We weren't entirely sure when we set out to leave Israel that our plan to cross into Jordan would work. There was a lot of conflicting information on the Internet, mostly tour companies saying that you couldn't cross the border as an individual, you had to be part of a tour (you could see how this would be in their benefit). Nonetheless, we set out anyway. Worst case, we'd get stuck in Eilat for the night and have to find a tour group in order to get into Jordan.
The Treasury at Petra
Temperature the day we crossed the border into Jordan
As we were sitting in the stifling heat at the bus stop just outside Masada, Israel, waiting for the bus, we met a few fellow travelers, two young guys who live in Paris. They were also going to try to get to Petra in Jordan that night, so we decided to combine our forces. The bus to Eilat from Masada took about four hours (seriously, thank goodness for air conditioning!) as we crossed some of the hottest, most desolate desert countryside I've ever seen (Kenzi here). Our new European friends, Thomas and Matthew, had also found conflicting information online, but gave us a tip to buy the Jordan Pass, which is basically a ticket that combines a visa and entrance fees to Petra and Wadi Rum, as long as you stay for three nights in Jordan. Crossing the border into Jordan took about an hour, as we did passport checks, luggage checks, paid fees, etc. But overall it was much easier than some of the horror stories we'd read online. Once we were finally in Jordan, we got a taxi very easily, along with our new friends, and were able to split it four ways, which saved us some money.
The drive to Wadi Musa (the town outside Petra) took about two hours. It involved an obligatory stop at a tourist shop where the proprietor insisted on putting head wraps on all of us. To his disappointment, we did not buy (as backpackers, we have purchased no souvenirs - if you buy it, you gotta carry it!). The drive also involved a confusing taxi swap. After many confusing minutes, we finally figured out that our taxi driver didn't want to drive all the way to Wadi Musa, and preferred that we get into his friend's taxi to take us the rest of the way to Wadi Musa. So we did.
Bill's a natural with the head wrap, right?
Clever sales technique, but we didn't buy it
Our elaborate breakfast in Wadi Musa
We stayed at the best rated hotel in Wadi Musa, which was still within our budget. It had air conditioning, an elaborate breakfast, but spotty Internet, and the shower flooded the bathroom floor. But it was good enough for us! The next day we headed to Petra. I had read quite a bit about it beforehand, but was still totally unprepared for the size of the whole area and the number of amazing things to see.
The bright colors and designs in the rocks at Petra
First, let's discuss the rocks at Petra. Honestly, it would be worth a visit to Jordan just to see the rock formations and colored rock walls. They were so amazing. An iPhone camera just really doesn't do justice to the whole place, so bear with the pictures here. The first major thing you come to is the Siq, a mile-long hallway between rock walls, which reminded us of Zion in Utah, but without the river running down the middle. The Nabataeans, who built Petra, did some really intelligent water diversions to keep the Siq from flooding, but they cleverly directed water to town through gutters carved into the rock walls. They created a desert oasis that thrived from approximately 100BC to 300AD.
The Siq
More of the Siq
Bill checking out the gutters along the Siq
The Siq is kind of like a long, excitement-inducing red carpet. When you finally emerge from the Siq, you see the "treasury", a building facade carved into the face of a rock wall. It's so impressive, and it was appropriate that someone was humming the Indiana Jones theme song when we first caught a glimpse of it, since it appears in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It's called the treasury because it was once believed that it held treasure. You can see quite a few bullet holes in the treasury from Bedouin tribes who hoped to dislodge the nonexistent treasure. Archaeologists didn't really know until recently what the purpose of the treasury was. If it was a tomb, where were the bodies? Well, a couple years ago, an archaeologist got permission to dig down and he discovered a building below ground which is the tomb.
The Siq empties out into the Treasury
The Treasury
After the treasury, you see several more tomb facades carved into the rock walls. It's called the Street of Facades. Then, you eventually arrive at the coliseum, which is amazing. We've seen our share of coliseums on this trip, usually Roman or Greek, and built out of stone or marble. However, this coliseum is carved out of the rock. Instead of building up material, they cut it away. In this case, it's called a theater. It was very impressive. There are many more tombs carved into the rock walls in Petra, each of which is incredible. They are empty now, having been robbed long ago. The Nabataeans clearly were masters of rock carving and of course, water management, since they managed to make a thriving community in the desert by building dams, pipes, pools, etc. Petra was a big trading center in its time. We're not exactly sure why it was eventually abandoned, but it may have had something to do with a big earthquake in the 300s AD.
