Saturday adventures! I'm very proud of myself for semi-planning and organizing this little outing, it turned out to be quite a success.
Today, Kelsey, Lauren, and I struck out on our own to find the Caves of the Prince (Kuhuf Iraq al-Emir) and the Castle of the Slave (Qasr al-Abd). Although we had no idea what their significance was when we were there other than that the castle was a small villa/mansion dating from at least 200 BC, here's a little background thanks to Wikipedia: The castle was probably built by a powerful notable from Jerusalem who was the governor of Amman. "According to a local legend, Tobiad was a commoner who fell in love with the daughter of a nobleman. When he asked for her hand in marriage, the nobleman said that Tobiad could only have her hand if he built the so-called "Castle of the Slave." After completing the castle, the nobleman had Tobiad killed as he did not want his daughter marrying a commoner.... It has also been suggested that the site was in fact intended to serve as a mausoleum of the Tobias family, although it was never completed." The caves were also burial chambers or cavalry stables. Wow, the Wikipedia info is actually pretty interesting and would have been useful to know before we visited, but at least now we know what it may or may not be about.
Anywho, our adventure started out with finding the minibus to take us to Wadi as-Seer, a suburb not too far from where I live in Amman. After texting back and forth with Subhi, one of the program staff at AMIDEAST in Jordan, we find the bus no problem. 20 or so minutes later, the driver lets us know it's our stop, and we hop off. Ask a woman standing on the side of the road where the buses are, and she points us in the right direction. 10 minutes later, we are on another minibus headed to Iraq al-Emir. Usually I dread trying to get anywhere in Jordan because it's usually so difficult, but this honestly could not have been easier. Plus, the views were phenomenal. I didn't take any pictures from the bus because I couldn't be bothered to take my eyes off the window. Words cannot describe.
Qasr al-Abd was our first stop. Lonely Planet's description is dead-on: small, but impressive.
We climbed around as much as we could, snapped pictures, and sat in the sun. We had a picnic lunch of the hummus and tzatziki (I don't remember the Arabic name for it, but that's the Greek name!) that Lauren and I made at Dr. Wafaa's house during her cooking lesson on Thursday. [Oh boy, I need to catch up and do a blog post on that too! Pictures are on facebook!] I was so content just sitting in the sun, breathing the amazingly fresh and clean air, and taking in the views.
Next, Iraq al-Emir. We asked a couple more people for directions (yay for practicing Arabic!) and easily found our way up the hill to the caves. Again, amazing views of the countryside. The caves were.... large. Nothing terribly exciting, but entertaining for a bit nonetheless.
Time for a rest stop! Across from our next destination, the handicraft village of Iraq al-Emir, we stopped for some refreshments, and of course, Kelsey made friends with the owner of the stand.
Last stop, handicraft village. Founded by Queen Noor back in the day (not sure what day, but back in some day) as a way for local women to learn crafts like paper-making, ceramics, jewelry making,weaving, etc, and then sell their crafts so that they get the profits. There are several initiatives like this throughout Jordan, either founded by Queen Noor or not, and I would like to hit up all of them. Bought some souvenirs and made some more friends (and I had to act as a translator between this one Japanese student who spoke heavily-accented English and little Arabic and the women who worked there who barely spoke English... I didn't do a stellar job, but I hope I at least got the point across? haha).
When it was time to go, we hadn't seen any minibuses in awhile... we were a bit worried, so we asked our friend at the snack stand when the next bus would be. Instead, he flagged us down a service taxi (a taxi with a specific route that will pick anyone up along the way if he has room) and told him to take us to Wadi as-Seer. Wadi as-Seer to minibus, minibus to home!
I must say, we done good. We done real good. The total cost for the day (minus souvenirs which ended up being quite a bit... but it's for a good cause!) was 1.25JD. Wow! I would definitely go back to Iraq al-Emir. Even though I would like to tell everyone how awesome it is and drive up the tourism for that area a bit, it was pretty nice that we were practically the only people at these sites...
