a Geographer's Place

Last week a Fulbright colleague called and asked if we wanted to go to Petra. We have a project we wanted to do there anyway so…no brainer. The following day we headed south. He had made arrangements for us to stay at a Bedouin camp for the night. These can be kitschy, but we had the entire camp to ourselves. It is off season, after all.  After arriving, we wandered through Little Petra just outside the village of Bayda. We also took a little walk to a supposed Neolithic site. While not as grand as their neighbor, they were still interesting. One cave still had 2,000+ year-old partial frescoes in it! Entrance to Little Petra. The small wadi (canyon) contains a small cluster of Nabataean tombs. Just  before sunset, we drove up to a viewpoint. The view over  Wadi Araba as Earth was finishing its rotational period was gorgeous. As the sun crept lower in the sky I realized the Green Flash would probably be visible. It was. Except it wasn’t just a “spark” like I’ve s...

The last several days we have been exploring potential research sites in Amman itself in case we aren’t able to get to our intended research sites. And Amman has plenty to explore! Just look at the view from The Citadel: Looking southeast over Amman from Jabal al Qal'a , as it's called in Arabic The Citadel has a temple dedicated to Heracles (Hercules to Westerners), a Byzantine church, and an Umayyad palace. If you want more, the Wikipedia entry is good, although their first picture of “Amman Citadel Ruins” is NOT from the Citadel, but rather the city of Jerash (this is why ground-truthing is so important!) The large pillars represent what is thought to be the entrance into the Temple of Hercules. Apparently there was also a very large statue of him - they have the hand and elbow on display, just sitting out in the elements. The small-ish box-like structures in the foreground are (empty) sarcophogi. Notice the sprawl of Amman in the background. In a nut shel...