The day started early with a 6am wakeup call. I guess compared to the third year medical school schedule that isn’t bad at all. On surgery, I would have checked the labs, rounded on all my patients and written my notes by then. We drove about an hour to Petra. Before we arrived our guide took us up to the hills surrounding the site. Even with him pointing out the site, I couldn’t see the city. He also pointed out Mt. Aaron where there is a mosque on the peak as well as Little Petra. After arrival at the park entrance, we walked back toward the city. The entrance is a small “siq” which can’t be more than five to ten feet wide. It seemed like about a one kilometer walk back into the city. There was incredible stone work. There was an aquaduct carved in both sides of the walls to bring water down into the city. There were also clay pipes. The multi-colored red sand stone was impressive. The first building you see upon entering the city is what is called the Treasury. It was huge and the carvings were detailed. It exceeded my expectations. Several parts of it had been damaged in the past century by people using it for target practice. At some point, I believe this area was inhabited by the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. There were many other structures, including a large theatre. I think they said it would seat close to five thousand. After leaving Petra, we drove to Amman, which I believe was Rabbath-ammon in the Bible, going through the land of the Moabites and the Ammonites.
You can see a picture of the treasury in Petra in an earlier post.
Picture 1: Donkey and buggy riding through narrow pathway out of Petra.
Picture 2: Building carved in hillside.
4/9/08
This morning we left for Madaba, the Biblical town of Medeba, south of Amman where we visited the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George. There was a mosaic map there, which I believe was from the Byzantine era. It showed the earliest known map of the Holy Land. From there we went up to Mt. Nebo, were we had an amazing view of the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and Israel. I think we could also see Jericho and Gilead from there. On this mountain many years ago, God showed Moses the promised land. Leaving the mountain, we headed toward Israel and made our crossing of the Jordan River at the Allenby Bridge. Security was tight. They x-rayed my bags, asked questions, and sent me through one of those air sampling machines. Driving into Israel and toward Netanya, we must have driven through some of the West Bank, because we had to pass multiple security checkpoints. Israeli soldiers with machine guns were common as were military lookouts. After dinner at the hotel, I headed out to walk along the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. Several military planes and helicopters passed low overhead. I wondered if they were heading to Gaza or if they were just on routine patrol.
Picture 1: Using cut stone to create mosaic.
Picture 2: Standing on Mt. Nebo with Dead Sea over my right shoulder. Directly behind me is the Jordan Valley and River. Beyond that is Israel. Over my left shoulder would be Jericho.
Picture 3: Mediterranean Sea at sunset.
3 comments:
Wow! What an amazing trip! Did you go to Israel at all or did you just go to Egypt instead? When is your graduation, and when do you start your internship? Is it in July like it is for our interns?
I can see why you would have trouble getting comfortable on a camel...their backs are a little too narrow-looking for a good seat. Plus riding on something that is walking is pretty jarring unless you know how to post, which I can't do well (and I don't know if they even do that on camels!)
Your pictures are really neat. Did your computer ever decide to read the rest of the pictures on the memory card?
I'm in Lubbock for a few days before my 4th year starts. I'm on small animal soft tissue surgery first. Should be fun b/c the surgeon on that week has been a surgeon FOREVER and is probably in his 70s or 80s. Our professors say things like, "It's almost impossible to get clean borders with this kind of tumor, unless you're Dr. Hobson."
I visited Egypt, Jordan, and then Israel. It is just taking me a while to get it typed up. I am supposed to make a presentation of my trip this weekend and have spent most of my time doing that. Hopefully, I can get the rest of the stuff up in the next week.
I'm so jealous.....
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