A Pleasure Full Grown VIII~Um Qais

It had arrived; the last day of TBCBE. Active Son and Bride-to-Be had already returned to work and studies in Boise, Idaho, Artist Son had returned to school near Boston, and tonight Oldest Daughter and Tayta would begin their journeys back to Chicago and Houston. But we had one more day: the weather couldn't have been better, and it was a Saturday, which was Dear Husband's day off. Oldest Daughter and Tayta spoke as one in their desire to visit a favorite Jordan site, the ruins at Um Qais, the ancient decapolis city of Gadara. How many times we have visited Um Qais, I do not know, but we always find things familiar and new to enjoy there.

View from the entrance to the ruins

On this day, I decided to explore the inside of some of the old rooms near the entrance of the ruins.The layers of plaster, the layers of paint, the layers of sediment, all made me think about the past lives lived here.

The sky was clear and we enjoyed the best views of surrounding areas that we've ever experienced.

We headed up the north end of the cardo to visit the museum

Hiking up the back way

The wild flora continued, even inside the the museum courtyard

 Cyclamen persicum, growing right out of the limestone walls and floor.

One of the fortunate statutes, which still had its head

Bacchus: a melding of human, animal, and plant-like features

 doors and more doors...

Golden Flowered Henbane

Hyoscyamus aureus

Finally, we looped around the site, back to the cardo to enjoy the magnificent view of the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee/Lake Tiberius.

We stopped to enjoy a simple tea and salad picnic which Tayta had prepared for us, under a favorite tree with a view.

And so it was the end of the beginning of our pleasure. May we nurture the beauty and sweetness of this time together as we remember it in the days to come.

A Pleasure Full Grown
A Pleasure Full Grown II~#amafraqychristmas
A Pleasure Full Grown III~Amman
A Pleasure Full Grown IV~Wadi Dana
A Pleasure Full Grown V~Little Petra
A Pleasure Full Grown VI~Madaba
A Pleasure Full Grown VII~Jerash

Um Qais Revisited

Some places call me back again and again, places whose beauty is ancient, familiar and at the same time always renewing itself. Um Qais, the ancient decapolis city of Gadara is one of those places. Our family has explored the site as a tourist would, such as during our first visit in 1992, but we've returned again and again, with no other purpose than to be in the place together as a family, soaking up it's beauty, letting it nourish our imaginations.

As we traveled to spend the day in the ruins of Um Qais last Sunday, I reminisced about previous visits: Oldest Daughter was two years old when we first visited Um Qais, and I carried Active Son in a bright red baby carrier. A snapshot from the day shows shows Oldest Daughter sitting on a carved basalt rock as if a princess on her throne. This was the beginning of our children growing up with ancient ruins and and rock piles as their playgrounds. 

The Cardo

Shortly after Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, the militarized area just beyond the ruins was opened to the public--though one must still leave one's identification card at the military checkpoint when entering this area. We visited the "Saha"(open area) on a hilltop where there are lookout towers, like this one, and a helicopter pad.

.

A local friend told us that the late King Hussein and the late Prime Minister of Israel, Yizhak Rabin would rendezvous in this place. 

From the hilltop one can look west to Lake Tiberius/Sea of Galilee (it was hazy so the sea is not clear in this picture)

and north to Syria, immediately beyond  the banks of the Yarmouk river.

Today one can also hear the mortar shells exploding just beyond the border.

Banks of the Yarmouk river, Jordan/Syrian border

Dirt roads winding down into the Jordan Valley toward the Sea of Galilee bring to life the story of Jesus casting the demons out of the Gadarene (man from Gadara) into a herd of swine, which Luke tells us, rushed down the steep bank and cast themselves into the sea.

This Saha is also the place were I first discovered the riotous variety of Jordanian flora: as a closed military zone, the flora was left undisturbed. When visiting in 1994 we waded through a field of wildflowers up to our waists. I'd never seen anything like it, even in the Alps of Swizerland. The same area is now grazed and/or cultivated.

Back at the ruins, we basked in the sun which had not long ago melted snow. I love living in a country where it can be winter and spring all at the same time. My eyes feasted on the bright green of newly sprouted foliage...

,,,and the soft grey green of olive trees and fig trees yet winter bare.

Artist Son, who is in the midst of an  illustration project, made reference sketches .

Dear Husband could be found where there were signs of excavation.

He found a little Roman glass along the way.

I went searching for the first signs of a new wildflower season. It has begun! I spotted my first anemone...

...and my first asphodel of the season.

Beauty in the olive groves