The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

We just got home this afternoon from our adventure deeper into the Middle East!

A few reasons why I've developed a newfound love for Jordan:

• Weather. Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s in late November. 
• The way the Jordanians have pictures of King Abdullah everywhere
  
  
  
  
• PETRA!

     The Siq--Pictures (at least the ones I take!) can't possibly do
        justice to how gorgeous and vibrant the walls of this slot canyon were!

Rounding the bend at the end of the canyon...

The Treasury!!!
Or, perhaps more commonly recognized as the place Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail ;)


It is absolutely incredible to me that something like this could be carved into the face of a rock...

Petra doesn't end with the Treasury! Here's the Great Temple

• The people!  Especially the kids :)

Here's Musra, the adorable (and conniving) Bedouin girl I made friends with as she followed me around that morning in Petra trying to sell me things

Another little Bedouin girl.  Isn't she gorgeous?!

• Jerash- the ruins of the Greco-Roman city Gerasa.  Some of the most amazing and best preserved Roman ruins discovered!
  
  
  
  
  
  
   With Charles and the plaza in the background.  This city was huge!
  
  
  
  Whit Nasty, Katie, and the ampitheater! 
  
  
• The long black hooded robes the women got to wear this morning in a mosque in Amman.  And how creepy we all looked wearing them (the word "dementor" was thrown around a few times, and not by the girls...)  Beautiful mosque, though! :)

• The landscape.  Hilly, desert-y, blue skies, sunshine... 

On top of this hill are the remains of the palace where John the Baptist was beheaded. Yikes.  

Ajloud Castle!  There really are castles in the Middle East! :)

The Jabbok River (Genesis 32)

Bethany (Bethabara) beyond Jordan.
The traditional, and geographically probable, place where John the Baptist baptized the Savior :)
Loved visiting here today.

• Arab bagpipe players!  Apparently, bagpipes have a history that goes way back here (though I highly doubt that "Scotland the Brave" was part of their original repertoire...)