Trip to the North

Yesterday my roommate and I, along with her friend who's visiting, went up to Ajloun and Jerash, in the northern part of the country to see some of the sights. 

There is a castle in Ajloun that was built by Saladin's nephew (Saladin was the Muslim general who took Jerusalem back from the Crusaders) and it is pretty well preserved. According to my guidebook, this castle was one of a network of posts that could pass a message by passenger pigeons from Damascus to Cairo in one day. It is built on the top of the tallest hill in the area, and we could see for miles in every direction from the top of the castle. Here are some pictures I took.

Looking down towards Ajloun...most of this area was actually heavily wooded, but it was cleared because of the need of wood. They are trying to replant trees to some extent, and the majority of the trees that you see on the hill right below are olive trees.

The old castle...we had a beautiful, albeit windy, day to visit.

Standing on the western wall of the castle. Right below me was the two story dry moat and from this perch we thought we caught a glimpse of the Jordan River and Palestine beyond it. 

We walked down the hill to the bus, and this is from the road looking back up at the castle. 

Along the road we found this really random cab, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a picture. :)

From Ajloun we traveled back the way we came to Jerash, or Gerasa as it was known in Roman times. It was one of the cities of the Decapolis during the time of the Herods. The ruins go on for acres and since they have spent time restoring some of them, we got a pretty good idea of what the buildings would have looked like back in it's glory. 

While we were eating lunch right outside, they were doing a re-inactment in the hippodrome, and we caught glimpses of men dressed as Roman soldiers. :)

This gate was built to commemorate the Emperor Hadrian's visit to the city. 

It seemed like this was the main hub of the ancient city. Behind me was the temple of Zeus, and there was at least one other temple to Artemis further into the site. The pictures don't do justice to how massive everything was...the stones in the pavement, the stones used for the columns, the stones used for everything. :)

The setting sun behind one of the buildings

We wondered what had happened to push the paving stones up like they are on the right of the picture, but didn't get any definite answers. You can see the modern city behind the ruins...we guessed that under all of it there were probably ruins exactly like what we were walking around in, but they hadn't been excavated before the city was built up. 

All in all it was a great day, and I enjoyed getting out of the city for the first time. It is much greener up there, and so it was nice to see trees and vegetation beyond a few trees encased in cement. :) 

I also loved visiting places that held so much history. Some of you know that I love history, and it was incredible to walk through those ruins and try to imagine what kind of people walked where I was walking, and what life was like back then. Not all of the history connected with these places is pleasant of course, but it still has a lot to teach us and effects us even today. If history doesn't effect our lives I wouldn't be where I am today, but I am, all because of a single man from Nazareth. :)