A view down on some of the tombs in Petra
The Theater
More tombs
We managed to walk 14 miles the day we visited Petra, including hiking to the top of several large hills - it's a large area. There are remains of a huge temple, a Roman road, a large pool, etc. And they are still finding new things in the Petra area. The last big thing we did was hike up to the "monastery". It is even more impressive than the treasury, larger and definitely worth the hike in spite of the heat. So, all in all, an incredible day at Petra.
The Romans sure knew how to make long lasting roads
Bill standing on the fallen parts of giant pillars at the Petra temple
The Monastery
The Monastery and the surrounding mountains
As for cultural stuff, Jordan is a conservative Muslim country. Women are all seen wearing head scarves, and sometimes full burkas, but don't think for a second that there is no fashion here. I saw many Prada and Coach bags, sparkly belts, high heels, makeup, etc, especially in the larger cities of Aqaba and Amman. I have to admit that with all the ridiculous beauty standards put on Western women, wearing a burka does have its appeal. I just don't think I could wear it in such a hot place! But Jordan ladies do it gracefully, and appear to do it without breaking a sweat. Amazing.
On the whole Jordan is ~92% Sunni Muslim. As with every other country, there are varying degrees of religiousness. We learned that there's really no way to become non-Muslim. Once you're in, you're always in, which is really interesting. We were awakened every morning around 5:00am to the loud call to prayer coming from the local mosques. It sounds like a man singing/wailing in a minor key, and happens five times a day. I'm guessing you get used to it if you've lived here your whole life. You'll often see men with rough spots on their foreheads from all their days of praying five times/day. We once saw a Muslim man pulled off to the side of a freeway, bent over in prayer as the rest of the cars whizzed past. We had a taxi driver that claimed that Shias (or Shiites) are not Muslim at all.
The next day we teamed up with one of our European buddies again and took a taxi down to Wadi Rum, a magnificent red desert with more incredible rock formations. Hint to our rock climbing friends - this would be a great place to come for a week of rock climbing. This is where Lawrence of Arabia and The Martian were filmed. One of my favorite things was the huge sand dune that was pure red sand. Very cool, but too hot for my feet! We could definitely have spent more time exploring in Wadi Rum.
Lawrence Springs (as in Lawrence of Arabia)
The red sand dune in Wadi Rum - love the contrast of the red sand against the blue sky
Cool rock formations everywhere in Wadi Rum
Wadi Rum - no wonder they thought it looked a bit like Mars
After Wadi Rum, we took a taxi down to Aqaba. Aqaba is a beach city of about 200,000 people. We enjoyed walking around town that evening. We even managed to find a health food store with gluten free products. Wonders never cease! The next day we had a flight out of Aqaba headed to Cairo, that connected through Jordan's capital of Amman, population 1 million. Amman had a very fancy and well air-conditioned airport.
The Gulf of Aqaba from our hotel window in Aqaba
Everyone goes to the beach in the evening (Aqaba), probably because it's a bit cooler.
Royal Jordanian airline moved our departure flight up one day, so we lost a day in Jordan. Nonetheless, we had a great visit and found Jordan to be very safe. If you're interested in learning more about Petra, this documentary was pretty interesting.
Here's a time lapse video of Bill coming down the red sand dune in Wadi Rum.
A couple months back we started to look at flights from Athens and there was a really great deal on Israel's national airline, El Al. We started to research a bit and it looked like we could afford an excursion to Israel so we booked it.
Hanging out on the Med in Beit Yanai for my birthday
I did this with a bit of trepidation, I had heard all kinds of stories about how Israel spends 30 minutes interviewing every single person before they even get on the plane... I(Bill) have a limited tolerance for hassles and so I wasn't really keen on dealing with this but at the same time I've got friends who had been and they didn't complain too much. I was interested to fly El Al anyway, they've got a reputation for having the tightest security in the world, So why not?
