Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Working in Jordan


At work we have won a contract in Jordan recently.  This gives me the opportunity to make longer stay in this country and enjoy more than just the few days typically spent at the hotel.

This is my first work experience in middle east, and there is a lot to learn being surrounded by a very different culture and habits than what you are used to… which is nice, I’m always keen in discovering other way of life.

I am working in Amman, capital of Jordan, with roughly 3 million people or about half the population of the whole country.   What strikes any visitor about this city is its high density!   You can appreciate this in various places as it is located in a hilly surrounding:

Amman-VilleDense


Depending on your location and elevation, you see buildings with very similar look and color as far as your line of sight can reach:

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Shot taken from my hotel top floor 



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Picture taken from the archeological site Citadel (Jabal al-Qal'a).

The streets are very animated ... and noisy as lots of car are honking for no apparent reason.   I later realised that a lot were directed toward me!!  Yes I look pretty much foreigner and I certainly do not act like a local (I haven't seen many walking long distance on the street of the city, so all taxis saw me as a potential client).

You can really get a sense of the popular crowd scene during friday bazaar (or Souk to be more accurate):
souk-amman


The whole region's history traces back quite a long time in the past, and many historical sites can be visited within the city.   For ex, the site Citadel is located on a “belveder” at the heart of the city.   This site has witnessed a number of different civilisation dating back from era as far back as neolithic.  It was also an important place during the Ottoman period and the Nabataeans, a very ancient arab civilisation that constructed Petra.

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Various civilisation that were established at the Citadel




Temple-in-Citadel


Apparently the lack of water in this region is not new as proved by the presence of these vast reservoirs.  The old civilisation quickly had to find ways to capture the precious rain water so scarce in this region of the world (there is less than 20mm of precipitation during 7 months in the summer with some month with literally no rain!).
Citadelle-ancienneCiterneEau

There is also the presence of what is believed to be Hercule's hand... one of the remains of probably the largest statue of the roman empire:

Citadelle-templeRomain-avec-restedeStatue

Although there are not many Hammams found in the city as you'd expect from a middle-east city, there are ruins of this centuries-old tradition in the Citadel.

Ancien-Hammam

The artefacts found on sites is astonishingly old…. some cave dates back from Bronze era!
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There is also just below the Citadel a roman theatre which I found very well preserved… and they actually still host event there:
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The Mosque Abdallah is one of the very few that non-muslim can visit.  It was recently constructed in the memory of the very first king Abdallah of Jordan kingdom.
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Although quite “meridional” I found the city's climate rarely unbearable at least until late spring.  I doubt that during mid-summer we can enjoy cool night that I did.   But still the air is quite dry and the fact that it is located on a high plateau helps mitigate the heat.

Further toward the east, we can go to the lowest point on earth:  the Dead sea located below the -400m (the exact elevation is constantly decreasing due to the accelerated evaporation!).   Going to this sea from Amman is quite an adventure, first the temperature will typically soar well over 10 degrees and the air pressure will also increase quite a bit!  The night we went there, it was chilly in Amman about 18C but at the sea it was still around in the range 0f 28-30C degree!  You quickly feel this place is special even before going to the sea.  It must be related to its high pressure atmosphere, low allergen air content and low UV radiation!

The sea water is also highly mineralised that it seems we swin in a visqueous soup with smell that was closer to metalic than water ...very strange!  Don't even mention the floating aspect which makes swimming a bit dangerous as your body has the tendency to pivot along its center of gravity, and point your head under the water line!  And you certainly don't want your eyes to even contact this highly corrosive water.
photo-DeadSee
My first "Selfie" taken by my front camera... the only functioning lens I had.

Unfortunately I just had a half-broken camera over there.   I could not have my picture taken while comfortably reading a newspaper and lying in a gravity-free position (this is a must for any well respected tourist at Dead Sea).  So instead I ended up taking my very first "selfie" (my daughter later made me realise this) as a tentative to keep a trace of the incredible -400meter mark!

In a different weekend, I also went to visit Petra!  This was amazing and would deserve a full dedicated post.

Martin

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