Visit of Umm Qays, Pella and Mt Nebo

The night was cold, and i am reluctant to leave the bed this morning. There is no heater in this small Airbnb ( actually there is one, but we didn't manage to make it work last night, we piled up more blankets instead).

As we eat breakfast, we can hear the wind outside it seems strong. The day is bright and nice, but when a blast hits you, it chills you to the bone.

We layer up and start our day of visit by the archeological site of Umm Qays. We are hitting the lesser known and visited ones today.

It's no surprise that we are the first ( and I believe the only ones) this morning. The village has been inhabited from Greek period until 30 years ago. I find the contemporary part the most interesting.

It's comprising of huge complex of communal houses that were once home to an extended family group. Almost like a fortified compound where everything happened, from manufacturing, pastoral life or big events. Some of the roofs communicate with the neighbors compound. These small stairs and passages being used by the women to socialize together.

Some of these compounds have been renovated and one hosts the visitor center, which has a lot of explanations about the Jordanian peasant society and culture that was once the village of Mkes. The other one is the museum, which shows archeological findings and more ancient artefacts.

Then we walk around the village and explore the ancient roman and byzantine ruins. They are not as impressive as Jerash. But was Umm Qais has that the other doesn't, is a fantastic view over the border with Syria, the lake Tiberius ( also called the sea of Galilee, which belongs to Israel ).

We spent a good 1h30 walking around, all alone with only this blasting cold wind for company.

There isn't much for food at our next site, Pella, and we decide to backtrack to the modern village of Umm Qays to grab some falafel and hummus. We still have pita bread and some veggies and fruits, we can fix ourselves an easy lunch later.

The road to Pella goes down to the Jordan valley. It's a nice view as we go down the small road that joins to the highway.

Calling it a highway is not very accurate. It's a main axis that goes through a continuous succession of urban development or greenhouses. It's busy and often people are parked on the right lane, or vegetable sellers occupy it.

We need a little over an hour to reach Pella. Thankfully the wind has died and once in the sun, it's pleasantly hot.

In Pella, we are the only one visiting. And it's a little cruel. The visitor center is at the very top of the hill and all the sites are down below. And it's a fairly spread out set of ruins.

I wouldn't put Pella on a must visit list, it's really not that well preserved and it's lacking in explanations. There was absolutely no guide or even trinkets vendors.

On the memorable part of the ruins: the Canaanites temple. To think that these deep foundations are from the iron ages ! The byzantine basilic built on top of roman ruins was nice, especially with the Odeon next to it.

At the top of the tallest nearby hill, just looking over the city are the ruins of an old byzantine fortress.

From the visitor center, the view from the Jordan valley is quite breathtaking.

We needed about 1h20 to visit Pella.

The guardian / janitor of the place, has a couple of plastic chairs around and some low tables. We ask, and he is ok for us to sit there and fox ourselves some lunch. He spends almost the entire time shooing the cats away. That was funny and sweet. ( The little devils were absolutely not deterred ).

At some point some of the tourist police officer were around and we chit chat a little. These plastic chairs seem to be the unofficial breakroom. It's well past lunch time and some of them go to collect food in town I think.

We continue our travel along the Jordan valley to Mount Nebo. It's a pilgrimage point and a holy Christian site. It is said that it's from mount Nebo that Moses saw the promised land and died.

I was expecting a view point and a church. But i was quite pleasantly surprised. The viewpoint over the Jordan valley before is by far the widest and best of the day. The church is actually built on top of older ones and they have preserved the ancient mosaics. You walk on smaller walkway to see them.

The little museum had a few information about the archeological sites around Mount Nebo. There were a lot of very ancient monasteries.

The visit lasted about 45min but was surprisingly interesting and informative. It's still strange to put real places on biblical stories. I can't put a finger on the emotion, like it makes the religious text more credible ? Tangible ? It removes some mysticism, to get them anchored in something concrete.

We arrived at Mt Nebo at about 3pm and left as they closed at 4pm. Talk about perfect timing !

There is little time to get to Madaba where we will spend the next two nights, barely 20min drive.

Our guesthouse is fairly nice and our room spacious. We rest a little while before it's time to go out for diner.

The beauty of having your car, is that you can chose to stay a little away from the touristic area and eat where the locals go. Alexis has picked a kebab place nearby. The staff doesn't speak English, but between pictures on the Arabic menu and the few words we know, we manage to get some kebab and shish tawook. A huge platter arrives. It's ( again ) delicious! And the price of the meal: a steal.

We get back to our room, and I could open the computer to write this daily blog entry, but it's so cold and I want the warmth of the blankets. It's going to be on the phone instead.