles in that museum)

Great day ;-)

-Erika