Visit the Red Sea, Dead Sea, and Jaresh in Jordan, for old times’ sake 6/2023 (Stop 4)

An hour away from Wadi Rum is the Red Sea. I have read about Moses parting the Red Sea, so I wanted to see it. I mean the sea, not the parting.

I drove past downtown Aqaba and headed to South Beach, about 12 km away. On one side was the pink barren desert, on the other, the coarse red sandy beach, and the serene and crystal clear water. It was quiet and not many souls were on the beach except groups of divers in the water. The desert heat was still stifling.

A little later in the afternoon, suddenly the winds started howling. Dust started to churn, sand flew, and the trees tried to hold onto whatever little hair they had left. The sun surprisingly continued to burn through the murky grey sky. I was hoping for some rain but it never came. It did rain a lot of sand and dust. It was eerie and foreboding. I reminisced that it could have been exactly how Moses summoned the blustery wind the moment before the sea was parted.

So, my visit to the Aqaba beaches was blown to pieces, but I did relish the desert storm.

From the Red Sea, I then headed back north, to the Dead Sea, about only 55 Km from Amman.

After driving for about 3 hours, the southern end of the sea appeared, below the slope of the mountains, in bright turquoise. Despite its name, this is a large lake, not a sea. It is quite inconceivable that such a large lake is almost totally devoid of living things. Nothing living could survive in it due to its high salinity. It ripples with the breeze, but is it completely dead? How could something so beautiful be so deadly? Maybe it has to be, to preserve its beauty.

I found a quiet beach I could park at. A few Serbs were floating in the water. Due to the high density of the water, floating was effortless. But walking on water will still take a miracle. Some plastered themselves with black mud to make themselves unrecognizable when taking photos.

Beautiful and exciting places borne out of harshness. That’s Jordan.

After the Dead Sea, I returned to Amman. From here, I would make a day trip to Jerash, just 50 km to the north, among the mountains, referred to in the Bible as Gilead. The biggest challenge was navigating my way out of the heavy and disorientating traffic in Amman.

While present-day Jordan is Islamic, there are many significant old Roman ruins across the country and names mentioned in the Bible. So, visiting these places and seeing the legacy of that period was both historical and spiritual.

Jerash has a long history, going back more than 6000 years. It boasts one of the most preserved Roman ruins outside Italy. It was natural that I would bump into many friendly Italians here.

There was much to see and within short walking distance of each other. The North and South Theater, Oval Forum, Temple of Artemis, Arch of Hadrian, Colonnaded Street, and Nymphaeum to name some of the most eye-catching ones. They were put on the pedestals, sitting proudly on the hills. The sun was glorious, these ruins still shining their magnificence. It was easy to visualize the busy life back then – the layout of the town was vivid; many of the fat cigar-like columns were still upright. There was ample room for me to roam around these hills.

For a few hours, I was back in time, to when the empire was in control, when some of the most significant religions were spreading from this cradle.

Click here to see all the stops on this trip