Overland to London - Adana via Amman to Dead Sea

 

A farmer using an ancient horse-drawn tribulum  to thresh sesame, near Antakya

Day 58    Tue 22 July          ADANA - ALEPPO

Departure time:   8am              Tach reading  133,042          Distance run:  359 kms

              The distance from Adana to the Syrian border is around 250kms. This area has been disputed territory of the centuries and we will begin to see the remains of both Venetian (for guarding the trade routes) and Crusader castles from now on. Near Iskenderun we cross the plain of Issus where Alexander the Great inflicted a crushing defeat on the Persian armies of Darius III in 333 BC, thus opening the way to the Middle East, Babylonia and Egypt. Iskenderun, also known as Alexandretta, was founded and named after Alexander. Antakya, the last city in Turkey before we cross into Syria, is ancient Antioch and was an important city during the Roman era and is referred to as ‘the cradle of Christianity’. According to the Acts of the Apostles: “... and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.” (11:26). It was also the centre of one of the four Crusader states (under Norman rule) in the Middle Ages. The Principality of Antioch flourished from 1098 until finally it was captured by the Egyptian Mamluks in 1268. 

French stamp of the Sandjak of  
Alexandretta during the
Plebiscite of 1939

  Postage stamp of Hatay during   
the Plebiscite of 1939   

 More recently, after World War One, this area, known as Alexandretta to the French and Hatay to the Turks, was part of the French League of Nations Mandate of Syria which lasted from 1923 to 1946. The region was returned to Turkish control after a 1939 plebiscite vote was in favour of Turkey. Syria still lays claim to the Antakya area, and Syrian maps show it as such. 

Sesame is grown around Antakya and if we are lucky we may see a farmer using a horse-drawn tribulum, dating from Roman times, to thresh his crop.

    Hopefully, as we now have Syrian visas, the border crossing will not take too long. Aleppo, or Haleb (to use its Arabic name) is the second city of Syria and is around 50kms from the border. The city is one of the world’s oldest and is believed to date from around 5000 BC, but as it still occupies the same site, very little archaeological excavation has been carried out. The old city is dominated by the citadel, scene of many a furious battle between the Saracens and the Crusaders who never captured the city. (Sadly much of  the city has now been destroyed, particularly during the Battle of Aleppo in 2012-16,  during the recent Syrian Civil War).

    We will be staying tonight at a camping ground just out of Aleppo. Time, after dinner, to enjoy a local wine or a bottle or two of  Al-Chark beer.

          As we are now in an Arab country, Arabic numerals are used more often than European. The number system works on units of ten – the reason why our numeral system is also called the Arabic.

                          0    1       2        3        4        5        6         7        8        9

             ۰  ۱  ۲   ۳   ۴  ۵   ۶   ۷   ۸   ۹

Some numerals do vary slightly from country to country, particularly 3, 4 & 5.

 Day 59    Wed 23 July         ALEPPO – DAMASCUS

Departure time: 8 am            Tach reading 133,401          Distance run: 386 kms

First thing this morning, we will go into Aleppo to shop for the day  and to have a quick look around the souks and, perhaps, walk down to the citadel. From the road this ancient historic citadel looks impressive.

    Old City of Aleppo from the  Citadel     

Unfortunately, due to the state of emergency in Syria, the citadel is closed to the public. (This was what is now known as the 1980 Siege of Aleppo, part of an Islamist Uprising against the Hafez al-Assad Government. The uprising began with a massacre, by members of the Moslem Brotherhood,  of Military Cadets in Aleppo in June 1979, just a few days after I had passed through Aleppo on my previous trip).  Make sure you are carrying your passports, as we could be stopped by soldiers or militia at any time!

Tom will be having the back skylight repaired and then we will head south towards Damascus.  

