Amman, Jordan Study Abroad-John Middleton: Rome in Jordan

Me in Jordan with Israel and Syria in the background

Hello again,
This blog will consist of two parts. One will be about a birthday party I went to and the other will be about me visiting a couple sites in Jordan that have Roman ruins.

Thursday was the birthday of my host mom's grandson. My host mom's name is Majida and her daughter's name that has the son with the birtday is Wafaa. At around 4:30 PM I rode over with Majida and Fadi(Majida's son) to Wafaa's house. Well, we arrived and went inside and Wafaa and her husband samii and their children were the only people there for about an hour and a half. So I did not think it would be a big party. Then 6:00 rolled around and about 15 other relatives came rolling into the house. There were 5 other men my age there that were also in college which I had conversations with them. The conversations were interesting because they were mainly about politics. After about 15 minutes of everyone arriving, the men were in one room sitting and talking ( they were all talking in Arabic so I only understood bits and pieces) and the women and children were in the other room. As we were sitting down talking, one of the men my age came in with a tray of beer and served us all a glass of that.
After about two hours of socializing, Wafaa came in and told us the food was ready. The meal consisted of 3 different dishes and 5 different sides. I don't really know what any of it was called but it was all tasty. The food was really good so I stuffed myself with the main course. Than when everyone was done eating, they replaced the dinner with desserts. Everyone gathered around the table and song happy birthday and some other Arabic stuff that I didn't know. Now it was time to eat the dessert. There were about 5 desserts and a chocolate fountain with a tower of fruit to dip in it. Once again, I stuffed my self with desserts. Then after dessert I sat out side with the men my age and talked with them for another two hours. It was an interesting and fun experience. I enjoyed myself.

Alright now time for the Roman stuff. This morning (Saturday) I arrived at the gate of the University of Jordan and met the other CIEE students to ride the bus to Umm Qais. Umm Qais is a beautiful place to visit. Before today, I had only been in Amman and south of Amman which is dessert land. So today when we were riding towards northern Jordan I was amazed, there was green grass and green trees covering the mountains around me. After about a two hour drive we arrived at Umm Qais. When we arrived the first objects I noticed were the Roman and Greek pillars. Than I walked over to the ledge of the mountain and looked at the amazing view. In the distance I could see green mountains and a large body of water. What I saw was the bordering counties of Jordan,Syria, Israel, the Israeli occupied Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee. People in America think it is cool to stand at the border of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. Well that is neat but this was absolutely breathtaking. After looking out at the view for ten minutes, the guide came over and told us some history about the mountain we were on. It was the mountain that Jesus cast the demons out of the man and into the pigs that ran down the mountain into the Sea of Galilee.

Umm Qais Roman Theatre

Umm Qais

Syria, Israel, Sea of Galilee in the distance

After Umm Qais we took the bus to the city of Jerash and ate at a very nice restaurant. Than we headed over to the Roman ruins site of Jerash. Jerash was established in 331 BC by Alexander the Great. A large portion of Jerash was destroyed during the Earthquake of 749 AD. But a few of the great Roman and Greek Architecture is still in tact. When we first got there I was reminded of Petra because there were people surrounding us trying to sale us Jerash souvenirs. There was this one guy that followed us around for ten minutes playing home made wooden flutes. He would give them to us and let us play them and then ask for money. Once we entered the ruined city we lost him. The first part of the city is a oval shaped race track for chariot races and horse races, the Hippodrome. We quickly left that part and made it to an open area with about 70 pillars making a circular courtyard.

The pillars making the circular courtyard

At the entrance with the man trying to sale flutes

After the courtyard we headed up to the temple of Zeus, which was not in very good shape. From the temple we walked over to the most popular spot of the ancient city--the Roman Amphitheater. To get there we walked under one arch into a small room and turned the corner in another small room. By that point I could hear bagpipes and drums playing. I then walked into the theatre. There were two men in there playing the bagpipes and a drum. The theatre consists of an upper stage and a lower stage, and sitting area for five thousand people. There is no roof, it is an open area but the theatre is designed so that the sound echoes off the walls and is very loud to the viewers. From there I walked up to the top of the viewing area and looked down. Up there I could hear the people talking down there on the lower stage. Their design worked. Here are some pics of the theatre.

upper stage

top of the theatre, could hear people talking in normal voices from the bottom

theatre

From the theatre we walked to the temple of Artemis. It was the highest spot of the city. Artemis was the god that the Greeks believed protected the city of Jerash. So her temple was made with the best columns and biggest area. There was not really much to it though.