The next morning we are ready with our group bright and early. Basem commented that we were more punctual than the Japanese! He also told us that the Japanese don't want to hear anything about the country or its history.. they just talk and doze on the bus, and then jump out to take a picture at each photo op! They want to know the name of the photographic subject but that is all they want to know about it. I guess that makes us the Curious Americans, because our group wanted to know everything about every place.

Today we strike out to Madaba. At the Church of St. George, we will see on the floor, a huge mosaic map of the ancient world... the oldest know map of the Holy Land. It is so accurate for the time that archaeologists have been able to use the map to locate ancient sites and places of historic interest for excavation..

Although damaged by time and misuse, much of the map is intact and even we can read it.. it is so well done. Well.. we can't read the words.. but we can see the location of famous sites from their pictures on the map. We were very fortunate to visit here just ahead of the throng of tourists and school children who were visiting. It made it all more interesting for us to see.. and see well without the crowd.

Then to Mt. Nebo, the legendary burial place of Moses. It was from the top of Mt. Nebo that Moses was to have first seen the Promised Land across the valley.... for directly across is Jerusalem....

Cuz: ...and then promptly died. We nicknamed this the "Drop Dead View". Even Basem got a chuckle out of this one!

Here, at the Church of Moses, an old monestary, we saw some of the most fantastic mosaic floors ever. The were beautiful and the state of preservation was remarkable.. they looked newly set. If you click on the mosaic face at the right... you will see the whole floor in which this little guy apprears.

A 45-minute drive takes us to Karak. And what a drive it was.. crossing Wadi Mujib.. a wide an colorful canyon...called the Grand Canyon of the Middle East... and known in the bible as Arnan's Valley. Our bus goes along a snaking road down the 3,000-foot high walls.. then up the other side again.



Karak Castle is on the top of a hill.. it was the 12th Century Crusader's Castle.. to protect the holy sites... but "coincidentally" it was built right at the crossroads of the Silk Road and The King's Highway... a great trade route, and was a fabulous opportunity for profit for the Crusaders. Eventually the fortress was besieged and taken by Saladin.

Within the castle we toured many, many chambers. The military barracks were little rooms with teeny tiny doors to prevent ambush.. the dungeons were dark and forbidding. There was one large room with no windows or doors. The entrance was through a hole in the ceiling and there was no way out. Prisoners were chucked into the hole and forgotten.

The Crusaders would also toss their enemies off the castle walls with their heads enclosed in a wooden boxes.. so they wouldn't die upon impact.. but would be alive to suffer to death with their injuries. I guess they were doing this fun stuff when they weren't busy robbing caravans passing by.



We return to our bus for the ride to Petra, where we will spend the night. The desert is desolate here.. but we did come away with the knowledge that a desert with scrubby plants is called a "Badi" and desert with only sand is a "Sahara". We frequently see Bedouin camps with their big black woolen tents.