A few other fun things we did include visit the Karak Castle and shopping… The castle is the same as the movie Kingdom of Heaven is based off of (for anyone who has watched it)… it was built by the crusaders and is an amazing place to climb around! There are tons of pictures coming from this place! Really, there were very few limitations to where we could go – only areas with obviously crumbling rocks had bars or fences around them… It was very, very fun to be free as we looked over the top of VERY high walls!! Some of them 200+ feet straight down!

The above is a small snippet from a very chatty and fun to read blog post from Heather’s “9 month journal of life while at school in Israel.”

And the castle she is describing is the 12th century Karak Castle that still stands today as it did some 800+ years ago. Moreover, unlike some tourist destinations such as Athens or Rome – and as Heather points out in her post – one can see, feel and experience “hands-on” as one walk through the winding passages of this excellent example of Crusader-erea construction and architecture …

… as depicted in this inspiring YouTube video …

… described here in some detail at the blogJordan Wiki:

The most notable Crusader architectural feature surviving is the north wall, into which are built immense arched halls on two levels. These were used for living quarters and stables, but also served as a fighting gallery overlooking the castle approach and for shelter against missiles from siege engines.

In AD 1263, the Mamluk ruler, Baybars, enlarged and built a tower on the north-west corner. In AD 1840, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt captured the castle and destroyed much of its fortifications.

The castle extends over the southern part of the plateau. It is a notable example of Crusader architecture, a mixture of European, Byzantine, and Arab designs. Its walls are strenghthened with rectangular projecting towers, long stone vaulted galleries are lighted only by narrow slits, and a contains a deep moat from the west which completely isolates the site.

In the lower court of the castle, there is Karak Archaeological Museum, which was newly opened in 2004 after renovation work. It introduces local history and archaeology of Karak region- the land of Moab- from the prehistoric period until the Islamic era. History of the Crusader and uslims at Karak castle and town is introduced in detail

Along with her account of the Kerak Castle, Heather offers some observations on the Jordanian economy and its relevance in terms of both tourists and local residents where she writes:

Tourist simply have more money than Jordanians.

Jordan is a place where people live off of very low incomes. It is strange because the Jordanian Dinar (JD) is worth about $1.40 but the average living wage is only about 200 JDs a month, the wealthier families have about 500 JDs a month. That’s the equivalent of about $300-$700 a month! So all of the prices are directly relative to the income of the people, but to us as Americans the prices were very, very cheap. I bought a ½ a kilo (about a pound) of cinnamon for 2 JDs = about $3. That is SO cheap to me as an American, but to the Jordanian people it is expensive. They only have 200 JDs to live off of each month, so spending 2 whole JDs on cinnamon would be ridiculous.

Indeed, I myself purchased and additional suitcase my last trip to Aqaba – for even though the Dollar-pegged Jordanian Dinar (JD) has created some controversy for its inflationary impact on Jordanians – there are still deals on otherwise expensive commodities for Euro-wary US travelers.

Heather’s post also describes some of the fun, and not-so-fun aspects of the taxi ride to and from Israel and Jordan. Nothing bad, just some things to consider for those planning on traveling to both “Holy Lands” in a single trip on their own.

Here are some other cool links about Kerak:

• Karak Castle-Jordan October 2008 – Flickr; Nasriyyeh Hall
• 360 East – From Amman to Karak on the Kings Highway
• Photo Of The Day, by the Karak Castle - 7iber Dot Com
• Natashatynes.org – Karak, a 28 Picture Castle Tour
• Kingdom of Heaven’ and the city of Karak – Mental Mayhem
• VisitJordan.org – A maze of stone-vaulted halls & endless passageways
• Military Orders: The Templars – blogJordan.com

How about you? Got an experience in Karak you want to share? If so, don’t be shy, leave a comment.

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?