On my last day in Jordan I headed north to visit the Roman ruins at Jerash. I couldn't have picked a more perfect spring day for wandering around an ancient city, as the clear blue sky afforded plenty of sunshine and the weather was a lovely 20 degrees.
I knew before going there that Jerash was reputed to be one of the best sights for Roman ruins in the Middle East. The Roman city of Gerasa was established about 60BC and reached its peak around the 3rd century AD when its population was estimated to be more than 15,000. What I didn't expect to find, however, was that it would be a complete city nestled on a hill carpeted by grass and yellow wild flowers.
In other places, like Amman, you may see the remains of a temple, or a theatre. But Jerash has the entire city complete with south and north gates, triumphal arches, a hippodrome (where chariot races were held), a huge 90m long oval plaza/forum lined with columns, two temples, many churches, two bathhouses, two theatres - and it is estimated that 90% of the city still remains to be excavated!
Jerash is not Pompeii, but as I wandered along the cardo maximus (800m long colonnaded street) - and saw the grooves in the limestone pavers made by chariot wheels more than 1700 years earlier - I was transported to scenes of Caeciliuis translated from my Latin textbook in high school. I could see Caecilius meeting a banking associate in the forum, Metella (his wife) walking to the Temple of Zeus and Quintus (his son) relaxing at the baths. All in all, a lovely day and a great finish to my time in Jordan.
Early Monday morning I boarded a bus headed for Syria. Alas, I did not experience any "road to Damascus" revelations when I was on the actual road to Damascus - unless you count my unfortunate realisation that the bus did not have a toilet on board (as promised). This situation that was made all the more dire by the fact that I drank more than half a litre of water in the first hour of the trip.
The traffic in Damascus is horrific. Several times on our way into the city, on what I can only assume was a major arterial road, we encountered roadworks and were diverted off the main road. It appeared that our coach, along with several lorries and petrol tankers as well as many cars had been diverted down someone's driveway. Given that during these diversions we had to inch past fences and stone walls, whilst simultaneously destroying the over-hanging branches of several trees in the home owner's gardens, I'm not surprised it took us an hour to reach the bus station from the outskirts of the city. Central Damascus is quite modern and overrun with swarms of honking yellow taxis. I am not exaggerating when I say that at least 80% of the vehicles on the road are taxis.
The backpacker's part of Damascus where I am staying is made up of tiny winding streets and alleys that are really only accessible by foot. This gives it a lovely village atmosphere that is extremely convenient as many cheap restaurants, falafel stalls, bakeries, chemists and internet cafes are within a 100m radius of my hotel. The winding alleys and old town feel of the place reminds me a lot of Varanasi in India. I can see that I am going to be very happy parking myself here for two weeks.
Before travelling to Syria I had heard of political unrest and violent protests in Deraa and Lattakia. BBC world was estimating that at least 60 protestors in these locations had been killed by government forces. I wasn't too worried though and just decided that I'd be careful, monitor the situation and ask for local advice before heading anywhere out of Damascus.
Yesterday breakfast in the sunny courtyard of my hotel was interrupted by the sound of helicopters overhead and the excited hotel worker moving the tv into the courtyard so we could all see the huge protests. As the channel was arabic it took a while to figure out that these were pro-goverment demonstrations and that a huge one was happening today in many cities including Damascus. After getting vague directions as to where the demonstration was likely to be moving to, I grabbed my camera and backpack and headed out to see what it was like for myself.
Emerging from the alleys near my hotel onto a nearby main road I was met with a sea of people waving Syrian flags and posters of President Bashar. There was a real carnival atmosphere in the air and after watching from the alley for a few minutes I decided to head to a nearby overpass for a better view. Many roads were closed to traffic as thousands and thousands of Syrians old and young, male and female marched and chanted in arabic "God, Syria, Bashar - that's all!". There was no anti-government sentiment whatsoever and as most of the city had turned out to passionately express their support for the President - it seemed like an impressive show of national unity.
The people demonstrating seemed to be there of their own free will - but as (I later discovered) schools, goverment departments and many other workplaces were closed for the day "to allow people to demonstrate" it seems like it was at least in part orchestrated by the government. Very difficult to get unbiased reporting within Syria - but by speaking to locals and monitoring the international news websites I think I will be able to keep abreast of developments.
Today I moved hotels to a cheaper and better option that, despite the political unrest, was booked out until today. The Al-Rabie Hotel where I am now is so lovely I'm not sure I'm going to be able to leave. The hotel is a converted 600 year old house complete with stone walls and stain glass windows. The rooms face onto a gorgeous tiled courtyard featuring comfortable chairs clustered around small wooden tables, trailing vines, an orange tree and a fountain. It has amazingly retained its character despite the convenient additions of many mod cons - including a retractable glass roof that makes you feel a bit like you're eating on centre court at the Australian Open :-) No wonder LP refers to it as the best backpacker hotel in all of the Middle East!
