Weekend in Amman!

This weekend was really great! We visited a lot of tourist sites in Northern Jordan and stayed the night in Amman. It was fun going to Amman as we went through the Ajlun Mountains. It was fun to see the landscape change from flat desert, to the hilly green country side. We started the day at the Roman ruins at Jerash. It was very hot but we thankfully had cloud cover almost the entire day. Jerash was amazing there were multiple roads that had pillars lining both sides, and in some places you could see where the chariots and carts wore away the road. At the ruins there were two beautiful gateways, a competition arena, a temple to Zeus, a half amphitheater, a temple to Artemis, and about 3 churches. We explored all the sites for about an hour and a half, it was so cool being in the Roman ruins. The next place we went was a medieval castle in Ajlun. The castle was very fun to explore and climb around in; I had a lot of fun finding all the different passages and secret rooftops. After the Castle we went to a monastery that was in complete ruins. There were still some beautiful mosaic tiles left, and an old tomb with about 6 burial chambers. Then we went to Amman to the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR) where we spent the night. ACOR was very nice we had fans, real mattresses and cold water to drink, we were living in luxury. ACOR was really cool my Professor was the director for a couple years back in the 80's so they gave us a special tour. ACOR helps in research projects and supports excavations and has a conservation lab. After the tour of ACOR we went the Amman citadel which is a temple site. This particular temple was the temple of Hercules. We explored for a little while and went to the museum on site. After the citadel we went down to another half amphitheater that also has a textile museum. I went all the way to the top which was fun; my 70 year old professor even beat me and my friend to the top. We then went back to ACOR for lunch which was beef roast and mashed potatoes with chocolate cream puffs for dessert. After lunch we headed back to Umm El Jimal, it was a very fun weeken

Amphitheatre in Amman

Ajlun Castle

Gate at Jerash

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