Umm Qais & Jerash

Our second "field trip" took us to Umm Qais - about three hours north of Amman - two days after our citadel adventure.


We left at 7AM and napped on the bus. My godfather frequently tells me that children only outlive their teenage years because they're too cute to kill in their sleep, and despite all the times I'd cheerfully have beaten Arie to death while he was awake and his mouth was open... he certainly is endearing when he's unconscious.

Anyway, Umm Qais consists pretty much equally of the Roman remnants of Gadara and some black basalt Ottoman ruins.

For you Biblically-minded types, Gadara is believed to be where Jesus purged the possessed of their demons and drove them into a herd of swine, which then stampeded down the hill and drowned themselves in the Sea of Galilee.

We could see into Golan Heights from some of the highest points at Umm Qais, but the weather was rather grey and dreary at the moment, making it difficult to take good pictures from so many miles away. :\


Roman columns.


Ottoman house.

We went to Jerash after Umm Qais, which is basically the best-preserved Roman city outside of Rome itself. It was INCREDIBLE.

But this is where you stop reading, Mrs. Willard. You too, mom. Just trust me.


This is the Temple of Artemis. It's the only part of Jerash's open-air museum that you aren't allowed to climb on, which we found out the hard way - Sandra, Max, Arie, Matt, Nicole and I were all scolded by a Jordanian policeman for going up the stairs toward the top, so Max, Burt, Professor Maisel and I started walking around the base of the temple, chatting idly about... something or another.

That's when Max saw the hole.

He said, "You should check out what's in there, Nikki." I dropped my purse onto the ground and took a running start toward the wall.

"Wait, what? I wasn't serious!"


It was dark and cold and I had no idea what I'd find in there, whether it be camel spiders or just more of the long, crunchy millipedes that were EVERYWHERE (I couldn't see one without stopping to play with it, actually), but I was feeling adventurous.


Max was, too, but only because I went first.

Pfft. Men. ;)

We illegally explored the tiny rooms underneath Artemis's temple while Professor Maisel called through the narrow passage, "Are you alive? Should we leave blankets and sandwiches, or will you be able to get out again?"

(Incidentally, this is how Max and I came to be best mates. I may be separated from Kris and John, but I still have someone to do stupid, dangerous things with, and he and I spent the rest of our trip scouting out things to climb on, in, and under.)



We practiced sitting on pillars to be like St. Simeon Stylites...


...and posed like Romans, too.


(Some of us were better at it than others.)

Also, when Arie failed at reenacting certain "Karate Kid" scenes (read: almost fell off of a ten-foot pillar because he has no freaking sense of balance), I had to show him up:


:)

Stay tuned for the remainder of Saturday's adventure; it's time for bed.