On a final note for this post - the restrictions on internet usage in Syria mean that I cannot view the actual blog myself from here. It appears to be letting me edit and publish posts, but if someone could drop me quick line to confirm that this post actually appears on the blog that would be great.
I knew before going there that Jerash was reputed to be one of the best sights for Roman ruins in the Middle East. The Roman city of Gerasa was established about 60BC and reached its peak around the 3rd century AD when its population was estimated to be more than 15,000. What I didn't expect to find, however, was that it would be a complete city nestled on a hill carpeted by grass and yellow wild flowers.
In other places, like Amman, you may see the remains of a temple, or a theatre. But Jerash has the entire city complete with south and north gates, triumphal arches, a hippodrome (where chariot races were held), a huge 90m long oval plaza/forum lined with columns, two temples, many churches, two bathhouses, two theatres - and it is estimated that 90% of the city still remains to be excavated!
Jerash is not Pompeii, but as I wandered along the cardo maximus (800m long colonnaded street) - and saw the grooves in the limestone pavers made by chariot wheels more than 1700 years earlier - I was transported to scenes of Caeciliuis translated from my Latin textbook in high school. I could see Caecilius meeting a banking associate in the forum, Metella (his wife) walking to the Temple of Zeus and Quintus (his son) relaxing at the baths. All in all, a lovely day and a great finish to my time in Jordan.
Early Monday morning I boarded a bus headed for Syria. Alas, I did not experience any "road to Damascus" revelations when I was on the actual road to Damascus - unless you count my unfortunate realisation that the bus did not have a toilet on board (as promised). This situation that was made all the more dire by the fact that I drank more than half a litre of water in the first hour of the trip.
The traffic in Damascus is horrific. Several times on our way into the city, on what I can only assume was a major arterial road, we encountered roadworks and were diverted off the main road. It appeared that our coach, along with several lorries and petrol tankers as well as many cars had been diverted down someone's driveway. Given that during these diversions we had to inch past fences and stone walls, whilst simultaneously destroying the over-hanging branches of several trees in the home owner's gardens, I'm not surprised it took us an hour to reach the bus station from the outskirts of the city. Central Damascus is quite modern and overrun with swarms of honking yellow taxis. I am not exaggerating when I say that at least 80% of the vehicles on the road are taxis.
The backpacker's part of Damascus where I am staying is made up of tiny winding streets and alleys that are really only accessible by foot. This gives it a lovely village atmosphere that is extremely convenient as many cheap restaurants, falafel stalls, bakeries, chemists and internet cafes are within a 100m radius of my hotel. The winding alleys and old town feel of the place reminds me a lot of Varanasi in India. I can see that I am going to be very happy parking myself here for two weeks.
Before travelling to Syria I had heard of political unrest and violent protests in Deraa and Lattakia. BBC world was estimating that at least 60 protestors in these locations had been killed by government forces. I wasn't too worried though and just decided that I'd be careful, monitor the situation and ask for local advice before heading anywhere out of Damascus.
Yesterday breakfast in the sunny courtyard of my hotel was interrupted by the sound of helicopters overhead and the excited hotel worker moving the tv into the courtyard so we could all see the huge protests. As the channel was arabic it took a while to figure out that these were pro-goverment demonstrations and that a huge one was happening today in many cities including Damascus. After getting vague directions as to where the demonstration was likely to be moving to, I grabbed my camera and backpack and headed out to see what it was like for myself.
Emerging from the alleys near my hotel onto a nearby main road I was met with a sea of people waving Syrian flags and posters of President Bashar. There was a real carnival atmosphere in the air and after watching from the alley for a few minutes I decided to head to a nearby overpass for a better view. Many roads were closed to traffic as thousands and thousands of Syrians old and young, male and female marched and chanted in arabic "God, Syria, Bashar - that's all!". There was no anti-government sentiment whatsoever and as most of the city had turned out to passionately express their support for the President - it seemed like an impressive show of national unity.
The people demonstrating seemed to be there of their own free will - but as (I later discovered) schools, goverment departments and many other workplaces were closed for the day "to allow people to demonstrate" it seems like it was at least in part orchestrated by the government. Very difficult to get unbiased reporting within Syria - but by speaking to locals and monitoring the international news websites I think I will be able to keep abreast of developments.
Today I moved hotels to a cheaper and better option that, despite the political unrest, was booked out until today. The Al-Rabie Hotel where I am now is so lovely I'm not sure I'm going to be able to leave. The hotel is a converted 600 year old house complete with stone walls and stain glass windows. The rooms face onto a gorgeous tiled courtyard featuring comfortable chairs clustered around small wooden tables, trailing vines, an orange tree and a fountain. It has amazingly retained its character despite the convenient additions of many mod cons - including a retractable glass roof that makes you feel a bit like you're eating on centre court at the Australian Open :-) No wonder LP refers to it as the best backpacker hotel in all of the Middle East!
On a final note for this post - the restrictions on internet usage in Syria mean that I cannot view the actual blog myself from here. It appears to be letting me edit and publish posts, but if someone could drop me quick line to confirm that this post actually appears on the blog that would be great.
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