Wadi Rum and Dead Sea

In the afternoon, we drove from Petra to Wadi Rum. It is a protected area of spectacular red sandstone and deserts. At the visitor center, we saw the Seven Pillars Mountain which was named after T.E. Lawrence's autobiographical account of his experiences (Seven Pillars of Wisdom) while serving as a British army liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918.

(Left) Seven Pillars Mountain

The movie Lawrence of Arabia was filmed in Wadi Rum (also, the recent science fiction movie The Martian (2016) was filmed there). We stopped briefly at the Hejaz Railway station. The vintage steam locomotive on narrow gauge tracks evoked the history of the Arabs attacking trains and destroying tracks in their struggle to defeat the Ottoman Turks.

          

When we arrived at our next accommodation - the Sun City Camp - there was another surprise. The tents were geodesic domes. The domes, the red color sand and mountains evoked Mars. We fell for this tourist trap. It was pretty cool.

                                                       Sun City Camp with geodesic domes

(Left) Nice spacious room inside                                 (Right) Looking out from inside the dome

Before dinner, we went on the wilderness adventure of a 2-hour, 4x4 jeep adventure in Wadi Rum to watch the sunset, following the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia, climbing sand dunes and rock bridges. We also had a camel ride (video) and saw ancient petrographs. The camels were fitted with seats and it was not easy to tell whether they had one or two humps. But the petrographs showed us they are one-hump. Then we drove back to the camp where we enjoyed a delicious Bedouin dinner and a starry night in the desert.

The next morning we left Sun City Camp to head back north to the Dead Sea. On the way we stopped in Madaba for lunch in a historical old home turned into restaurant, the oldest in Madaba. The restaurant is owned by a woman who seemed very respected and well known. She did not wear a headscarf. She may be Muslim, we think. 99% of the women we have seen on trip wear headscarf, whether on the streets of Madaba or smaller villages and even Amman.

We arrived at Dead Sea Marriott at maybe 3 pm, in time to take a swim. The hotel is within walking distance to the Dead Sea which is 1400 feet below sea level. It was hot, probably in the 90's.

Ayman said a lovely goodbye, telling David he appreciated all the information about the Open Street Map app and other things. David got kissed on both cheeks, as is the custom among Jordanian men who are very good friends.

(Above) Floating in the high density water of the Dead Sea
(Right) We did the customary smearing of our bodies with Dead Sea mud - supposed to be good for your skin

          




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