We had a day off today, I think the entire crew needed some rest. We washed our clothes, rested and did a little site seeing.
After breakfast we traveled to the village of Sul. There are two parts to Sul, the current modern village and the Ottoman part of the village which is now abandoned. Here you can see first had an abandoned village which is in the process of becoming an archaeological site. Now the buildings of the Ottoman building are empty or used to house animals like the sheep above.
Here you can see a well preserved wall and doorway at Sul.
On our way to the next site Nakhl we sawa large herd of camels along the road.
This is a view of Nakhl (which means palm tree), it has a long occupational history but much of the excavated portion of the site dates to the Roman and Byzantine periods.
While we were there a large flock of sheep passed by the site.
Some of the ladies on our crew decided to have a group photo at the site Nakhl. From left to right Melissa Spong, Hadasah Penwell (both Johnson Bible College students) Linda Perkins, Dr. Miriam Perkins (professor at Emmanuel School of Religion, and Emily Saunders (student at Carson-Newman College).
After our tour we were invited to the home of Khalid Tahrana for tea. Here he is with his family. He works with us on the site and he serves the director of antiquities in the Karak District of Jordan.
We sat in his "receiving room" in his flat in Umm Hamat.
He served us tea with mint and cake which we all enjoyed.
Later in the day I took a walk Dr. Jerry Mattingly and Dr. Don Garner in the Karak castle and thought about all of events that took place on this spot over the years. Here you can see how the castle is built on the bedrock with the Mamluk Keep high above.
This is one of the arrow slits used to the defend the castle. I thought about I would incorporate the information from the castle into my Medieval History course in the fall.
I will end today with a view of from Karak castle over the wadi Karak which leads to the Dead Sea. You can see what a commanding view the castle has over the surrounding area.John Wineland
Karak, Jordan
