HK of J, Part I

Damascus (Syria) --> Amman (and daytrips to the Dead Sea and Jerash) --> Jerusalem (Israel)

Coming from Syria the inevitable first stop is Amman. It is an ugly city. It is "new", being a little hovel until being selected as the capital of Jordan some 80 years ago, and since then Jordanians have been building the same identikit apartment blocks all around the city. Photos of the Roman Theatre in downtown during the first archaeological excavations shows empty hills where now urban sprawl stands.

However, Amman is a good place to be to get to the highly rated - by LP, of course, who could rave about a dog turd - Roman ruins of Jerash. It was worth a visit but not the 8 Jordanian Dinars (€9) required to get in (you can see similary extensive and better preserved ruins at Palmyra, Baalbeck, Ephesys ... often for much less).

I also took the opportunity to see the Dead Sea. Unfortunately it's not easy to get to and requires taking several buses and also a bit of walking too. There are private and public beaches but - on public beaches at least - not always the facilities to wash afterwards. I walked the last stretch until I could find a path to the shore and took some photos (in any case it was blowing a gale and wasn't so warm). I stuck my hand in: quite warm, also a little greasy. Mineral content or pollution? One can only guess.

After a few days in Amman I did the obvious thing before heading south to Petra and - if not too expensive - Wadi Rum: do Israel.