The first several days of the new 2020 I got to travel to quite a few other amazing places in Jordan that I’ll share with you here. Although slightly less famous and touristy, I think every place I visited was well worth the travel and in one way or another was truly remarkable. So I strongly recommend to everyone this journey through a really beautiful country full of very welcoming and friendly people. I guess the guys from Coldplay also had a pretty good impression from Jordan, having chosen Amman’s ancient citadel for their latest album’s live performance.
We start our photo journey from the lowest land point on Earth at -430 metres below sea level. Which is oddly enough also exactly at sea level, or more precisely at “Dead sea level”. Dead sea is in reality a salt lake, and even more precisely a hypersaline lake. You actually float rather than swim, and even if the water seems completely nice and normal at first (and the temperature was 26-27 degrees on 1st January, just perfect!) it feels like you move through a sort of jelly once you’re inside. A really cool experience for sure, and a perfect start of the new year.Next stop was Jerash, or rather the ancient Greco-Roman town of Gerasa (also on the top photo). Amazingly well-preserved and full of temples and artifacts, I found it even more impressive than Pompeii. Which is to say, it’s really really amazing.On the side of one of the two completely intact ancient theaters…as usual the tourists with selfie sticks are ready to climb anywhere for a good selfie!On one of the central streets in Gerasa… I’m intentionally leaving out photos of the oval forum and the main temples so anyone interested would look them up, it’s really beautiful to walk around all these ancient treasures.Moving back down (literally) towards the Dead sea but staying in the antiquity. This is the spot next to the Jordan river where Jesus was baptised by St. John around 28-29 AD… meaning when he was about 28-29 years old. Apart from being well-documented in the Bible, this event is believed to be historically accurate by the scholars.And we move back up the hills to the present capital of Jordan, Amman, also known in the antiquity as Philadelphia (yes, that’s right). This is the view to the Roman theater (which is really big) from the so-called citadel, the main part of the ancient town.By now maybe you’re not impressed with old ruin photos around sunset, but the view from the citadel to the many many hills of Amman is really quite unique. I have to admit it was better captured by those drone shots in the Coldplay video. Still at the citadel, inside the main entrance hall.Amman is the main city of Jordan and hosts more than 4 million people. It is a very modern and lively city, full of interesting little shops and street art. Surprised there are girls street artists in the capital of a generally quire religious and traditional Muslim country? You shouldn’t be!And maybe less surprising, American pop-culture is truly everywhere!A souvenir shop owner filling in a small bottle with colorful sand and drawing this way a camel in the desert. Quite cool, no?In Amman we also went to a local cooking class, where we had by far the best meal we tried in Jordan!Some more street art on the way back from cooking, you can easily find the spot by the name of the street on the left…provided you can read it of course!One day later, after a fun drive through a desert storm between the far north (Amman) and far south (Aqaba at the Red sea). We are at the local beach in Aqaba, full of places where you can smoke shisha and get a coffee. The lands on the other side of the gulf that you see belong to Isreal and then Egypt follows a few kilometers later.We also took a glass-bottom boat in Aqaba that took us around some amazing places in the Red sea. This is a sunken ship that is very popular with divers……while this is a rather vast coral reef. Soon after we also jumped out of the boat and went snorkeling in this amazing place. Unfortunately my camera is not water proof, otherwise I could have shown you some pretty amazing shots.End of another day in Aqaba, and one last cup of tea next to the beach at 20 degrees before heading to the local airport and catching the flight back to Sofia and to real winter.
Who could get tired of shots of ruins at sunset? Especially your vividly crisp ones. I love seeing parts of the world I might never otherwise get the chance to visit in person….
Love the old ruins! The view from the glass-bottomed boat must have been amazing.
janet
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Truly beautiful photos!
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Who could get tired of shots of ruins at sunset? Especially your vividly crisp ones. I love seeing parts of the world I might never otherwise get the chance to visit in person….
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So interesting and great photos. Thank you very much for this post. I remember “swimming” in Dead sea very well, like trying to swim in thick oil.
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Jordan is a magical place. Your Aqaba photos are breathtaking…allowed me to reflect on the pastoral beauty of this ancient land….Thanks for sharing…..
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Beautiful ❤️
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Jordan will be my next big trip after Peru. Thanks for the great ideas
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Love it! Thanks! Love the Coldplay video as well.
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That’s quite a good Joker graffiti…
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What a beautiful land! Such exquisite images-thank you for sharing.
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