Tall Hisban, Excavation Season 2018, The Weekends.

Weekend 1
 
Umm al-Rasas, Dhiban Machareus Fortress and Khirbet Atruz
Even though we arrived in the middle of the night, we didn’t want to miss the tour on the first weekend: we visited different sites around Madaba – where our hotel is located. The Machareus Fortress and Umm ar-Rassas are particularly worth seeing – the landscapes and mosaics from ancient times are very special. Our guide removed sand from one of the floors and a stunning lion mosaic appeared!

The first weekend was also when we got to know each other. After returning to the hotel we started sharing our stories. One of the best things about the project at Tal Hisban is the diversity of the group. More than fifteen nationalities are represented and we have experts in not only archaeology but also history, anthropology, architecture, and paleoethnobotany amongst others.

Weekend 2
 
Dead Sea, Jordan River, Baptism Site, Bethany beyond Jordan and Amman
It is 7 o’clock in the morning. After a long but successful week everybody is excited to see more of this unique country (and to sleep a little bit longer). We explored the Jordan River and the Baptism site of Jesus. Afterwards, we arrived at the Dead Sea and spent a couple of hours there. It is so much fun to float on top of the salty water and to spot Jericho and Qumran on the other side of the Dead Sea!

Besides the Dead Sea, Amman was probably the highlight of our trip: we walked down Rainbow Street, explored the suq, and met friendly locals who invited us to tea and gave us camel keyrings. We bought local clothes, met old friends, and found our way through the city. The Citadel and the Roman theatre are very impressive and we were excited by the layers of history that we could see. We definitely want to return to Amman soon!

Weekend 3
 
Northern Jordan: Baqah Valley, Zarqa River, Jerash, Ajlun, Gedara, Pella and Jordan River
 
On our third weekend, we travelled to the northern part of Jordan and the Islamic desert castles. Besides Petra, Jerash was my personal highlight and because of that I was very excited to see the Roman site again.

The good thing about travelling through Jordan in July is that most tourists are trying to avoid the heat and therefore, places like Jerash and Petra are rather empty. Another highlight of our tour was Gedara (Umm Qays), a site where you can see the mountains in Syria as well as the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee!

Islamic Desert Castles: Mashatta, Kharana and Qusair Amra
 
On Saturday morning our group left the hotel, heading for the Islamic desert castles Mashatta, Kharana and Qusair Amra.

If you are part of a group or if you rent a car, it is very easy to see all three castles in a day.Mashatta and Kharana have very striking architecture especially because of their location in the middle of the desert. Qusair Amra on the other hand is famous for its 7th century frescoes, with paintings of hunting scenes, musicians, and bathing figures.
 

Weekend 4
 
Shobak, Petra and Karak
 
After three amazing weeks in Jordan, it was time to say goodbye to our site, Tell Hisban. It was not quite time to say goodbye to Jordan though! My favorite weekend lay in front of us: visiting Jordan’s ‘Rose City’ – Petra. We left the hotel in Madaba on Friday, stopping on the way at Shobak castle where we enjoyed local food cooked for us by a Jordanian family. As we arrived in Petra, we left the bus to experience Little Petra for a couple of hours – a true insiders’ tip! Little Petra, only 20 minutes away from ‘Big Petra’ is free to visit and the landscape there is simply breathtaking.

The next day, Saturday, we left our hotel in the early morning and started our hike in Petra, the ancient Nabatean city. We hiked for 10 hours, through huge mountains, narrow wadis and past famous sites like the Monastery and the Treasury.

Petra is a place I would always return to again. Even though it is very hot there in the summer, we enjoyed our stay so much that we were all sad to leave to go back to the hotel for dinner. On our way back to Madaba the next day we visited Karak castle where we took some time to reflect on our memories of the past few amazing weeks in Jordan…