Northward Along the Dead Sea Highway

Thursday's agenda included another cross country drive, back to the northern part of Jordan for our 8th Day.  The previous week we had crossed the country on the Desert Highway through Central Jordan.  Today we were heading north on the Dead Sea Highway, along the western edge of the Country.  Our schedule was a bit more flexible, since we could ultimately check into our hotel at any point in the evening, though if possible I had planned dinner at the Panorama Restaurant that was supposed to have a fantastic view of the sunset behind the Dead Sea.

We got started about an hour later than we had planned, and looked at our agenda to see if there was anywhere to make up sometime.  While it wasn't a strict timeline, there were a lot of small sites to stop and look at along the drive and if we wanted to see all of them we knew we'd have to move quickly through the day.  

The first spot on our list was Shobak Castle, also known as Montreal Castle.  This castle was built in 1115 by the Crusaders, but fell to the muslim sultans less than a century later.  As we neared the castle, we could see it's imposing outer walls off in the distance. We first pulled into the visitor center, parked, and went inside.  We were greeted by a very cheerful elderly Jordanian that greeted us with a huge smile, but did not speak very good English.  We saw there was a path out the other side of the visitor center, and we asked if we go that way to get to it, and he said, "No, wait for the caravan." and pointed back where we came.  So we walked back out and waited.  After 10 minutes or so, and no caravan, we began to wonder if we could simply drive ourselves, so we went back in and found the old man, and asked if we could drive.  He responded "Yes! But only if you drive slowly.  Drive very slowly!" 

Shobak Castle (Montreal)

With this, we jumped in the car, and drove to the front of the castle.  As we walked in the front gates, it was clear that much of the castle was in significant ruin.  There were still a few rooms and a few passageways that had full walls and ceilings, but much of the castle was made up of only partial walls, and parts of rooms.  

As we walked around, there was a tour guide giving a tour to some other tourists. At one point he walked past us and asked where we were from, we answered, and he continued on his way.  However, once he finished with the tourists he was working with, he came and found us and offered us a tour as well.  We obliged, and he guided us through the castle.  

Arabic Inscriptions on Walls

One of the things that our Lonely Planet guide book recommended, was that there was a very long dark passageway of several hundred steps that went down to one of the water cisterns.  At one point I found a room with  a section of the floor that caved in, and I could see there was a narrow tunnel below it, only about 3 feet wide and 6 feet tall.  I wondered if this was the tunnel the book spoke of.  I could have easily jumped down into it, however, getting back out seemed difficult.  Later we came across a small stairway that led down to a passageway that was blocked off by a padlocked door.  I asked our guide if this was the tunnel that led down a cellar deep underneath the castle. He said yes, but it has been locked recently because it is no longer safe.  I told him I had been hoping to check that out.  He replied "yes, all the tourists always want to see that."  I told him that it was because the guidebook suggests exploring that tunnel.  Unfortunately, I wouldn't be exploring that today.  (He did confirm that they section I saw in the other room was indeed that same tunnel.)

Entry Passage to the Cellar

It didn't take much imagination to see that this was once a magnificent castle.  It was still impressive to walk through some of the arched doorways and look in some of the ancient rooms throughout, and envision the complex being full of knights, royalty, and all the rest.   From the top of the castle you could see an incredible distance.  Far off in the distance was a new modern sight that had been added:  wind farms with large wind turbines slowly spinning. 

View from Shobak Castle

After paying our tour guide, and taking a few final pictures, we headed out from the castle.  There was an obscure site that I had seen a few videos of online that I was hoping to stop and see just outside this castle.  There is an older gentleman that offers a room "for rent" at the World's Smallest Hotel.  It is along side the road leaving Shobak castle.  His "hotel" is nothing more than an old VW beetle.  The inside has a small mat in it, that technically one could sleep on.  Before the trip I had read a couple other blogs that mentioned he was a very quirky individual and that if you stopped to talk to him he would of course share some tea with you.  We unfortunately had to make up time, so we didn't stop and talk with him.  We did get a quick picture as we went past however.

"Worlds Smallest Hotel" (the Car in the center)

No Time to Check in :-(

After we left Shobak castle, we began a long slow descent out of the mountains, down towards the area of the Dead Sea.  The lowest point on the earth.  The drive (as with many drives throughout Jordan) provided some fantastic views were you could see for 10s of miles off in the distance.  

Descending to the Lowest Point of the Earth

We were heading to a small museum, called the "Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth".  The museum was small and had some interesting artifacts from the region, some that were 5000 years old.  However more interesting to me was that behind the museum was a path that would take you to "Lot's cave."  If you are not familiar with the Old Testament bible story of Genesis 19 in which the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, and Lot fled with his wife and daughters (though his wife didn't make it) to a cave.  The cave behind this museum is believe to be the cave that Lot lived in with his wife.

Pottery Vessels from Lots Cave

The cave is up several flights of stairs carved into the mountainside.  About 1600 years ago, a basilica was built around the entrance to the cave, and the ruins of this are there to see as well.  As we got half way up, an older coming down and said "Don't bother.  It's closed off anyway."  We continued undeterred.  

When we got to the top, there was indeed a metal gate around the entire area.  We walked around looking inside, and were about to turn around and head down when Aimee pointed out "Hey, this section is open.  You can walk right in!"  Sure enough, right in front of us was a doorway through the metal fencing.  We weren't sure if it was meant to be closed off or not...but it wasn't.  So we went inside.

