November 2019
14 Kms to one side of the road to Azraq is a Pistachio Tree in the middle of the desert and is reputed to have been sat under by the Prophet Muhammad when he was a child. This of course deserved to be checked out. We managed to drive within about a km of the tree before the road became un-drivable due to the presence of a shallow "lake" in the middle of the desert. Very odd.
Traveling round Jordan we have found things to be relatively pricey so picnic lunches became the norm. Quite easy to do as fresh tomatoes and tubs of muttabl, hummus and labneh are sold by pretty much evey shop. The fun part is trying to buy a small amount of bread as it seems to only come on 1+ kg bags - though at a dollar a pop can't complain. Have found that the boot of the hire car makes for a handy picnic table.
Quseir Amra was built sometime in the mid 700's and about 30kms from Azraq and considered one of the most important examples of early Islamic art and architecture. However have to say that the frescos inside are not really consistent with Islam as they include naked ladies, animals playing instruments, zodiacal signs and hunting scenes. Plus the fact that it has baths more in line with the Roman Empire than the Ottoman
A good few kilometres down the road is this massive fort like place that nobody quite knows what it is. The fort like appearance is misleading as those small slots are designed for ventilation not shooting arrows of and the general layout is one consistent with an inn but it's miles from anywhere and not on any known trading route.
If you want to see what an ecological disaster in progress looks like then a vist to the Azraq Wetlands will do the trick. About 20 years ago the wetlands were huge and thriving with wildlife. However given that rainfall is Jordan extremely limited and massive amounts of water are pumped out from the aquifer under Azraq to supply the needs of Jordan things are not looking good for the wetlands. At one stage 75% of all drinking water in Jordan came from Azraq.
The stone wall below was once a weir over which water would flow.
The sign in the photo below reads "if you were here in the early 80's then the water would be neck deep.
Things aren't looking that cheery for Jordan in terms of water as the prediction is that in 20 years time the aquifers will run dry, and given that some wells are already 300m deep. There are plans to drill wells down to 900m to access "fossil water" and are talking of going a lot deeper than that.
In the centre of Azraq is Qasr Azraq that was built for its strategic location near the Oasis, but it's real claim to fame is it is the place where during the Arab Revolt, T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) based his operations here in 1917–18, an experience he wrote about in his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
The fort is a solid little place but during Lawrence's stay during winter it sounded quite a bleak place. Very cold with holes in the walls and roofs. Evidence of the army based here at that time is shown in one of the floor slabs in the main entry where holes have been drilled so that a game similar to Mancala can be played.
The door by the tower is one solid slab and positioned so as to be damn near impenetrable. Lawrence wrote "The door was a poised lab of dressed basalt, a foot thick, turning on pivots of itself, socketed into threshold and lintel. It took a great effort to start swinging, and at the end went shut with a clang and crash which made tremble the west wall of the old castle."
Azraq is a tiny place and as such accommodation options were limited to two hotels. We opted for the Azraq Oasis Villa (the cheapest) which was a tad odd as it had space for bus loads of people but the owner preferred to only have one or two guests at a time. But given that the owner threw in wine, free of charge, with dinner we couldn't complain.
Getting coffee while on the road is a case of looking out for a large silver coffee pot sitting on the road side. Coffee is pretty much always Turkish Coffee but just occasionally an upmarket place will have Nescafe instant.
From here we head into Amman, our last stop in Jordan, for a couple of days and to catch up with Pete & Katrina and their munchkins Millie & Will.
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