During the summer I also visited Jordan. Normal travel between Israel and Jordan was very limited until 1994, after the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. I decided to take advantage of the climate of good relations between the two countries, and I travelled in Jordan for four days by myself. I ended up getting adopted by a few really friendly Jordanians who were my age and who were giving a visiting American friend of theirs a tour of the country. They were happy to have me along, and I had some really interesting experiences travelling with them that I suspect I would not have had if I had been travelling with a group of Western tourists. King Hussein is the man in the picture above. His picture is everywhere, 'cause, well, he's the King.
Amman. Amman, the largest city in Jordan, has about 1.7 million people and contains almost half of Jordan's population. It is a large, sprawling city. Fortunately, transportation is cheap, and it only cost me $1.50 to take a private taxi from one side of the city to the other. Shared taxis are much cheaper, about $0.15.
Roman columns in Amman. In antiquity, Amman was the Roman city of Philadelphia. There is plenty of Roman stuff all over Ammna, including these magnificent columns and a large Roman ampitheater that is still used today.
The Al-Husseini mosque in Amman.
The Abu Darwish mosque in Amman.
You have most likely seen this picture before. It is the Khazan in Petra. Petra is a 2600 year-old city built by the ancient Naboteans, but I bet you would be more likely recognize it from the movie 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.' This city, located in an isolated deep crevice in the middle of a barren desert, was hidden from the world until it was rediscovered by European archaelogogists in the early 1800s who dressed up as pilgrims and tricked local Beduin guides to lead them there. Today, Petra is a major destination for tourists, and indeed, it is a facinating archaelogical discovery.
Another view of the Khazan. I should mention that the Khazan, shown above, and most of the other buildingss and structures in Petra, were not built, but were in fact carved out of the rock in the cliff. That's right. The columns, the artwork,... everything you see in this picture was carved by hand.
Yes, these were carved out as well.
And these, too.
And this one. Take note of the colors. The color of the rock adds flavor to the beauty of Petra. In some areas, the rock is multicolored in the side of the cliff. Also, the color of the rock may vary from a light peach to a deep red during different parts of the day according to the angle at which the light hits it.
Pictures of Israel: its land and
people
Yitzhak Rabin, The Elections of May 1996,
and the Peace Process