Karak Resources Project 2009: 07/18/09

Sunrise at Mudaybi, Thursday morning

Hello,

Today most people rested, washed clothes and began to think about packing up for our departure from Karak Tuesday morning. Seven people traveled down to the Dead Sea this morning, to swim and to visit the Church of Lot. Several others walked to the shops of Karak to buy gifts to take home.

Tomorrow we resume our "normal" schedule that is rise at 3:45AM, breakfast at 4AM and leave for the site at 4:30AM. But our work tomorrow will be very different because we will have no local workers on the site and we will do no excavation. Instead, tomorrow we prepare the site for final photographs, and we will draw the balks. So we will be measuring and drawing and mapping with the total station. We will repeat this same activity on Monday. Then Monday evening we will pack our bags.

Tuesday morning a truck will come to haul our equipment back to Amman. Then it will be one last quick trip to the site to collect our tools and then on to Amman by noon. We will need to unload the equipment and report to the Department of Antiquities. Wednesday we will take a trip to Jerash and prepare to fly home Thursday morning.

Thursday was the final day for the local workers, here the workers gather for their final payday.

Later that day we got a call from the survey crew they had problems. They were able to limp back to a main road where Salah and I met them with the bus. The jack in the survey car did not work and the spare was also bad.

It was Salah to the rescue.

Ten of us traveled Thursday afternoon to Petra where we stayed in the Grand View Hotel. This was our view, an overlook of the mountains of Petra.

Friday morning we entered Petra about 6:15AM. This is the Obelisk Tomb on the way towards the Siq.

This is a group photo of the "Kansas City 6" from Mid-American Nazarene University in the Siq. From left to right Megan Love, Bryan Love, Jacob Isbell, Crystalyn Oswald, A. J. Fry, and Dr. Randy Cloud.

Here is Emily Dew from UNC Chapel Hill and Dr. Don Garner from Carson-Newman College.

Crystalyn Oswald took a ride on a camel in front of the Treasury.

Here the view from the steps of the Treasury looking back toward the Siq.

Here is the Siq opening in front of the Treasury with camels waiting to give a ride to the tourist.

Yesterday I showed some pictures of our climb up to the High Place. This is the Roman Soldiers Tomb which I saw while coming down from the High Place.

I stayed up above the Roman road so I could explore the Great Temple of Petra which was excavated by a team from Brown University.

Here are some of the column bases at the Great Temple.

This column was left as the excavate team found it to illustrate how earthquake activity toppled the columns of the Great Temple.

Then I decided to explore a small museum at Petra which is actually housed in a man-made cave.

Here is part of the collection displayed modestly on a wooden shelf.

I then hiked along the Roman road, this is the Triumphal Arch of Petra.

Here is another camel tied up to an information sign.

One of the interesting features of Petra is the Roman theater. Notice that the Romans cut through earlier Nabataeans tombs while carving the theater out of the sandstone bedrock.