Irbid & Um Qais

Okay, so last Saturday we went to Irbid and Um Qais. In Irbid all we saw was a museum. Well, it was first an Ottoman castle, then was converted to a prison in the 19th or 20th century, then it became a museum in like, the 1980s? It was a pretty small museum, but pretty cool to think, "Hey, this used to be a castle!" Which was a little weird because now it's in the middle of a crowded city with narrow streets and way too many cars and buildings. There were artifacts from all different points in history, but only a few from each point. Bronze or Stone Age tools, Roman things, Ottoman things, other peoples' things. And a view underneath the courtyard of old walls. I assume they pre-date the palace, but I'm not sure. Twas cool anyway. It's funny how I hate history but love seeing old things.

From there we went to Um Qais, which is an old city once named Gadara. And is in the Bible. And is supposedly the place where Jesus drove demons out of a guy and into a herd of pigs who then ran down the hill and drowned in the Sea of Galilee, although according to Wikipedia this location is disputed. (The Sea was pretty far, unless it was super huge back then.) We could also see the Golan Heights and I think Palestine from there? I can't remember. The city also used to be an Ottoman village. The dilemma with excavations there is that the Ottoman stuff is considered ancient and they can't/won't destroy it to access the older stuff, of which there's a whole lot just chilling underground. Oh well.

Sea of Galilee. It's a blue strip that starts about in the middle on the left side.

It was a hazy day so the pictures didn't come out well.

Golan Heights

We wandered a little bit and had lunch at the restaurant that was there. It was tasty. I am so in love with hummus it's ridiculous. I hope VCU's dining hall still has it when I go back. They definitely did before and always looked at it and thought it had to be disgusting. Oh how wrong I was. I mean, I'm sure VCU hummus can't be half as good as actual Middle Eastern hummus, but I'll take what I can get. After lunch we had 45 more minutes to wander. Jennifer and I wandered out to where a temple used to stand, and to where an amphitheatre used to be. Except most of the structure is gone and it's just a huge dirt hill. And we thought it would be awesome to climb up it instead of going all the way back around. That was a fantastic decision, let me tell you. Running up a steep hill made of bone-dry dirt with pretty much nothing to hold on to? It was definitely a workout. And Um Qais was really really hot, too. And a little humid, which was a strange feeling because there is definitely no humidity in Amman. At all.

My shoes got really dusty running up the hill. They were black once.

At some point we were supposed to go to Yarmouk to a battle site from the Crusades (?), but for some reason it got scrapped. Oh well. Not a huge problem. (Because really, what's going to be there? Probably nothing to actually see.) Came home. Did nothing of value. Glorious day.

Photos!