Day One Jordan Jerash, Dead Sea and Jordan River

On a recent trip, over Easter, I went to Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. I flew into Amman, the capital of Jordan. After a late flight arrival, lining up for an hour for a visas, waiting for luggage, then finding out that my luggage didn't make the connection from Frankfurt, then lining up and filling out appropriate forms, I walked out into the Amman arrivals hall at 5 am. The next day, Grabbed a hire car and headed north to Jerash, (a Roman site, see photos).The important thing about Jerash (Jarash) I think is that it is that it features many streets and monuments that look pretty much like they did in their heyday. As always you need to use a little bit of imagination, though even for me it was reasonably easy to get a sense of what life may have been like in that time. Jerash is quite remote and apparently this saved their buildings from being used as building materials, as many old sites were.When I read about dates around 100 years AD or BC, it's difficult for me to get the full context of their place in time, though I believe the town has been mentioned as early as 100 years BC.I then drove back down to Dead Sea. It pissed with rain. I mean, it really, really pissed down torrential rain. I thought the car would be washed down one or two of the steep hills in Amman. Four inch thick metal manhole covers were being tossed about by the water like they were plastic. I thought quite a few times that this may be one of those scenarios you see on the news where villages are washed away and the footage is of a car washed into the fast flowing river. The traffic was at a stand still and I had no clue as to where I was. It was an unrelaxed couple of hours to say the least.No rain at The Dead Sea, however, which I believe is fairly typical. It was also a little hazy (once again typical, due to to all the salt and mineral evaporation).The Dead sea is the lowest point on Earth 417 meters below sea level. For various reasons I could not swim in the Dead Sea, which was a bit of a disappointment. One reason was that the friendly folk at Lufthansa were, at that stage, in possession of my swimmers (no doubt using them in some kinky Deutschland game (at least that's what I'd like to think)). Another reason I was unable to swim was that the rain had caused mudslides from the high mountains above the Sea. The mud had slid down into the swimming section of The Dead Sea which left it inaccessible at the time I was there.I went to Jesus' Baptism site and had a short tour there. Apparently it is confirmed that John the Baptist lived and baptised in this area and Archaeoligists are certain this is the spot where the Baptism would have taken place. I am all for the positive aspects of any religion and although not a Church going Christian, I found the experience fascinating. I drove down to Petra that afternoon/evening.