More adventures in the future!
Today, Kelsey, Lauren, and I struck out on our own to find the Caves of the Prince (Kuhuf Iraq al-Emir) and the Castle of the Slave (Qasr al-Abd). Although we had no idea what their significance was when we were there other than that the castle was a small villa/mansion dating from at least 200 BC, here's a little background thanks to Wikipedia: The castle was probably built by a powerful notable from Jerusalem who was the governor of Amman. "According to a local legend, Tobiad was a commoner who fell in love with the daughter of a nobleman. When he asked for her hand in marriage, the nobleman said that Tobiad could only have her hand if he built the so-called "Castle of the Slave." After completing the castle, the nobleman had Tobiad killed as he did not want his daughter marrying a commoner.... It has also been suggested that the site was in fact intended to serve as a mausoleum of the Tobias family, although it was never completed." The caves were also burial chambers or cavalry stables. Wow, the Wikipedia info is actually pretty interesting and would have been useful to know before we visited, but at least now we know what it may or may not be about.
Anywho, our adventure started out with finding the minibus to take us to Wadi as-Seer, a suburb not too far from where I live in Amman. After texting back and forth with Subhi, one of the program staff at AMIDEAST in Jordan, we find the bus no problem. 20 or so minutes later, the driver lets us know it's our stop, and we hop off. Ask a woman standing on the side of the road where the buses are, and she points us in the right direction. 10 minutes later, we are on another minibus headed to Iraq al-Emir. Usually I dread trying to get anywhere in Jordan because it's usually so difficult, but this honestly could not have been easier. Plus, the views were phenomenal. I didn't take any pictures from the bus because I couldn't be bothered to take my eyes off the window. Words cannot describe.
Qasr al-Abd was our first stop. Lonely Planet's description is dead-on: small, but impressive.
We climbed around as much as we could, snapped pictures, and sat in the sun. We had a picnic lunch of the hummus and tzatziki (I don't remember the Arabic name for it, but that's the Greek name!) that Lauren and I made at Dr. Wafaa's house during her cooking lesson on Thursday. [Oh boy, I need to catch up and do a blog post on that too! Pictures are on facebook!] I was so content just sitting in the sun, breathing the amazingly fresh and clean air, and taking in the views.
Next, Iraq al-Emir. We asked a couple more people for directions (yay for practicing Arabic!) and easily found our way up the hill to the caves. Again, amazing views of the countryside. The caves were.... large. Nothing terribly exciting, but entertaining for a bit nonetheless.
Time for a rest stop! Across from our next destination, the handicraft village of Iraq al-Emir, we stopped for some refreshments, and of course, Kelsey made friends with the owner of the stand.
Last stop, handicraft village. Founded by Queen Noor back in the day (not sure what day, but back in some day) as a way for local women to learn crafts like paper-making, ceramics, jewelry making,weaving, etc, and then sell their crafts so that they get the profits. There are several initiatives like this throughout Jordan, either founded by Queen Noor or not, and I would like to hit up all of them. Bought some souvenirs and made some more friends (and I had to act as a translator between this one Japanese student who spoke heavily-accented English and little Arabic and the women who worked there who barely spoke English... I didn't do a stellar job, but I hope I at least got the point across? haha).
When it was time to go, we hadn't seen any minibuses in awhile... we were a bit worried, so we asked our friend at the snack stand when the next bus would be. Instead, he flagged us down a service taxi (a taxi with a specific route that will pick anyone up along the way if he has room) and told him to take us to Wadi as-Seer. Wadi as-Seer to minibus, minibus to home!
I must say, we done good. We done real good. The total cost for the day (minus souvenirs which ended up being quite a bit... but it's for a good cause!) was 1.25JD. Wow! I would definitely go back to Iraq al-Emir. Even though I would like to tell everyone how awesome it is and drive up the tourism for that area a bit, it was pretty nice that we were practically the only people at these sites...
More adventures in the future!
No comments:
Post a Comment