As it happened, we flew on my birthday of all days.
There was a security interview before we checked in for our flight but it was more like 5 minutes than 30 and it wasn't really all that big of a deal: Why are you going to Israel? How are you related? Do you know people in Israel? Jordan? Syria? Iraq? Pretty garden variety, luckily we were able to answer 'no' across the board.
Once inside, passing through customs was easy, but right away you get the idea you're not in Kansas anymore. The writing is all very much foreign, Greek looks very familiar compared to Hebrew and Arabic. That's right Arabic.
So, as always, a history lesson... The modern state of Israel was born as a Jewish state out of the remnants of the British Empire on 14 May 1948. In a baptism of fire pretty much all the surrounding countries declared war immediately and invaded the next day. Many Arabs left Israel with assurances that the surrounding countries would quickly end what had just started but many Arabs also stayed. The newly crafted state ended up "winning" the war and many of the Arabs that left never went home. I put "winning" in quotes because of course it wasn't over, and its still not over, not even today. While we were in Israel, police officers were stabbed by Palestinians. This is life every single day in Israel. They're serious about security for a reason.
If you look back in history from 14 May 1948, you'll see that Jewish people have lived in and around the area that is present day Israel since recorded history began.
That said, there are Arabs that stayed behind and go about their lives as most people do, not stabbing anyone. For those Arabs, the street signs are in Arabic also. So, all the signs are in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.
We pick up our rental car and we're off driving in a country that we've never been in, and don't speak the language. I'm always amazed at how they just turn you loose like that. Oh and its the middle east, so its hot. Anyway, destination is set for the Sea of Galilee but first we stop at a beach. I picked a spot called Beit Yanai because they were supposed to have some kitesurfing. After about a dozen U-turns we finally find our way to the beach and although there wasn't any wind, we end up having a lovely time swimming in water that is as warm as a bath tub, Kenzi really enjoys the temp.
Little bit of rock climbing at the beach also
We then make our way up to the Sea of Galilee, then further north to a small town called Safed and at around 3000 ft above sea level it's pleasantly cool. Right away we notice that there are many people out and about dressed in very traditional Hasidic garb: men in lots of Black, flat rimmed hat, and curls from their sideburns. Women in long skirts with their hair bound up under a head scarf.
Narrow Streets in Safed, north of the Sea of Galilee
Narrow Old City street in Jerusalem with two Hasidics
Nice flowers around the entrance of where we stayed in Safed
We find a grocery store, it's got all kinds of bizarre food we've never seen before but one that we're very happy to see: hummus. We practically live off this stuff in the US and we've been dying for some and up until now it's been hard to find but Israel has hummus in spades. It is plentiful and it is good.
Looking down on the Sea of Galilee toward Capernaum from Mt Arbel
We get a good nights sleep and start out for Mt Arbel and it delivers on the promise of great views of Galilee. Its also the site of a 17th century fortress that hangs off the edge of the mountain and there is a pretty fantastic trail that takes you down the cliff and leads you through the fortress remnants.
Descending down the cliffs to check out the fortress ruins, Arab town of Hamam in the background
Another View from Mt. Arbel
Checking out the fortress
Looking up at the fortress on Mt. Arbel
The Sea of Galilee, beyond its history of Jesus Christ doing some fishing, is a bit of an oddity. It's fresh water, nothing odd there, but it's below sea level by 686 feet, which is unusual that it is lower than anywhere in the US by a huge margin. Galilee manages to be fresh by having an outflow, the Jordan River, which feeds the Dead Sea, which of course has to be even lower still. Its 1400 feet below sea level.
Down at the Sea of Galilee
The first Kibbutz, near Galilee, notice Hebrew, Arabic and Latin letters
Another interesting site near Galilee is the Deganya (or Degania) Alef Kibbutz. Its is a commune started in 1909 when the Turks still controlled the area. We didn't managed to get in because of their very limited hours but it's worth mentioning that Kibbutz's were a big part of Israel's early history. Many people were born on these communes and many still do live on them.
