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My travel to Jordan on July 2009 was not to tour the country but for an inspection of HVAC units.
Since the inspection schedule had sandwiched Friday, the weekend
in Jordan, I got a chance to roam around the country for the
whole day. Actually, I have no plan to travel outside
Amman, the capital of Jordan but when I went to Citadel, a
tourist attraction and just a walking distance from my hotel on
Thursday late afternoon, I bumped with a fellow sightseer from
India but based in Bahrain. His name is Blaize.
Blaize advised me that he intend to travel to major tourist
destinations around Jordan the following day by taxi. I asked if I
can go with him and we will just split the cost of the taxi
fare. He readily agreed and I felt excited considering
that in one full day and in comfort riding on a car, we will visit Petra, the Dead Sea and the
Jordan River where Jesus was baptized. If by tourist bus,
I cannot do the tour of the same places in one day.
I then joined Blaize for the rest of the afternoon to continue the
sightseeing the city of Amman.
These are some of the photos taken during that journey.
AMMAN CITADEL
The Amman Citadel is a historical
site at the center of downtown Amman, Jordan.
Known in Arabic as Jabal
al-Qal'a, the L-shaped hill is one of the seven jabals
(mountains) that originally made up Amman. Evidence of
occupation since the pottery Neolithic period[1]has
been found. The Citadel of Amman is considered to be among the
world's oldest
continuously inhabited places. The Citadel is
considered an important site because it has had a long history
of occupation by many great civilizations. Most of the
buildings still visible at the site are from the Roman,
Byzantine, and Umayyad periods. The major buildings at the
site are the Temple
of Hercules, a Byzantine church, and the Umayyad
Palace.
(From Wikipedia.com)
TEMPLE
OF HERCULES
This
site is thought to be the most significant Roman structure
in the Amman Citadel. It was alleged that the temple
was built when Germinius Marcianus was governor of the
Province of Arabia in AD 162-166.
AMMAN's ROMAN THEATER
Overlooking from the Amman
Citadel is the Roman Theater.
Amman's Roman
Theater is
a 6,000-seat, 2nd-century Roman
theater.
A famous landmark in the Jordanian capital,
it dates back to the Roman period
when the city was known as Philadelphia. The theatre and the
nearby Odeon are
flanking the new Hashemite
Plaza from
the south and the east respectively, while the Roman Nymphaeum is
just a short stroll away in south-westerly direction.
A taste of
sitting on a theater that was seated as well by the Romans many
years ago.
The theatre was probably built in the 2nd century AD during the
reign of Antoninus Pius (AD 138–61).
AMMAN, JORDAN
The city of Amman was founded
in 7250 BC, a very old civilization.
I find the city to be very beautiful
due to it has similar color at the front of their buildings.
I later found out that by regulation, all residential buildings
are required to be covered with a thick limestone or sandstone
that are locally available. This view of Amman was taken
from the Citadel.
PETRA
(A UNESCO World Heritage Site
since 1985.)
We started our journey early
on Friday morning. We then headed towards Petra, around
230 km away from Amman. This time, we passed through
the freeway, thus our journey was uneventful and
straightforward. On arrival, we paid the tourist fee at the gate
and then walked through a 1.2 km long gorge called the Siq.
At the end of the gorge is the Al-Khazneh or "The Treasury".
Due to time constraint, we did not ventured beyond Al-Khazneh.
The entrance to the gorge or Siq.
View inside the gorge or Siq.
Stone formation on the wall of
the Siq.
The epicenter of
PETRA... Al-Khazneh
or "The Treasury". Built possibly as early as 5th century BC by the Nabateans,
nomadic Arabs.
It remained unknown to the world until it was
rediscovered in 1812 by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.
A memento with a Jordanian Royal
Guard and hugging one of the pillars of The Treasury.
Click here to see palace ruin, the Dead Sea and the
Jordan River.
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