Amman is so interesting

Today has been a rest day with an orientation lecture on basic archeology at the hotel. Tomorrow morning we go to Tall el-Hamman, the site of biblical Sodom. It is about 30 minutes bus ride from the hotel dropping down about 1000 metres to the bottom of the rift valley near the top of the Dead Sea. We have been told we are concentrating on the upper tall digging down into the destruction layer. They have a theory on what caused the destruction and are looking for more evidence to support it. We have breakfast at 6am and the bus leaves at 7pm and we are back at the hotel about 5.30pm. After the lecture Helen is a little bit more interested in the venture, and I'm more than looking forward to it.

We got brave and took a taxi to down town Amman - city centre, about 12km away. The taxis have no meters so you negotiate the price before you get in. It cost us 5JD's ($NZ9 down) and 10JD's back, more expensive because of rush hour. As with Dubai, the traffic is chaotic and I'm not sure how it all works as it does but going through an interestion with no lights with four lanes each way with a honk of the horn worked OK for us. We hired a guide for about 4 hours who was a likeable rogue kind of person who said he was giving us a special price because we were from NZ - yeah right - but he was full of knowledge and showed us some fasinating things. In the picture we are standing on what is know as The Citadel, the ruins of a big Roman fortress built by Emporer Marcus Aurelius who was the emporer in the Gladiator movie with Russell Crowe. The real Marcus invaded this area and took it off the Parthians and built the huge fort as well as the ampitheatre that sits 6500 people you see in the background. We spent about two hours there as well. In Marcus' day is became a major trading city as the city of Petra declined. The Citadel is built on the site of a Ammonite fortress which you can also see remains of. We are standing where the gateway of the Ammonite fortress was. If this is true, this is where Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba who King David had sent into the thick of battle to be killed, was killed.

Our guide "Steve" was one of those guys who knew everyone it seemed and also had the gift of the gab starting up conversations with all sorts. So we met people from Saudi Arabia, Jordan of course, and a young couple with a young girl from Homs in Syria who were refugees. Their house was bombed with mum and daughter inside but they got out, then they just packed up and ran for it. Very humbling to talk to them. Down in the ampitheatre we had lots of kids come up to speak to us because we looked so exotic I suppose. Everyone loves kiwis around here. The kids and a few teens came up because they wanted to practice their English and we enjoyed the conversations.

Amman is huge. Two years ago it had a population of 4 million. Now it is 5 million with the influx of refugees and you get the sense that everything is straining at the seams. I hope the international community that has promised to help Jordan actually does. Britian gave 22 million pounds last week. Not only are there 1 million refugees in Amman but there are another 2 millon in the country, most of them arriving in the last twelve months.

Tomorrow - Sodom!