Jerash, Bethany-Beyond-The-Jordan

So last weekend was a busy one, I pretty much saw all of the northern part of Jordan. Let's see Friday started off with going to Jerash and seeing the ruins. It is an example of a Roman provincial city and one of the best in the middle east apparently. I did feel as if I was wondering around Europe at some points. After that we went to Ajloun city to see the Al Rabad Castles which was one of the castles from the 8th century and it has some amazing ruins of Jordan from the top of the castle.After that we went up to Umm Qais (or as Tim and I called it UMM Kayyyy) This was the furthest north in Jordan you can go without entering into Syria. Umm Qais is in the northwest corner of Jordan and have amazing views over the Golan Hights in Syria and the Sea of Galilee in Isreal & the Palestinian Territories. It took a bit longer then expected to get there but we managed to make it just as the sun was setting over the Sea of Galilee and it was beautiful. The area was actually closed to tourist but we managed to sweet talk the guard to let us enter after hours to see the sunset since we drove 1.5 -2 hours to get there.

So then on Sat. after we did a bit of work, we headed over to Mt. Nebo which is the site where Moses died and was buried, he was said to have seen the promised land from Mt.Nebo for those who aren't that religious. After that we headed to Bethany-Beyond-The-Jordan which is the site where Jesus was baptized by JohnIt was a pretty amazing site, we were right on the jordan river and at the location of the baptism we could actually throw a rock over to the West bank. This site was apparently validated by Pope John Paul II in 2000 when he performed an open air mass there. Oh the history, its pretty amazing!!!After that we head to the dead sea for some floating and mudd treatments (that we put on ourselves :) ). So it was a full and busy weekend, we managed to only get lost about 10 times throughout the two days which when all is said and done made for a fun experience.