Road blocks and militia willing, we should make reasonable time to the central Syrian town of Hama, famous for its ‘norias’, the great waterwheels on the Orontes River which have operated here from around the 12^th-13^th centuries, although Roman mosaics found in the area have depicted similar waterwheels. Wooden and mechanical parts have, of course, had to be replaced over the years. 17 of Hama’s original waterwheels have been conserved and two of them are the tallest waterwheels in the world.

These norias (in 1980) are still in operation and supply water from their aqueducts for local irrigation. To quote a line written by the Arab poet Al-Andalousi (with a name like this, he probably came from Moslem Spain – Andalusia) – “They moan and splash their tears as if they fell in love with their own reflected image …” – quoted in the Hama Touristic Guide 1966. Perhaps these great waterwheels aren’t quite as romantic as al-Andalousi made out, but they do make an interesting photo stop.

A 'Whispering Noria' on the Orontes River in Hama, Syria

        From Hama we press on through Homs to the Syrian capital of Damascus, one of the claimants for the world’s oldest, continuously inhabited city. 

We will be staying at a camping ground just out of the city.

 COMMENTS:     It looks like Tom will be having the sky-light fixed yet again! (Maybe it would hold better if you spread that glue – which  the Aussies call vegamite around the edge first!)                                                                     vegamite

                                               ↓

                       Ingredients:  30% floor dust sweepings

                                           30% horse droppings

                                           40% machine grease

1)    Spelling is vegemite

2)   Certain Canucks may not like it for fear of sticking their big mouths together, and improving speling.

3)   Actually ingredients scraped from Carlton United Brewery’s vats

Signed: A Happy Little Vegemite!

Well, I think vegemite is crapp too!

 

Day 60     Thu 24 July                     DAMASCUS

Departure time:  9am

     This morning the bus will drop you all off in Damascus. There is no organised tour arranged for the city of the Omayyad Caliphs, as very little now remains of its former splendour. Damascus does lay claim to being the world’s oldest inhabited city, being mentioned in Assyrian cuneiform clay tablets, in Egyptian hieroglyphic texts and in the Biblical Book of Genesis. The city’s days of splendour came after the death of Mohammed when it became the capital of the Omayyad Caliphs in the 7^th century - Omar was the father-in-law of Mohammed and the second caliph. Damascus became the spiritual and political capital of the Arab Empire until 750 when, after the collapse of the Omayyad dynasty (although the dynasty survived in Spain, ruling from Cordoba until the late Middle Ages), the Abbasids moved the caliphate to Baghdad. The Great Omayyad Mosque and the Azem Palace are the remnants from this age of greatness.

Tomb of John the Baptist,
Great Omayyid Mosque, Damascus

       The Great Omayyad Mosque, in the centre of Damascus, was built between 705 and 715 over the site of the early Christian Basilica of St. John the Baptist’s Head. 

 

John the Baptist is also revered by the Moslems and this mosque is the 4^th holiest in the Islamic world with the

Ananias Restoring the Sight of St Paul,
painting by Pietro da Corttona

belief that it is here that Isa (Jesus) will return ‘at the end of days.’ 

In a garden adjoining the Mosque is the tomb of Saladin, the leading Saracen protagonist of the 3^rd Crusade, whose stories of his battles with the English Crusader King Richard I ‘Cœur de Lion’ and other Crusaders are legendary. Saladin, who occupied Damascus, died in 1195.   

     Also in central Damascus, and of great importance to Christians, is the ‘Street Called Straight’ where St. Paul, then still known as Saul of Tarsus, had his sight restored (after 3 days of blindness) by Ananias and was converted to Christianity:

‘Now there was a disciple at  Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, and he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” (Acts of the Apostles 9:10-12). 

 

Day 61    Fri 25 July           DAMASCUS – AMMAN

Departure: 8am                 Tach reading:  133,787         Distance run: 210 kms

        We first have a run of only 120kms to the Syrian/Jordanian border near the town of Deraa. Usually all formalities are handled at the Jordanian post of Ramtha. Jordan, named after the Biblical river, is a kingdom, mainly desert, ruled over by King Hussein I since 1953 and a country that has been in the forefront of the news with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

  Mt Nebo, from where Moses first viewed the    
Promised Land

These lands of present-day Jordan are the Biblical lands of the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites. It was through here that Moses brought the Israelites during Exodus and on Mt Nebo, south of Amman. He was shown the ‘Promised Land’ by God that he was never destined to enter.  

