Adventures with Julia

October 11, 2018

Mark and I are in Amman now and will head to Beirut in the morning.  Meanwhile, I will update our adventures since departing Petra.

Nabataean coin with image of the wife as well as the king

First, I want to mention that I read about the women during the Nabataean era and learned that they were way ahead of even modern cultures today.  Women were the equal of men and had an important role in politics and society.  According to Nabataean law a woman’s inheritance was equal to a man’s.  She could own property, run her own business, sign contracts, buy and sell property, even own the family cemetery.  The names as well as the images of both the king and queen appear on coins.   Just thought my lady friends would like to know.   Onward.

Map of Jordan with Wadi Rum in the south, Petra a bit north of Wadi Rum, The Dead Sea just above Petra and Amman in the north.  Mt Nebo and Madaba are near each other and just south of Amman.

October 9, 2018    Our 25^thwedding anniversary.

From Petra, it took only 1.5 hours to get to the southern end of the Dead Sea.  Along the way we identified oak trees, a huge potash plant and the stone figure thought to represent Lot’s wife in the Sodom and Gomorrah story.

The southern edge of the Dead Sea.

The Sea is 45 km long, 25 km wide and 300 meters deep.  It is shrinking at such a great rate that we noticed a drop in just the 2 days we were there.  The surface of the Sea is -425 meters or 1,394 feet below sea level.  I had a bad sore throat and could really feel the pressure in my ears.  Mark noticed nothing.

The stylized cross and staff of Moses with a serpent wrapped around it at the top of Mt Nebo.  .

At the northern end of the Sea, our driver, Mohannad, took us up to Mount Nebo, located on one of the western ridges of the ancient Plains of Moab (about 1,500 feet above sea level and quite a change for my ears).  This is where Moses is believed to have seen “the Promised Land”, as mentioned in the Old Testament, and died near there.  A stylized cross with a serpent wrapped around it marked the spot.  From there we looked in the direction of the Holy Land and could just barely make out the Dead Sea to the south, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jerrico and the Jordan River Valley through the haze.

Since the 4^thcentury a church in Moses honor has been on the site.

Following a few ancient churches and a basilica, there is now a contemporary church on the site.   A service was in progress while we were there.   Inside, on the walls and floor, are mosaics restored and preserved from the different eras.   They were very finely crafted, well preserved and lovely to see.

At the entrance to the site, was a monolithic sculpture of Moses that incorporated the books and stories of the Old Testament.  It had been personally dedicated by Pope JPII in 2000.   If you ever get there, spend some time with this sculpture.

I

n the nearby town of Madaba we visited the Madaba Institute for Mosaic Art and Restoration.  After receiving an explanation about how the mosaics are made and how the Queen mother is helping the Institute by providing a 5-year program for artisans to learn to make, repair and restore mosaics, as well as paying the postage for shipping finished works to buyers, I became interested in buying a piece.  Before long I had ordered a round mosaic to be made and  even selected the artist to do it.  I should receive it in a couple of months.   Am not exactly sure what I will do with it, but something will occur to me.

The largest and oldest mosaic map. In Greek Orthodox Church of St George in Madaba, Jordan.  This is a copy.

A section of the actual mosaic of the world’s largest mosaic map

After leaving the Institute, we stopped at the nearby Greek Orthodox Church of St George to see a very colorful mosaic map of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea, Jordan River, Jericho and other sites in the Holy Land.  It is reputed to be the largest mosaic map in existence.  Unfortunately, it is no longer complete and is very difficult to photograph in one piece.

We left Madaba and headed down the mountain to our hotel on the Dead Sea.  We were more than ready for a break from driving and sightseeing.   I checked the elevation once we were in our room and noted we were approximately 1,250 feet below sea level.   The elevation at the surface of the Sea is about -1,394 feet.  We wasted no time putting on our suits and heading for the Sea.  It was a very warm day and we wanted to get wet and see how well we floated.   It was really fun and weird.  We stepped into the warm water and when it was a couple of feet deep we got down and immediately began to float.

Relaxing in the Dead Sea

As we went out farther, we had to bounce to touch bottom.  Finally, it was deep enough that we could not touch bottom even though we were in a standing position.  The best and most relaxing position was on our backs.  I rolled onto my stomach once and could barely keep my face out of the water as my legs would not stay down.   I got a drop of the heavily mineralized water in my eye.  That smarted, but a dozen blinks and my eye was fine.  After half an hour in the sea, we were ready to find a cool, fresh water pool, of which the resort had several.

By evening we had cleaned up, enjoyed a drink on our patio and headed for a poolside Italian dinner to celebrate our anniversary.  Sadly, I felt miserable and was unable to enjoy the dinner.  I had been getting worse as the day progressed and was in no mood to celebrate.  I felt badly for Mark and hoped we could celebrate the next day.  Mark gave me some meds and I was in bed by 8:30pm.

October 10, 2018

Don’t we look like statues?

My throat was so sore I could barely swallow in the morning, but I made it to breakfast and ate some soft foods. As we had the day “at rest”, I did just that.  By late morning, I felt good enough to take another swim in the Sea and we wanted to try the mud pack.  Being in the hot, humid air probably was not good for my skin, but it sure helped my throat.  It was fun to play in the mud and goop each other up with it.   After about 15 minutes, it began to itch and we just wanted to get the mud off.   It was time to go into the Sea and let the mud float off.  We both admitted that our skin felt really smooth and silky after rubbing the mud off in the Sea.   Another 20 minutes of floating and bobbing and we were again ready for the cool, fresh water pool even if we could not float in it.   We spent the afternoon in and out of different resort pools.  By the end of the day my throat did not hurt as much and I was ready to celebrate our anniversary for real.   We enjoyed the 4-course lobster dinner Mark had planned for the night before.  It was delicious.