Travelling for a week in Jordan
Hey guys, it's Lewis. I'm reporting from Amman, Jordan. I'll be taking you through Jordan I'll be here for a week, I will be visiting Petra, Wadi Rum desert Amman city, where we are now I hope you enjoy the trip, I'll speak to you later Guys I'm getting a special vibe, just listen to the calling of the mosque The place you just saw, actually I'll go back to it now, is a church built in the sixth century. Byzantine style And there in the distance is the Roman theatre It can hold 6000 people and it's still used today I think that's the main street Lebanese fish Beautiful restaurant I love the middle east Guys this is the weirdest dessert I've ever had, it's ice cream in the middle but it's like some kind of spider web on the edge If some of you know what it's called let me know So guys if you're not really interested in archaeology I'll let you know at the bottom of the screen where you can skip to the dead sea Right hello guys, we're in Jerash which is about a 45 minute drive from Amman This thing is the gateway of Hadrian, Hadrian being one of the roman caesars back in the days. He came here (apparently) and that's why they built this thing.
Jerash is a very old city, it's one of the big 10 greek cities from the greek-roman times Today the population is about 100 000. yeah look at that absolutely stunning This is the hippodrome which in Latin means circus And it's where horse races would be held. As you can tell it's got a very long oval shape built around the year 200AD And it's the smallest hippodrome in the latin world but it's the best preserved apparently (that's what they tell me) and there were 4 teams: the reds, the blues, the whites and the greens and obviously they would compete for the first one to be all around and come back to the finish line and those gates is where those chariots would come out of and the northern side was transformed to an amphitheater for gladiator fights and the southern part was not used for much and squatters use the bricks to rebuild the city wall, so there's not much left over of that side Jerash was hit by an earthquake in 759 after Christ which destroyed a part of the city and then it fell into ruins until the crusaders came in 12th century and they used this place again And that street in the distance there, that's the main street of ancient Jerash So I'll just walk over there now So this is the main street of Jerash it's 800 meters long, which is very long for Greek-Roman standards and in the distance you have the main water basin. That's people where people would get their water. Actually on the east side behind that little hill there's a river. Also there, where those two gentlemen are now, that's where there used to be a lot of shops so people would buy oil and wheat for bread etc And also there in the distance behind those columns is the main cathedral and also a mosque.
The Arab kingdom came in but they left the city intact: they didn't destroy anything Right guys this is the Southern theater of Jerash it's the biggest theater in this town three thousand people could sit in it Just got myself tourist trapped. Got myself a... well I didn't get myself a tour guide but tour guide came to me and he explained me everything That thing in the background is obviously the stage, that's where the king would sit (in that arch there in the middle) and in the middle there that's where the speaker would stand and I just tried it out there's like a stone in the middle and if you stand on it it's quite impressive if you talk your voice comes out like 10 times stronger The stage used to have two floors, one of the floors got destroyed during the earthquake unfortunately There in the background is the temple of Artemis where I'll go to next And behind me is the temple of Zeus So we're now at the most Northern part of Jerash, this is the temple of Artemis Artemis is a woman, she's the goddess of the women, goddess of the moon, goddess of the wilder beast and the goddess for women that are pregnant And behind the temple are the church of Theodore and this below is the temple of Bacchus, which were also baths so people used to wash themselves here. Some of you might wonder Lewis, how come in the earthquake those columns didn't fall down? Well I'll tell you now! So inside those columns actually they're hollow and they're filled with lead, which is a type of metal, and this keeps the structure strong. And that's how they don't fall over. Also I just bought myself, what should be a real Roman coin, We're at the Northern part of Jerash. This is the Northern theatre with a pretty mosaic and in the distance is the Northern gate. This is one of the main roads of Jerash, it's very well preserved as you can tell the road is in a fine state I think that's the Eastern gate, yeah Eastern gate of Jerash So we're in the East gate and for those architects among us, Romans back in the day (and Greeks sorry) didn't use cement. They used pure gravity to keep the structure strong and put it together
and you see that stone right in the middle there that round stone, that's what they call the 'key stone' and that's what keeps the whole thing together. So the keystone falls the whole monument or building falls with it. Hello we're in Mövenpick hotel. Absolutely gorgeous! It's a bit above my standards but hey you only live once I suppose... Just look at the
place: incredible And due to Covid no one's here so the whole place is to myself and there's like a village, restaurants There's even a mall Gym of course, there's about 5 swimming pools The dead sea which is obviously the main attraction Let's go to the dead sea and I'll show you what it's like All right, we've made it to the Dead sea. It's a bit of a walk down and you can guess why: it's 420 meters below sea level lowest point on earth. Just look around, it's like Mars and then boom! You got the water Which as a lot of you know it's salt water, there's no fish in this sea.