     South of the border we reached the town of Jerash (ancient Gerasa) , was has some of the most complete Roman ruins still in existence.   Well preserved is the Oval Piazza,  forum, or market place, the street of Corinthian columns, an excellently preserved theatre and  the Temple of Artemis with its ‘rocking columns’. Human remains dating back to 7500 BC have been found in this area, but it was during the Greco-Roman period that ancient Gerasa flourished until large parts were destroyed in an earthquake in the 8th century and it remained relatively unknown to Europeans until the 20th century. Iain Browning, in his book Jerash and the Decopolis describes Jerash as follows: " Jerash is one of the three great classical city sites of the Near East. It is, however, altogether different from Petra and Palmyra. The grandeur of Jerash is tempered by a charm to which one can relate immediately. Here the gods of antiquity presided benignly over the everyday life of the people, and still one can feel this human measure. For above all, Jerash is typical of a prosperous Roman town."

The famous Oval Piazza or Forum at Jerash (ancient Gerasa)

The street of Corinthian Columns in Jerash

    Tonight, we will be staying in a hotel in Amman, capital of Jordan. Amman is also one of the World’s oldest cities, called Rabbath Ammon and first mentioned in the Old Testament, Book of Deuteronomy: “For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.” (3:11)  That would make his bed 4.12m (13.39ft) long by 1.83m (5.94ft) wide – but then, according to the Bible the Rephaim were an ancient race of giants in Iron Age Israel of which King Og was said to be one of the last survivors. In Roman times Amman was known as Philadelphia.

Day 62 Sat 26 July             AMMAN – DEAD SEA

Departure time: 2 pm                Tach reading:  133,997        Distance run: 68 kms

    Tom and I will be away most of the morning obtaining official authority to cross to the West Bank of the River Jordan and so you will have the morning free in Amman. Besides an archaeological museum, there are the remains of the Amman Citadel, considered to be among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited places with Neolithic period pottery having been found here. There are also Roman, Byzantine and Omayyad ruins on Citadel hill. There is a well-preserved Roman theatre, dating from the 2^nd century and capable of seating 6,000 people, in the centre of town.  Little else remains of ancient Philadelphia. On Jabal Amman, next to the Ministry of Antiquities, is the Rujm Al-Malfouf, the remains of a circular Ammonite watchtower dating from around 1000 BC.

The Roman theatre of ancient Philidelphia, Amman

Preparing to dip below sea level en
route to the Dead Sea

This afternoon, all being well and permits having been obtained, we will descend to the lowest point on the earth’s surface – the Dead Sea with a surface elevation of -430.5m (-1412ft). As the Sea is the lowest point on the earth’s crust, water running into the Dead Sea from the River Jordan, can only escape by way of evaporation, so consequently minerals, particularly salts, remain in the water. Something like 25% of the Sea’s content is salt, compared to about 6% average in the World’s oceans. This makes the waters very buoyant, and a rather interesting bathing experience. A word of warning, do not stick your head under the water and be careful about splashes in your eyes. If you have any cuts, rashes or abrasions, you’ll soon know where they are!!  Tonight we will free camp at the Dead Sea Swimming Club and, by way of a change, there are Dodgem cars at a small funfair nearby. 

 

The Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea

                                                     Needs to get his hormones under control

COMMENTS:                                         ↑

                    “There once lived young Lindsay from Brisbane,

                     Who was often a bit of a pain,

                     After letting down tents – some say he was bent,

                     But we knew he was just inane – and a

                     Smart arse and stupid, and ignorant, and dumb,

                     And bald, and he won’t get any Xmas cards from us ---”

          

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.