We left the Galilee area and checked out the Roman ruins at Caesaria, an ancient Roman capital on the Mediterranean. It's sort of half shopping mall and half Roman archaeological site. Good spot for a swim too. By now it's late afternoon on a Friday and shortly we get an introduction to a big part of Jewish culture: Shabbat. We're told that almost everything shuts down from a little before sundown Friday to a little after sundown Saturday, and they weren't kidding. Just on a whim we stock up on snacks before we take a cab to Jerusalem, and it's a good thing we did. When we get to Jerusalem everything is closed, the 24 hr market, fuel stations, super markets, everything. So we manage to live off snacks during Shabbat, namely peanuts.
The next morning I've arranged to meet a fellow airplane builder and get a ride in a plane just like mine. Private flying in Israel is a bit of a pain compared to the flying I do in the US. You have to notify the Israeli Air Force an hour before the flight and then check in every 5 minutes once airborne, it's a colossal pain compared to the US where I can legally fly from coast to coast and not tell a soul. Big thanks to my captain for persevering through all the adversity that is being a pilot in Israel. It is surreal to fly over Israel, a land that looks a lot like California deserts that I'm familiar with but is so different. Anyway, here are a few of the highlights:
The plane, an RV-8A
Over Mt. Masada which we hiked up later in the trip
Old City Jerusalem, complete with 2 Mosques.
The edge of the Dead Sea, not far from where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
More of the deadest of seas
Neat coloring along the briny edge
So while I got to go for an airplane ride on Shabbat, Kenzi was touring around the Old City of Jerusalem, not finding too much open. Meanwhile I learned is pretty much the entire rest of the country keeps on doing whatever it is they always do on Shabbat while Jerusalem strictly observes the day of rest.
What Jerusalem's Old City looks like during Shabbat
What Jerusalem's Old City looks like any other time
Israel's capital of Jerusalem is a sacred place for Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. The reason the city was initially founded there was the Gihon Spring which has provided water to Jerusalem since the beginning. They went through many gyrations to develop and make the water source secure. Initially they had a pool that would collect the water, then the city walls were extended to include the pool, and finally 2800 years ago, a 1750 foot tunnel was carved in the bedrock into a point low enough in the city to have what amounted to a city pool for gathering the water, doing laundry and bathing. It is an amazing feat of engineering, or labor at least. The Siloam Tunnel (aka Hezekiah's Tunnel) was started from opposite ends and the tunnel path is anything but straight. It's very plain to see that there was a lot of trial and error in figuring out how to make the ends meet.
The entry to the Siloam Tunnel
The best picture I could get inside the tunnel
The exit to the tunnel
The tunnel was actually just a side attraction to the City of David. Just outside of the 15th century walls of Jerusalem is where the original city stood and it dates back to the time of biblical Kind David and they believe that they have unearthed his house, although there is much debate so they just call it the "large stone structure" and leave it at that. In the excavation site they have found clay seals (much like wax seals) with names that match biblical characters so clearly this place has some history.
Potentially, maybe, could be, nobody is sure, but this could be the foundation of Biblical David's house
Not far from the City of David is the Western Wall, this was for many years called the "Wailing Wall" and now that term is considered derogatory. This is the closest that people of Jewish faith are allowed to get to the temple that was destroyed in 70 AD (the second biblical temple). It also happens to be the site where Islam's Muhammad allegedly ascended into heaven. As a result, there are two mosques on the site. The area where the mosques are is called the Temple Mount. Evidently the Torah (foundational Jewish document) forbids entering this area. The Israelis, being practical people, allow Muslims in to use their mosques and then put up a sign saying that the Jewish faith forbids it.
Admonition that the Jewish faith forbids entering the temple mount. We went in anyway.
Bar Mitzvah celebration we see while waiting in line to get into the Temple Mount
Mosque on the Temple Mount, don't get too close to someone of the opposite gender, you'll get yelled at
The Temple Mount is a very peaceful, beautiful place. We don't really know what we're looking at and so we wander around and try to be as respectful as we can. It's only open a few hours a day, the line is long and so we don't get too much time there.
Finally, the site that makes Jerusalem Holy for Christianity: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where allegedly Christ was crucified, buried, and resurrected. No less than six religious denominations have a claim on this Church and each has put in their own stylistic spin. It makes for a rather eclectic, anachronistic structure.
