What else on Day 16?... Dana & Karak

Day 16 - what else?

I feel that I owe some additional entries to the cities I visited on Day 16 and 17 other than just the Dead Sea. Although I did not get a chance to write about them while in Jordan, it really did not mean that they were not great places.

Early in the morning on Day 16, we had our breakfast of boiled eggs, tea, pita bread with strawberry jam and cheese spread. This was the routine breakfast for every hotel that we ever had breakfast at. Some may have ham that had crushed pepper inside. Sandy, at one point, thought the pepper was mold. :P I loved their hard boiled eggs. It just tasted so much better than the eggs produced by obese and maybe six-legged mutant chicken in America. Knowing that I was always hungry and incredibly irritable when starved, Julee kept telling me I should eat more of the eggs instead of bread since protein sustains longer than carbs. At her encouragement, some mornings, I would eat a stack of pita bread and two hard boiled eggs!

I again took Dramamine during breakfast and I remember this day being my most groggy day of all. The group separated into a minivan and an SUV and left Petra on time.

Dana Nature Reserve

We were supposed to go to the Dana Nature Reserve, which clings to the edge of the cliff below the King's Highway and is one of Jordan's few protected areas of natural beauty. From the name, you would imagine seeing countless flora and fauna, birds and beasts. But this was what we saw.

It started out to be such a foggy day. On the King's Highway, we could not see the tail lights of the car in front of us until our minivan got really close. All we would make out were a few trees on the road side and the vague shape of houses engulfed in fog. That must have been the tiny village at Dana. I was so doped I could not care less anyway. But it was still disappointment and such amusing irony at the same time!

Daniel was sitting on the front seat. He turned around to us, threw his hands in the air, and smiled: "Well, Dana is checked off from our list. It would have been really beautiful on a nice day. Karak, next...!"

Karak Crusader Castle

We were debating in the van that Karak could not be a castle until Sandy read the Rough Guide out loud that Karak was "the huge and well-preserved Crusader castle ...and is one of the finest in the Middle East". It often amazes me to see structures you least expect to see, such as this castle in the Middle East, or Volubilis, the Roman ruins in Morocco, and Jerash, the Roman ruins we later visited in Northern Jordan. It is intriguing to think about the early travellers, covering distances for trade, for land, or for religion.

Karak sits on a hill with cliffs on three sides. It overlooks the King's Highway that leads to the Dead Sea at one end and Petra at the other end. (Below: view of King's Highway from Karak)

The Crusaders started building the castle in 1142. At any time, it could hold two to three thousand Crusaders. There were numerous cisterns in the dungeon that collected rain water via pottery pipes. Rooms were built to bake bread, create weapons or tools. The well-designed construction and its natual location made Karak a defensive stronghold. The most famous of its occupant was Reynald de Chatillon, who was ruthless and vicious. Salah ad-Din, the Muslim commander besieged the castle in 1183 to avenge Chatillon. He failed the first time, but eventually defeated the Crusaders in 1187 and personally decapitated Chatillon.

Chatillon's favorite pastime was encasing the heads of his prisoners in wooden boxes so that when he threw them off the castle walls, he could be sure that they hadn't lost consciousness by the time they hit the rocks below. The guide told us this was the infamous window where Chatillon tossed his prisoners. Passing it gave me chills down my spine. How cruel!

We spent an hour in Karak. It was absolutely freezing since we were at the top of the hill. Every arch we passed became a natural wind tunnel. We all enjoyed the war stories tremendously and were amused by our guide, who had a very dry sense of humor. He was actually an archaeologist that was still working on restoring Karak and digging out more treasures that may have been hidden in its huge fortress. His strange sense of humor amused the girls (Kirsten and Laura) so much, they could not stop joking behind his back and giggling throughout the tour.