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| The Museum at Dana... sort of small but cool nonetheless |
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| Pounding the Oregano with a rock |
Today was a nice, rather slow paced day where we got to enjoy ourselves and basically do whatever we wanted for much of the day. We didn't really have a plan for today except we wanted to explore the area of Dana a little bit and also have plenty of time to see Karak and get home before things got too late. In the morning, about half of the group slept in late while the other half decided we really wanted to explore Dana village and see what we could find. I packed up all of my stuff for a quick exit and then headed outside. We had heard that there was some sort of giftshop and craft making area but were unsure of where we could find it. I headed down an interesting little alley and found a nice bridge to cross over. As I was crossing the bridge I started to hear pounding and thought it sounded interesting so I decided I would head in the direction of the pounding while taking pictures and enjoying my surrounding. Imagine my surprise when I entered a beautiful little building and found 5 or 6 women pounding the snot our of oregano with rocks to create the spice that we all use in our cooking. I found it very interesting and was content to watch but was soon invited to join in and take a turn at smashing some oregano. The dust got everywhere but it was surprisingly enjoyable especially when one of the women began singing a song in time with the pounding. It made me realize just how cool this experience really was. I was sitting there pounding oregano when the rest of the group found me and started laughing because they always seem to find me doing something with the locals and having a great time of it.
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| Engraving my ring |
Anyway, after the I had taken a few pictures of the Oregano production, the girls informed us that there was silver smith shopped close by a long with a museum that sold all of the goods that were handmade here on site. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to go see all of that stuff and everyone else wanted to go as well so off we went. There was a cool little museum explaining the preserve as well as a guest house where we found that we had been royally ripped off with our accommodations and hadn't even seen the nature preserve or entered it! We were more than a little mad with our tour guide but decided that we would simply come back later to enjoy the preserve and see some of Jordan's beautiful wildlife. Also in the center was an awesome little gift shop with tons of hand made items for sale and two really nice ladies that informed us that a lot of the silver was made on site and we could go see the silver shop down stairs. The silver shop was not very busy, they said they didn't have any orders, but it was interesting to see how they cut our and shaped everything by hand. I have discovered, in Jordan at least, that if you stand around looking at something long enough the person doing the job will invite you to do it with them and teach you how to do it which I find is really cool and very nice. Today was no different as they promptly placed us in a chair and showed us how they flattened the metal, cut it out by hand, polished and a number of other things. As we were watching they showed us a polishing wheel and then asked me for my irish ring. They then polished the heck out of it and made it look better than it ever had when I bought it in Ireland. It was really cool, however, when they asked me to spell my name in Arabic and then engraved it on the inside of the ring along with a heart. So now my Irish ring is engraved with " سكاي " and a heart which I think is pretty cool. I wonder what other cool things can happen to this ring before the end? Well, after I got my ring engraved we took a few final pictures and then headed of to the North so we could see the ancient remains of Al-Karak the Castle.
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| The group before heading out of Dana |
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| The castle from the top of the Umayyad addition |
As we pulled up to the castle I knew it was going to be amazing. It was huge and precariously perched on top of a huge hill overlooking all of the surrounding valleys and the dead sea which we could just see off in the distance. As we were walking about to the gate I saw a little shop that said I could buy an audio tour thing for 5 bucks and thought that it would be sweet so I bought it, the only one in the group oddly enough. Well, that audio tour was amazing but would end up creating some issues later on. It turns out that the castle mount had been continuously inhabited for thousands of years but that the earliest fortifications dated back to the time of the Frankish Crusaders. Since that time they were modified by all of the Islamic Dynasties and had amazingly preserve ruins of the castle. I found out some amazing stories from the Audio tour about how Salah Din had besieged the castle on multiple occasions and how the castle had traded sides multiple times. Apparently Karak is located on a major north south trading route and controls a port city on the dead sea. The Castle was huge with a giant underground market that ran over 100 meters, a mosque, huge kitchen areas, a church, giant underground rooms, a stable, barracks and giant walls. It was amazing and every step of the way the audio tour explained and directed me along at what I THOUGHT was a reasonable pace. Something else that was awesome is that you can climb and explore anywhere you want. So every random staircase I saw I could go up and every doorway leading to a dark hole, I could explore. It was a lot of fun and allowed me to see some amazing views and spectacular ruins.
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| The "Bath of the Lily" |
Well, it turns out that although I thought we were supposed to all meet up at 5:00 everyone else had finished exploring the castle in under an hour. When they were sick of waiting they called my cell-phone which I answered but had no response from the other end. I figured my friend Austin had but dialed me and so when he called two seconds after that I simply didn't answer the phone. Also, when they came looking for me in the Castle, much of the time I was underground and so I couldn't hear their calls or see them searching. Basically it was a perfect storm to make it so that everyone else was waiting for me for about an hour while I was enjoying myself inside the castle having lots of fun exploring and listening to my Audio Guide. I felt really bad when they finally found me but I stick by my decision to purchase the audio tour. I think they are so much fun and they make the experience so much better because it is no longer simply a bunch of ruins but actually has meaning, stories, and interesting facts along with it. I think any time there is an audio tour, people should purchase them. Just my two cents, also make sure you have a meeting place and time set up with your group so everyone knows the expectation.
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Just a cool passageway
I found while exploring |
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| The view from inside the ruined mosque at the temple |
Well, that was pretty much the end of my adventures this weekend. I'll upload some pictures on this soon so everyone can be jealous of my awesome adventures and I'll keep updating you. Tomorrow I'm headed off to the Sheikh's house for dinner which should be pretty sweet!
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