The beginning of the story, Mar Elias, Castle Ajloun, and the City of Jerash

After a good night’s rest, we all gathered and met our guide, Abraham, and our driver, Mohammed. All that was missing was a chef named Jesus and we would have completed the cast for our exploration. Today we would begin our journey with a visit to Tell Mar Elias. This is where the single story began and was the birth place of the Prophet Elijah. It sits at the crossroads of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity and could very well be the first fracturing point of the story. The site is largely rubble today and we were greeted by the remains of the chapel.

I found a tomb but it looks like Elijah was long gone.



Elijah is considered to be the one who announced the coming of the Messiah. However he was a bit vague on who and when, which resulted in Abraham, Mohammed, and Jesus all being founders of religious followings. If he only clarified this one point we might not have had to endure years of war.

While the buildings have crumbled some of the original mosaic floors have survived.





While the site is an official pilgrimage destination by the Vatican it gets few visitors. However they still have security.

At the site we began to work with Oud, a highly prized fragrant oil from the Aquilaria tree. Letting the scent connect us with the site of the past.

It turns out Jordan does have oil. They produce a lot of olive oil and olive trees scatter the country side.

Off in the distance we could see the mountains in Lebanon.

We then headed to Ajloun Castle. Originally a Muslim castle it was actually named after a Christian monk who later resided here.

The castle was holding up well and provided lots of areas to explore.





The castle overlooked the surrounding Crusader's castles providing a strategic advantage.

Add some furniture and torches and you have yourself a real life Skyrim.



The castle played a major role in the trade and pilgrimage routes, sitting between Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, and Mecca.

A few cannon balls for protection.

Next we visited the city of Jerash.

This place was huge, it even had it's own amusement park. Unfortunately our Jordan passes only allowed us entry to the site so I was not able to go on any of the rides.

The city's occupation covered a large period of time and became an economic hub that overshadowed and eventually collapsed the nearby city of Petra. The city was most active during the Roman times and they often had chariot races.





The local kids use this site as their playground and I think this picture best sums up the current state of our civilization.

We traveled down the main street to the city center.





They even had a complete sewer system and here is a manhole cover, however there is some question if they actually called it a manhole cover or not.



We then came across a bath which I'm sure was a site back in it's day. When you are here the city really comes alive and it's easy to get lost in its history.

Signs of Christianity were everywhere.



We then stopped at one of the two amphitheaters and the acoustics were amazing. Truly the most amazing example I have seen in all my travels.

It even had an internal winding staircase.

The current city is just built around the ruins. It provided a great backdrop during prayer time when sound carried throughout Jerash.

Most of the site is still covered underground.



It was a clear sign that we found another church as the mosaic floors were a dead give away.

They had these cool organic lawnmowers.

As the sun fell from above we headed out of the site to return to the hotel.

It was a long day and many of us were still adjusting to the local time after our long travels to get here, so we decided to just grab some food in the hotel lounge. Malcolm ordered a hamburger and wanted it rare. Apparently this caused a bit of a health concern and in order to proceed the hotel made him sign a waiver before cooking it.