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Ajlun Castle was built in defense of the Crusaders from Europe. The building is undergoing restoration. | 
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This room has been restored; the floor was freshly laid. | 
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Some of the interior spaces are very large. |
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Another room at Ajlun Castle. | 
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I loved this sign written in two languages. | 
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A typical Bedouin encampment. In the winter they live near the Dead Sea and in the summer they move into the mountains. |
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It was a very windy and foggy day so only a little of the Dead Sea and the Jordanian coastline is visible. | 
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This is Wadi al Mujib, the largest canyon which feeds water into the Dead Sea from Jordan. | 
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This is Hadrian's Gate. It was built in honor of the Emperor Hadrian by the city of Jerash. In the forground are some Indonesian muslim girls shopping for their touristy treasures! |
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This fellow is working on the restoration of Hadrian's Gate. | 
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This is the larger of the two theaters in Jerash. It is a remarkably complete building. | 
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This is the stage area of the theater in Jerash. |
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In the background is the temple of Diana and in the forground the tops of columns lining a street can be seen. Excavations are continuing. | 
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This is the main street of Roman Jerash. There once were shops set behind the row of columns. | 
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Originally water flowed from the wall of the Nymphaeum and statues filled the niches. |
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This is the front of the temple of Diana. | 
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The interior of the temple of Diana gives some idea of the contruction. | 
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The oval plaza of Jerash was the intersection of different streets. Jerash is considered to be the largest and most complete Roman city in the world. |
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This is the Holy Land. Below in the Jordan Valley is a spring inside a cave; it is said that when Moses hit that rock with his staff, water began to flow. Water from that cave makes the area green. We were standing where it is said that Moses was buried. | 
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On the floor of a Coptic Christian church, dating to around 600 A.D., is a huge map of the Holy Land made of mosaics. This small section shows details of the city of Jeruselum. | 
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A Jordanian-American opened an art school to teach the techniques of the ancient craftsmen. They specialize in mosaics; this fellow is throwing a pot in the traditional method. |
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This young man is engraving mosaic lines into the sides of a urn to give it the appearance of mosaics. | 
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For the longest time I have been wanting to see Petra, the fabled lost city in the desert. The way in is over a mile and it is too narrow for motor vehicles. Here tombs and shrines remain. | 
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Visitors descend into the canyon approaching the center of Petra. |
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Here Graciela and the others stare in wonder at the colors and shapes of the canyon walls | 
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While we take a break, our guide explains about the shrines and tombs we are seeing. | 
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On either side of the canyon are culverts carved into the rock to carry water into the cisterns of Petra. |
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Our initial glimpse of Petra was through this narrow slot. We could see a portion of the structure called the Treasury. | 
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The Treasury was never a bank or a vault for treasure. It was an elaborate tomb which also provided areas for future funerals for the citizens. | 
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Everywhere throughout Petra there are stairs. Some are rather moderate such as this one while others are more like ladders on the cliff faces. |
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Our group fans out to study some of the many tombs. The interiors are very small with a few niches for internments. | 
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Normally I do not photograph men's rooms. However in this case, a rest room set inside a true cave seems worth a photograph! | 
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This cave shows the brilliant colors and patterns found throughout parts of Petra. On the ground is some firewood and a five gallon can. |
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Nice patterns and colors, which are all natural, are around the area of the royal tombs. | 
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A few people are visible in and around the two largest doorways. They help to give proportion and scale to the enormous size of these structures carved into the sandstone cliffs. | 
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This is the main plaza of Petra. Originally there were temples on two sides; some remains of one temple are visible on the right side. In the background, there is an arched construction which was part of a Coptic Christian church around 600 A.D. |
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We began this strenuous hike up 900+ stairs to the Monastery as a challenge. The stairs were carved by hand and are now worn, covered with debris and dirt. More than once, we had to backtrack to find the correct path up the mountain. | 
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This Bedouin housewife is watching her goats in the distance while she rests in front of her residence. Several Bedouins were enterprising and set up tiny cafes where visitors could rest and drink a bit of coffee or some soda. | 
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This
dropoff of about a hundred feet was alongside the trail. Warning signs?
Hand rails? Park ranger on duty? Ha ha ha...
The Petra valley is visible in the distance. |
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The Monastery is on the left and a Bedouin "cafe" is very nicely set up in a cave on the right side. Chairs have been set out for guests. The trail comes up just left of center on the far side of the ruin. | 
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The Monastery was really a tomb; it got it's name because at one time a monastery school was established here. | 
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This is the ORIGINAL Philadelphia. And, sorry, but no Philly cheesesteaks are available here! The city was founded by the successor to Alexander the Great and by the time of Roman occupation it was wealthy and powerful. |
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The size and beauty of the theater demonstrates the wealth of old Philadelphia. | 
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This was a favorite restaurant of the late King Hussein to entertain his out-of-town guests. The food was most definitely worthy of a king! | 
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The restaurant is set in the former stables of an abandoned village. The entire village has been incorporated as a hotel; each old home is now a hotel room. |
