The Wonders of Jordan
Gary Rollefson

The chasm is breath-taking: hundreds of feet deep and barely 20 feet wide in places, Petra’s siq wends its way more than 2000 years back in time. At the end of the gorge, sculpted with flair and arrogance out of the living pink sandstone canyon wall, a 130 foot-high facade suddenly emerges, towering over the tombs of royalty that once controlled a trading empire so successful and tempting that Rome annexed the region to extend its dominion over its wealth and territory. Tombs dominated the entrances to Petra, while huge temples flanked the city of the living. Petra is virtually synonymous with the Royal Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

But Jordan has so much more to offer. There is a sophistication of culture at the end of the Stone Age that is astonishing, as wide-eyed statues look back at the viewer from nearly 11,000 years ago. In the north are the “cities of the Decapolis”, cities that were vibrant parts of the Roman Empire. Emulating all the haughty superiority of urban centers of Rome, Amman (Philadelphia), Jerash (Gerasa), Umm Qais (Gedara), and Pella enjoyed such imperial rights as minting their own coinage and crafting their own laws; Jerash is the best preserved Roman city outside of the Italian peninsula. Closer to us in time are elaborate palaces in Amman from the early Islamic period (7th-8th centuries AD) that were residences of political rulers of the region, and mansions and fortresses in the eastern desert overlook limitless horizons crossed by caravan routes that were probably already a thousand years old or more.

The landscape of Jordan presents astounding vistas: from atop the Arab fortress of Qasr al-Rabadh, manned during the Crusader period,

one has an endless view of the Jordan Valley and the hills and mountains to the west. At the southern edge of the kingdom, a small Nabataean temple is almost invisible under a sheer 2000-foot cliff that looms majestically above it in the hulking red sandstone canyons of Wadi Rum. Here mysterious 6,000 year old paved stone shrines mark annual visits to this sacred area, and rock faces bear petroglyphs dating back 5,000 years; huge boulders carry Thamudic and Safaitic inscriptions marking visits to the area by traders and nomads from times before the Romans came to the region.

Nevertheless, Jordan has even more treasures: the genuine hospitality of the Jordanian people. The warm greetings and generous offers of tea refresh the soul. Exotic foods tantalize the tongue, and modern roads, hotels, and communications belie the feeling of entering an easier time and more relaxing rhythm of life. How can one not fall in love with a country whose symbol is the Bedouin coffee pot?

Join Dr. Gary Rollefson, discoverer of the renowned Ain Ghazal site, and travel to Jordan May 27 - June 9, 2007.

Thinking about Egypt, I am continually drawn to the monuments and the stories they tell. Philae Temple at Aswan has always been a favorite of mine. It was a cult center for the great mother goddess, Isis and was one of the last active temples in Egypt before Christianity took over in the first century AD. Perhaps because it was so far south, the temple wasn’t closed when the new religion became popular, and graffiti tells us that in 5th century pious Nubian pilgrims traveled to Philae Temple to “honor the old gods.”

The Temple of Isis at Philae was one of the most important religious centers in Egypt for over five hundred years. Situated on an island in the Nile, Philae must have seemed like a great green oasis among the boulders of the First Cataract to pilgrims approaching the temple.

Decorated with scenes of Isis and Hathor and the Ptolemaic queens associated with the goddesses, Philae is one of the best preserved ancient temples in Egypt. The sad story of the death of Isis’ husband Osiris, is retold in the “Lamentations of Isis” a series of rituals and prayers dedicated to Osiris. Philae temple complex remains a site of great beauty and tranquility today.

When the Aswan Dam was opened in 1902, the river flooded the island making the temple inaccessible for much of the year. In the 1960s, when the new High Dam was built, the temples on the island were dismantled and the nearly 40,000 blocks were reassembled on a nearby island. The move and rebuilding of the temples was completed in 1980 and Philae Temple now stands 43 feet higher than before.

Join Patricia Remler and Bob Brier on one of Far Horizons trips to Egypt in February and November 2007.