In the distance it's hard to tell with the sun in the face but that's Israël and yeah the dead sea is obviously shrinking at some stage obviously it will be gone but so far we're lucky enough and blessed enough to be able to enjoy it For Jordanian people this is winter time and it's freezing for them for us it's pretty descent and every year as the sea shrinks they have to move the beach further and further away couple of tips if you go to the dead sea: don't put it in your face because it just just tastes disgusting and it like tingles your nose but I mean it's just amazing the view Definitely worth it guys Alright so tomorrow off to Petra and I'll speak to speak to you tomorrow Before I leave I wanted to show you this morning view. It's hard to tell on the camera but you see those lines on the mountains there? Like a black line, that's where the Dead sea used to be and obviously now it's shrinking and like I said earlier on there's no life at all in this water and actually, can I show you this? You see that white patch? That's what they call a salt bank There are some Jordanian people there having a swim And last night I could hear some explosions so I guess that's the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis on the other side Bit surrealistic, me being on the beach and people getting shot at on the other side Yes! You got him Hi guys we're in a Bedouin tent, my friends: Hamzah and Saddam We just got some milk from the sheep and the goats and Saddam very fresh Bedouin Capuccino, very tasty, yeah fresh So guys this is one of the caves that the Bedouins built for the caravan. Caravan is when there's more than 100 camels and this place used to fill up with water and it's hard to tell but there's a little hands there, see those four fingers there you go that's actually some women died here apparently. The cave filled in with water and they drowned and that's a hand print of a woman trying to escape. As you can tell there's not a lot of water now but apparently there's gonna be rain in a couple of days so it should fill up again.
Guys introduce yourself we have: Rami, Saddam, Hamzah and Jendal This dish is called And they put a lot of effort in this and it's going to taste absolutely amazing I'm sure Morning guys it's a snowy cold morning in Wadi Musa which is next to Petra My tour guide has just got to buy some gloves and a hat because he's freezing and then we're gonna head to Petra and I'll show you some nice footage from there. So the 'fish' right over here it just happened from God, changing of landscapes and all of this So right over here it's the tail You can see the eyes, the mouth over here very clearly and the back of the tails and all of this So apparently it's a sign of good luck if you're able to throw a rock into that hole. But it's not that easy. In Petra I have told you about the caravan and the spice road.
Camels come from India all the way to Yemen and the opposite way. So at the same time when the caravans comes through here, the Nabatiens built signs to show their culture. So these 3 camels standing over here and a man who's standing right over here So if you come close you can see the way how the Nabateans used to dress. Right over here and right over there he's wearing sandals, you see? The sandals come from China, made in China. And those are feet of camels right? And right over here you can see the tummy of the camels, but you cannot see the feet of the camels. One goes up and once goes down
This is the point of women and this is the point of the man And they look over there and they start to do the ceremony. Come stand over here honey There's the God Hello my dear, hello my heart, how many camels? I have 900 camels. And how many sheep? I have 2 Sheep. Deal. Okay when will the wedding be? and it's snowing now it is really good I like it! So this is Petra guys Here as we see, the treasury. So the treasury is the temple of the fourth king.
They named it 'treasury' because the Bedouin who used to live right over here they named it a treasury for 2 reasons: one of the main reason we thought there is a gold inside that temple So the Bedouin they used to live here and when they came back from the ceremony of the deadman of mount Napi Haruun They came back they stand over here and they start to hit the top of the treasury the top of the hill right over there with the pillar because they thought the gold it will be over there in the top. So right over here there is there is like a 12 columns it means 12 columns like 12 month of the year Disco donkey As you can see: Roman theatre right over here so wherever you go in the world Romans have built their theaters not from carving. This it's made out of carving it has been carved by the Nabateans at the time of Nabateans they've been carving here but when the Romans came they have changed it so for their war and therefore all of the these things. Nabateans what they used the
theater for? They used the theater for their shows like fighting like chicken fights chicken fights? Or something like this yeah like ceremony they do it for ceremonial for something like this okay like fighting for whatever So the Romans cut the water to kill the Nabateans? To try to control the Nabateans And then they came to fight with the Nabateans inside here They have a war and after the war those that don't die, they start to have a fight inside the Roman theatre The Nabateans all died you reckon? No one knows where the Nabateans went or gone So we don't know about this The civilisation of Nabateans started from Yemen all the way to house bank - Palestine so all this area it has been full of things of Nebateans, like carving or palace's: a big empire church or something like this so all over long distance that's Nabatean this is it's a local information. Thank you! nice meeting you and welcome to Jordan Morning guys we're in the middle of the desert, just woke up, didn't have the best nights of sleep to be honest: it was so windy I thought the tent was gonna blow away. It was freezing cold too it gets so cold at night. But we survived, time for some breakfast, some cheese some vegetables
