Shukran Jordan

In 2009 we were invited to spend several days in the beautiful Jordan. It was an amazing experience. The food was tasty and the people were the most friendly in the world.

Of course, we've got to visit the ancient capital of the Nabataeans, the beautiful Petra which is famous for its rock cut architecture. Petra was established some time around the 6th century BC.

The end of the Siq, with the dramatic view of Al Khazneh (The Treasury)...

The world known postcard motive...

As most of the other buildings in this ancient town, it was carved out of a sandstone rock face. It is not known, why it was build but a legend says that bandits or pirates used to hide here their treasuries. That's why it was given its name, the treasury...

This is where i got captured by two beduin girls who tried to sell me some of their necklaces...

Petra is known as the rose-red city for the color of the rocks. The nabataean women used the dust as make-up. Till the last century bedouins used to live in Petra and nowadays they are the only ones who are allowed to still use it commercially. They sell statues, necklaces and camel rides. It is not politically correct to buy the merchandise from them, as they use their children to do the job. If they hadn't any interest in selling things, their children would go to school. Unfortunately, most of the tourists just don't think about that...

As Jordan is one of the places described in the Bible, we took the chance to visit the Mount Nebo:

According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy this is the place where Moses was given a view of the promised land that God was giving to the Israelites. The Bible and Torah both say that Moses was buried on this mountain by God himself but his final resting place is unknown...

The serpentine cross sculpture (The Brazen Serpent Monument) atop the Mount was created by an Italian artist. It sybolizes the snake created by Moses in the wilderness and the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. 

Actually we changed the hotel every single night :

The Taybet Zaman gives you the impression of how the arabs used to live back in the day.. 

The evening program consisted of a beautiful sundown, an arabian dinner and dance along with the smoke of a Shisha...

This is what you get when you give a sword to a woman!!!

The shisha

The next morning we took the jeeps to explore the desert Wadi Rum...

...and spent a night in tents, just like real bedouins..

The next morning...

 I had nightmares of scorpios and snakes... i can tell you, i didn't sleep at all that night!

These were the rooms..

The very last day, we took a bus ride to a 5 star luxury hotel overlooking the dead sea..

Do you know the story of Loth's wife??

One of the best trips ever... and at the end i was  totally exhausted....