Today was a day trip to the Desert Castles. We met at the Black Iris. We met the other person, she was an Italian working in England.
The desert castles were built by the Umayyads around 700 AD. I hadn't heard of the Umayyads before this trip, but they had the 5th largest contiguous empire in history, from Portugal and Morocco to Arabia and Persia.
It was a two hour drive to the first castle, Qasr Kharana. Heather and I both slept on and off through most of it. Qasr Kharana reminds me of the gates to Qoth in Game of Thrones. Wandered about and took a lot of pictures. There were a handful of other tourists, that we saw at each of the castles (the desert castle route is a common day trip).
Next up was Qusayr Amra. It's famous for the frescoes on the walls and ceiling, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Last up was Qasr al-Azraq. This is on a busy road in Azraq, unlike the other two sites which were in the middle of the desert. It's made from basalt, which doesn't look as black as I thought it would. The doors are single pieces of stone, but still movable.
Had lunch at another roadside tourist complex. It was so-so, I'd rather have had a falafel sandwich somewhere.
It took over two hours to drive back through rush hour traffic. I slept through most of it.
We cleaned up at our hotel and headed to Haret Jdoudna for dinner. It was pretty good. They had live music, a couple guys singing Arabic tunes, which was pretty cool.
The desert castles were built by the Umayyads around 700 AD. I hadn't heard of the Umayyads before this trip, but they had the 5th largest contiguous empire in history, from Portugal and Morocco to Arabia and Persia.
It was a two hour drive to the first castle, Qasr Kharana. Heather and I both slept on and off through most of it. Qasr Kharana reminds me of the gates to Qoth in Game of Thrones. Wandered about and took a lot of pictures. There were a handful of other tourists, that we saw at each of the castles (the desert castle route is a common day trip).
Next up was Qusayr Amra. It's famous for the frescoes on the walls and ceiling, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Last up was Qasr al-Azraq. This is on a busy road in Azraq, unlike the other two sites which were in the middle of the desert. It's made from basalt, which doesn't look as black as I thought it would. The doors are single pieces of stone, but still movable.
Had lunch at another roadside tourist complex. It was so-so, I'd rather have had a falafel sandwich somewhere.
It took over two hours to drive back through rush hour traffic. I slept through most of it.
We cleaned up at our hotel and headed to Haret Jdoudna for dinner. It was pretty good. They had live music, a couple guys singing Arabic tunes, which was pretty cool.
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