About this time of the year, Jordan is green and lush.... especially compared with the rest of the year when everything is dry and brown. Hopefully you can see the wide variety of flowers in the foreground of the photo to the left. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge, so that you can see better.
Here we are descending out of Amman towards Israel and into Wadi Seer or Seir as the locals spell it. In fact it is Israel that can be seen in the far background. If it were a clearer day and we had good binoculars we would be able to see the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem! A lot of food is grown in the winter and early spring, in the valleys and wadi's of Jordan when no water is needed to nurture the crops. It is a wonderful time to go exploring!
Here are the ruins of the castle of Hyrcanus in Wadi Seer. This castle was built about 200 B.C. by Hyrcanus who was the youngest son of his father Joseph Tobiah (related to the Maccabee family). He was born in Jerusalem. He started out as a tax collector and became the governor of the Amman district. During this period there were terrible conflicts going on between the Ptolemy's of Egypt and the Seleucids coming out of Greece. Hyrcanus is said to have hid out in his castle for the last 7 years of his life and committed suicide when he was about to be overrun by the Seleucids, rather than face death at the hands enemies.
Originally the castle was surrounded by moat and large gardens fed by the near by wadi.... one of the few in Jordan that runs year round.
This is looking into the interior of the castle, where you can still see where some of the internal walls were. Looks like he had a big reception room in the front. The exterior was quite beautiful with all sorts of carved animals, principally lions.. representative of the tribe of Judah, no doubt.
Hmmm..... looks like Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum are contemplating if they could get any good flying shots from this height. Too much rubble boys. It would probably be a pretty rough landing.
Here come the children of a family herding the families' goats and sheep. I thought we had gotten a closer shot. I wanted to show you how they tie sacks over the ewe's teats so that the kids (baby goats) can not nurse. The ewe's look comical with bright red bags hanging nearly to the ground and swinging back and forth between their legs, as they walk/run down the road.