The best we could do for a picture of the outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Before leaving Jerusalem we also checked out the Israel Museum, a really fantastic collection of some one of a kind artifacts. I've already rambled too long here and so I'll only hit the highlights. This museum presented the best set of artifacts running from prehistory, as in before anybody was writing or recording things into the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. A lot of pre-history happened in Israel and around what is presently Israel and they've got various things to show for it. Eerie masks, the oldest sickle, examples of metal casting and in many cases the earliest known examples of each, all found right there in Israel.
Lost wax cast "Ibex Scepter" between 5500 and 6500 years old, and looks like its ready for a pagan procession!
Oldest sickle ever found, doesn't look so good
Creepy mask from 9000 years ago, still ready to scare the bejesus out of someone.
Silver scrolls containing a blessing in Hebrew from 6th or 7th century BCE
Move over Catholic Church, this is how the Romans actually crucified people
The actual evidence of how the Romans crucified people, complete with ankle bone and nail
The dome they keep the dead sea scrolls under made to look like the lid of the pottery they found them in
Lots of interesting stuff at the Israel Museum but alas we only had 5 hrs there... we could have easily stayed longer by they were closing. The next day we headed out of Jerusalem.
We wanted to hit up a few more places before we headed out of Israel. The major one was Masada, a mountain top fortress from 70 CE that was the site of the last stand for Jewish rebels during the revolt against the Romans. The story has it that when the Romans were about the breach the wall, the remaining hold outs all committed suicide, nearly 1000 according to legend.
To get to Masada we take a bus through the infamous "West Bank"(of the Jordan river). This is an area that was captured from Jordan during one of the many wars between Israel and its neighbors. Jordan pretty much completely accepts this and Israel controls it while the resident Palestinians are less than on board with that plan. Either way, our bus passed through the area with no issue whatsoever and dropped us back in Israel proper right at Masada. There are two ways you can get up Masada, cable car or walking.
We arrived a bit late to walk up the snake path and so rather than wimp out and take the cable car we decided to get on a bus and check out Ein Gedi, a literal desert oasis about 15 minutes north of Masada. Since it's the only source of fresh water for miles around, Ein Gedi has been quite the popular spot for millennia, for both animals like the ibex's we saw and people. Interestingly it's possible the people that hid the Dead Sea Scrolls lived in Ein Gedi, it is for sure where they found that ibex scepter we saw in the Israel Museum. So anyway we saddle up and check out Ein Gedi.
Ibex Selfie anyone? When there is only one water source there ends up being only one food source
Nice waterfalls
More nice waterfalls.
So Ein Gedi was pretty cool, like literally we got to cool off, there really isn't anywhere deep enough to swim but you can get wet anyway, which is welcome in 100 degree heat. We shuffle out of the nature preserve to catch the bus south to Ein Bokek to swim in the Dead Sea and find we just missed our bus by like 45 seconds... the next one isn't for 2 hrs. Not to worry, literally two minutes later a nice couple pulls up in their car asking us where you can swim in the Dead Sea... well let us hop in and show you where. We ride 30 minutes south and go to the public beach on the Dead Sea. Soon we're 1400 feet below sea level in hyper saline water that is 10x more salty and 22% denser than sea water. To put it mildly you float really well. The pictures don't do it justice but I'm sitting basically in a lotus position with my chest out of the water with out doing any work.
Look ma, no hands, feet or work!
Namaste here
So we bus it back to Masada and get to bed early as now we do the cliched sunrise over Masada hike. Not much to it, get up early and hike up the snake path. It takes us about 45 minutes. The sunrise is pretty spectacular, the site is sobering. You can see where the 8,000 Romans set up camps and built a siege ramp and wall to end the gambit of the 1000 or so Jewish hold outs.
Sunrise over Masada
The view looking west down on one of the Roman camps
The view looking east toward two more of the Roman Camps
Looking back at Mt. Masada
Our visit to Israel was packed with interesting stuff, with all the comforts of a country that has the highest standard of living in the Middle East. Many times we would forget even that we were in the Middle East at all. Our time was coming to a close, so we bused South and walked across the border into Jordan. Thanks for reading.
Correction: Jordan makes no current claim on the West Bank.
