View from the Evason Ma’in Hotel
I was sound asleep, only to be woken up by sunbeams pouring into my room at the Evason Ma’in Hotel. It was such a nicepeaceful stay. The staff were so accommodating and treated us like kings andqueens. After waking up, I put on my swimming trunks and headed down to thenatural hot spring water fall just down the way with our tour guide and afriend of his. The best hot tube experience ever…the scenery doesn’t get anybetter! From the hot springs, we headed to the other side of the resort complexto a hot spring swimming pool. It was much cooler than the first hot springs wesubmerged into, but it was very refreshing as well. After swimming, we wentback to the hotel and had a gourmet buffet style breakfast and ate too muchfood…but absolutely delicious.
Cory posing for the camera overlooking the Dead Sea at Mukawir
The mountain that Herod Antipas’ palace was on
A cave on the side of the mountain going up to the palace
Our first stop of the day was at Mukawir. It had so manyamazing views of mountains, the Dead Sea, and the palace ruins of HerodAntipas, the Roman appointed ruler over the region during the life of Jesus. Johnthe Baptist was beheaded at this palace and his head was brought on a platterto Herod during a party he had.
As our eyes gazed across the Dead Sea, we were able tolook at the mountains of Israel and catch a glimpse of how beautiful thePromise Land and this area were. Manycaves had been dug out on the mountainsides leading up to the top of themountain where the palace ruins were located. I loved the challenge of thisplace because we had to hike up the mountain and had a chance to explore manycaves on the way up to the summit. We never knew what we would find in them orwhat was up around the corner. Just when I thought the country side couldn’tget any more beautiful, we would see a view that left us speechless!
Our next stop was over an hour away, but eventually wemade it to Umm Ar-Rasas. This ancient ruin was fortified by the Romans andlocal Christians were still embellishing it with Byzantine-style mosaics. Wecould tell this was a whole community of homes, many of which were stillstanding. Just outside the city walls was a recently unearthed Church of SaintStephen with its well-preserved outstanding mosaic floor, the largest of itskind to be discovered in Jordan and second only to the world-famous mosaic mapat Madaba. Umm Ar-Rasas is a UNESCO World Heritage site too and is protectedfrom being tampered by international guidelines.
A small Roman house ruin at Umm Ar-Rasas
More Roman ruins at Umm Ar-Rasas
Mosaic at Church of Staint Stephens at Umm Ar-Rasas
Mosaic at Church of Staint Stephens at Umm Ar-Rasas
We, then made a 2.5 hour drive south to Petra so that wecould begin exploring this 7 Ancient Wonders of the World!
Sunset at the City of Petra…amazing!!