Doorway to Lot's Cave (Doorway built around the 5th Century)

When the basilica was built in Lot's honor, they built a doorway in front of the cave entrance, I walked through this, and was in what could only be described as an old cave.  There wasn't much room in it.   From the entry way, there was a section that went down another 8 feet to the left, and had just enough room perhaps for a person to lay.  The back of the cave went another 10 or 15 feet, and got smaller and smaller and then ended in some rocks.  It looked like perhaps it used to go back farther, but it was hard to tell.  Having grown up learning this story, and knowing of Lot, and how long ago that story took place, the reality suddenly settled in of standing in (what is believed to be) the exactly location of an event that I've read about in the bible---and a story that is 5,000 years old.  That was the first time I've ever had an experience like that and it did give me some goosebumps.

Exploring Lots Cave

Pit to the Left of Entrance (about 8 feet deep)

View from Lots Cave

After walking back down the steps from Lot's cave and getting back in our car, it was time to grab some lunch before hitting our next site.  In this part of Jordan, there is an abundance of agricultural farms, potash farms, and salt farms, and is a very busy "working class" type area.  Interestingly, coming from Lot's cave, it is this area that is believed to be the sites of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The exact sites are not known, but it is clear that it is somewhere in the plains just south of the Dead Sea.  It was in this approximate location, in the town of Gawr al Mazraah that we found a small roadside restaurant to grab some lunch.  Unfortunately, given the makeup of the area, there is not much of any English.  So we wandered in to one restaurant, and glanced down at the food behind the counter, not quite knowing what to ask for.  Fortunately, another individual (who I believe was Jordanian) walked in and ordered a falafel wrap.  We took the easy route, and simply pointed to his when he was done, and asked for "Thineen", which is Arabic for "Two".  I saw they also had french fries, which I did know the arabic word for (batata) and so I asked for some of those as well.  The gentleman behind the counter smiled and motioned for us to have a seat, and whipped up a couple wraps while we grabbed a couple cans of fruit nectar.   

I had noticed at this point, even local "fast food" type places would not ask for money until we had eaten our food.  I had to remind myself not to forget to pay.  The total was only JOD3.250--slightly less than $5 US.  (This reminded me that when you're not in the touristy areas, the cost of things in Jordan is incredibly affordable.)  I only had a 20 JOD note in my wallet, which unfortunately they did not have change.  However at the same time another local man came in at the same time, and after a quick conversation with the guy at the restaurant counter offered to run to one of the other shops to make change.  After about 3 or 4 minutes, he returned and provided smaller bills so they could provide me accurate change.  

Lunch Spot in Gawr al Mazraah

After our lunch, we headed back up in the mountains to the town of Karak, to see Karak castle.  The views as we headed up the mountain were stunning.  Much of this area was actually green and fertile.  As we got up to the city although the population is not huge, it is built very densely, with extremely narrow streets at almost unbelievable inclines, blind corners, and quite a bit of traffic.  We found our way to the castle which looked to be incredibly busy, and were lucky to find a parking spot right in front of it.  A server from the cafe across from the castle came out to help guide us to our parking spot.  When we got out, he asked if we wanted to stop in the cafe.  When we said "no thank you, we are going to the castle" he immediately offered to be our guide.  His price was reasonable (and matched what my guidebook said was the approximate cost) and so we agreed. 

Entry Over Moat to Karak Castle

We entered into the castle as several large tour groups were assembling and getting ready to enter.  We quickly got ahead of them, so as we wouldn't be bogged down by the large crowd.  Once we got inside were astonished at what we saw.  Unlike Shobak, Karak castle was still in tact for the most part.  Our guide told us that it had seven different floors.  His English was fairly poor (and we also found his knowledge of the castle was not very good either, unfortunately.) and we didn't believe him at first, but as we went throughout the complex and began counting, sure enough there were seven floors.  It was amazing to me that a structure almost 1000 years old, (built in the 1140s) could have enclosed rooms on multiple floors.  

At the far end of the complex was a narrow section that rose up three floors from the surrounding area.  There were stairs that led up to this section, but they were blocked off.  Our guide explained to us, that there was recently a professor that had fallen from that section and died, so they no longer let anyone go up to that area.

Passageway Between Floors

Kitchen

We were feeling a bit rushed by our guide, and since he wasn't actually helpful in his tour we ultimately thanked him and let him know we were going to spend a little more time wandering through the complex on our own.  As we found our way out of the castle we noted that earlier in the day we had talked about skipping this castle if we ran short of time.  We were quite glad that we were able to fit it in, as it was indeed worth the trip.

View from Karak Castle

Surrounding Area of Karak

The rest of the day was intended to drive along the coast of the Dead Sea.  Lonely Planet referenced a few different places to stop and see, however we were running out of daylight.  The sun was already setting on the other side of the Dead Sea, and we determined we wouldn't make it to the restaurant in time to watch it during dinner.  Instead we decided to pull over and take in the sunset from here, and simply go to the hotel restaurant once we checked in at the Dead Sea Hilton.

Sunsetting Behind the Dead Sea

It was clear that this was a popular thing to do in this area, as we saw many cars parked and people down at the shores also watching the sunset.  The cool spring air and the somewhat warm water made for a very hazy atmosphere, creating layers of pastel pinks and blues both in the sky as well as reflected in the still waters of the Dead Sea as the sun set behind the mountains in Israel on the other side.

Dead Sea at Sunset

After taking in this peaceful sight for awhile we made our way to our hotel and checked in.  We were pleased to have been upgraded to a larger room overlooking the Dead  Sea, and they also informed us that in 20 minutes there would be a fireworks show to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of the hotel.  We brought our luggage to our room, just in time to watch the fireworks, grabbed a quick dinner and turned in for the night.  

View of the Fireworks from our Room