Next it was off to the black basalt columns of Umm Qais, but not, of course, without a bit of a run-around first. After happening upon a bus to the awful, awful city of Irbid, we intended to catch another bus to our hostel in Umm Qais. Instead, an opportunistic Jordanian man attempted to drive us to Ajlun. Perhaps Jordanian taxi drivers think that shouting a city’s name about twenty times equates to a different city entirely, but I’m more inclined to think that this particular man was simply rather daft. Well, anyway, we did make it there eventually. So take a gander.

The quote above is from the blog ‘Travel to Saturn,’ painting a verbal picture the potential thrills and spills of striking out on one’s own in Jordan.

That said, while checking out what some other recent Umm Qais related bloggery, I came across these two images of the dark basalt stonework over at Flickr:

The contrast between antiquity & modern - by Puri

I might have taken the same shot, except our tour guide was immutably parked there this past November.

Only For the Royal Family - by Faris Madi

This latter image from taken from the last row of seats lining the ancient Umm Qais Greco-Roman theater. As the photographer, Faris Madi nicely puts it:

As you can see they made it from rocks in a curvy way…perfect

And finally this word image (followed by some huge .jpg photos)  from Lauren’s Live Journal of what many experience their first day out of Amman on a guided tour:

First stop – Umm Qais. Umm Qais is in the North West of Jordan, and is home to the ruins of the Roman city of Gadara. My guidebook says you can see Syria, Israel and the Palestinian Territories from Umm Qais, and there were terrific views there, but with my shoddy sense of direction I had no idea what I was looking at. The scenery was nice, whichever country it was.

One of the things I really loved about Jordan (it was also the case, to a lesser extent, in Turkey) was that the Roman ruins aren’t ‘fenced off‘ the same way they are in Italy (and the way Greek ruins are, in Greece). There were no guards, no ‘keep out’ signs, really nothing from stopping you from getting up close to the ruins. Umm Qais was really quiet – there was our party of four, and a couple of other small groups, and that was it.

Emphasismine … as I was quite disappointed this past summer while touring the Acropolis … having to pay to take photos from several yards away of historic locations obscured by ugly chain link fences.

Not so in Jordan, there you can still see, feel and touch the Biblical and ancient history – especially at Umm Qais.

The Quarryscapes project started in 2005 and is now almost finished … The project is basically an effort to study and raise awareness about ancient quarries in the eastern Mediterranean area. In this context, we in Jordan studied ancient Bronze aged quarries in the Jafr area, Nabatean quarries in Petra and Roman quarries in Jerash. In the upcoming meeting, I will present some of our work in Jerash.

How cool is that?! And how can I get in on such action the next time I tour Jordan?

Until then, I suppose I’ll just have to live vicariously through posts like the one above by Nizar over at the Jordan science and engineering blog …

… and project websites such as “Quarryscapes” that offer ancient imagery of:

• Al Jafr – whose formation begins as massive thickness of chalky limestone or marl, then repeated the sequence by chert and chalky limestone, chalk or hard limestone.
• Jerasa – where  visit to the site will reveal that stone was brought to the site from many sources. Remarkably, large granite columns are present, apparently brought all the way from Egypt.
• Petra – The stone is extracted from the Cambrian Um Ishrin formation. This is a well indurated fluviatile quartz arenite. The lower section consists of reddish sandstone and the upper is whitish.

Like I said … where do I sign up to see some awesome archaeological sites like these?

So it was with much joy that I read in yesterday’s Jordan Times:

Greek grant to enhance tourism services, preserve Byzantine-era church

Under an agreement signed on Tuesday by the Planning Ministry, USAID, the Ministry of Tourism, the Department of Antiquities and the Greek patriarch of Jerusalem [Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III], the Greek government will provide Jordan with $720,000 through Hellenic Aid to enhance tourism services in the mosaic city of Madaba and to protect and preserve an ancient Byzantine-era church.

I for one am glad to see both the Greek Orthodox Church and the U.S. step up to help preserve this historic site with:

… constructing a shelter over the site and providing visitors with interpretation and visual guides describing the history of the church and its numerous mosaics, according to the USAID-Jordan Tourism Development Programme ..

… also finance renovation work on the visitor centre adjacent to St. George Church, home to the world-renowned mosaic map of the Holy Land so it can accommodate the growing number of tourists coming to the site.

There are also plans to refurbish the visitor center with an interpretation room and a new documentary film – one can only hope the Ministry of Tourism and/or the Jordanian Tourism Board will put said media online as well.

The St. George Church of Madaba saw a 104 per cent increase in visitors in the first seven months of this year, drawing 163,027 tourists through July – so it’s good to see a site so full of ancient history and of interest to Biblical tourism protected.

Here are some other related links regarding Madaba – which to me is a must see location for anyone visiting “the other Holy Land” :

• Flickr – Gauis Caecilius – Madaba
• 6th Century Mosaic Map – St. George’s Church – Madaba, Jordan – Mosaic Art Source blog
• Dave Liu Dot Com blog – Madaba
• blogJordan -New mosque dedicated to Christ in Madaba, Jordan

Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got my own pictures of the famous Madaba Mosaic to put online!

A recent Jordan Times article reports that the historic site of Um Jimal, rich in Byzantine and early Islamic, ruins remains “undiscovered” – overshadowed by the larger Roman city of Jerash and the rose-red city of Petra among others.

Yet this well preserved ancient city, whose Arabic name translates a “Mother of Camels,” is only a 45 mile (72 km) drive east of Jerash, and/or northeast of Amman.

Offering visitors a unique visual reward due to the numerous above-ground artifacts it offers, this photo-ready demonstration of “Haurinte architecture” attributes its distinctive blackish hue due to the stones hewn from the nearby basalt plains.

Strategically located near the modern-day crossroads to Syria and Iraq, 10 miles (17km) east of Mafraq, this once Nabataean village along the Via Nova Traiana was incorporated into the Roman empire by Trajan in the 1st Century AD – later becoming a military outpost along the King’s Highway with walls and fortifications to defend Roman-occupied territory that stretched into the eastern desert and the borders of modern-day Saudi Arabia.

Eventually, Byzantine churches were built on the site during the 5th and 6th centuries, while its stone barracks, water cisterns and administrative buildings were gradually converted to a rural village under the Umayyad rule around the 7th century.

Devastated by an earthquake in 749AD, the basalt fortifications were left abandoned for around 1,000 years until later re-inhabited at the turn of the 20th century by Druze families who resided in the ruins, some of which still stood over two stories high, before the city fell into complete disrepair and obscurity.

Currently, the greatest threat facing the ruins is encroachment from the surrounding community, as reported in said Jordan Times article, with the modern-day village of Um Jimal built right up to the gate fencing off the ancient city – including residents taking some of the rocks and stones for their homes and gardens until the Department of Antiquities (DoA) established an office to oversee and protect the site.

And though just an hour or two out of the way, the provincial town of Umm al-Jimal is ready to welcome travelers willing to make the journey.

Me? I’m definitely adding this to my list of places to photograph if and when I can get back to Jordan. I also wonder if the DoA couldn’t boost tourism here by making it a jumping-off place for various ecotourism expeditions?