some mint tea and then let's explore the Wadi Rum desert So Faisal is showing me around the Bedouin village and I think we have a camel there Hello Baby? Baby. Ooh there's a little baby too cute How old is the baby? One week? Two weeks? So guys we're in the Wadi Rum desert with Ali and his son Faisal and we're looking for camels but we can't find them they're hard to find It's was snowing last night (which is very rare in the desert) but as you can tell it's all gone now Wadi Rum is a very big protected area where Bedouin tribes live And that's our jeep Hummus, falafel... even Belgian fries guys! All the way from Belgium And then we have cappuccinos: so we have mint.. it's mint tea right? Yes. Mint tea with milk Saïd made a nice fire for us So the whole family's here, they all got fed Ali: So welcome in Lawrence spring. This is the touristic name but the real Bedouin name it's called 'Abu Aineh'. These are the Nabatean writings Ali was mentioning earlier on and it's proof that the Nabatean people were here 3500 years before Christ it's a long long time ago and this is the Wadi Rum mountain, the biggest mountain in the Wadi Rum reserve Here you can see some camels heading to this direction. Before the people they don't have any uh
like what we have now, maps, Google maps or all this stuff so they use the mountains to point the directions and to tell the other people about the directions also they tell them if there are places around here for water if you see the thing in the middle there it looks like a hook? That means water. So it's pointing to Lawrence spring the place where we were before. It's like a fishing hook? Yeah it's like a fishing hook but from this signal they can know how far is the water and which direction is the water even they can know which kind of water, if it's a spring or a well. To the left you can see the letter 'M' and two lines up and a small line to the left. This is the mark of
the family who lived here or who made these inscriptions. So every tribe has their own mark If you read Arabic you will read it. It says 'Mekka'. But already then they knew where Mecca was? Yes. For Nabatians it was a holy place as well? Yes. Mekka is since a long time ago a holy place. Not only for muslims but also before? Since Ibraheem times since Adam our first father. He was in the ground he was praying
for the God in Mekka. And he's the first, the angels they are the first who built Mekka. Like when you say 'Mekka' it's the area. But 'Akaaba' it's the stone, the black room with the stone there. So the first circle from the right is the 'M' and the like 'hook' this is the 'K' and the last circle to the left it's the 'H' --> Mekka. It's very similar to now. You see the man here with his sword and also up there you can see until now we have that it's there is sometimes famous camels so you see camel with his name this camel and some letters next to it that's his name Wait! Hey wait for me! You want to leave me in the middle of nowhere?! Come on hurry up ;) the sun is going down It's not so easy to drive in the sand, you get stuck easily. You know, I don't really get worried when I am with you when you are driving because you already drive a plane so we're still in the ground so I think you will manage This the new name, but this is built by the Nabatean's 3500bc. The Nabatean people they own
this area for long time. And then they made this like a checkpoint and even when you are here you will see all this view so this area you can see if any girlfriends (?) start coming here before they maybe see you. It was like a checkpoint for Nabatians people. Wow look at that view! amazing. And this is where they they filmed
And this is where they filmed some movies no? Yeah they filmed 'Star wars' the Martian movie also they start with the Lawrence of Arabia movie. So even for us the people from here like when we sit like that every day it's still very very good And Lawrence of Arabia did he stay here or is that just a myth that we made up? He didn't really stay here, maybe Lawrence from the movie maybe yeah but the other Lawrence, the real Lawrence he don't have time to build a castle and to relax because he was in a war. He was in a war against the Ottoman and he was fighting with? The Hashemite kings and also our grandfathers when they were in this area they helped him in his war or in the Arabic war because it's a Arabic war against the Ottoman They got helped by the English Morning guys, we are with Faisal and Shahi the camel, who's five years old and look at the beautiful Wadi Rum desert So we're in the castle of Aqaba this is apparently a 200 year old Turkish bench and this is Saïd my tour guide and this is the castle of Aqaba I'm the only guy here, Saïd was so kind to let me in and this place is 500 years old built by the muslims Well I think this is a nice place to talk a bit about the history of Aqaba Aqaba actually used to be called Eilat which, I think, comes from Greek and it means a cashew tree or in Dutch een pistache boom Obviously now the name has changed to Aqaba and actually the Israeli town which is actually I'll show you in the background (that's Israël there) on that side they call it Eilat. So they kept the old name and that city is pretty modern. Actually it's built
in 1952 after the Israel state was founded. Anyway Aqaba goes back a long time and was founded by the Nebatean people who we talked about in Petra and Wadi Rum. Then the Greeks came, the Romans, the Muslims, the Ottomans at some point, back to the Muslims, then the English colonized it and then in the 50s sorry in 1946 so yeah just after the second world war the Hashemite kingdom gained its independence with king Abdullah II being the king as we speak. A lot of pictures of him and his family everywhere Aqaba around 150 000 people so it's not that big it's a quiet town on the red sea And tomorrow we're going to go for a dive at eleven o'clock and hopefully I can take some footage and I'll show you and we'll see what the red sea shows us apparently it's very pretty I've been very fortunate to meet David from the UK, he speaks five languages he works for the embassy in Baghdad, pretty interesting vibe going on there I heard and he's also touring around Jordan and we just got ourselves some fish we just had a Arabic and Greek salad the weather is amazing and these are all fish restaurants in this street So we're having Kunafa, it's Jordanian? Jordanian and Palestine, in this very beautiful shop All right guys back at the airport after a lovely week in Jordan just dropped off the the car there behind me no issues with it so that's nice of course I had a great time: Petra, Jerash, the dead sea, Wadi Rum, Aqaba people are very friendly the food is amazing the weather is good so yeah I highly recommend Jordan and I hope you enjoyed the video and I'll see you in the next one. Thank you so much.
2021-04-03 14:30
