AMMAN
Amman is set in a desert valley. It's rivers are mud.
We pressed on and pulled into Amman in the late afternoon. It is a fairly large city, and it is growing since many people from neighboring countries that are at war come there as refugees, such as Suddam Hussein's wife and daughters, and other Iraqis. It is called 'the city of white' since most of the buildings are white. The center of the city was built on seven hills, but as it grows, it is now built on more and more hills.

The first stop we made was to let the Canadian couple off at their hotel. Then I was taken to the Raddison which was not far away. Two blocks from the hotel Mohammed shared with me that this hotel was hit by terrorists in 1995 and many people were killed and injured there.
"Great", I thought. "Thanks for the info". But security at the hotel was very tight so there was not much to worry about. Mohammed repeated over and over that Jordan is a safe place for tourists to come to now. They caught all the people who were connected with the terrorists acts around Jordan and they were all brought to justice. They all got life sentences in prison.
Amman The next morning Mohammed arrived at 10:30 to take us on the last tour of this trip. We were to go to an ancient castle which was used to fight off the Mongolians in their day, and then later the Crucaders who came through this area. The way Mohammed talked about the Crusaders made me realize more then ever that we were on opposite sides of the fence. I was alway somewhat sympathetic toward the Crusaders, but hearing how Mohammed talked about them I realized that they were his arch enemies, and enemies of all Islamic people and nations.

Ajloun Castle We first picked up Peter and Lorena at their hotel and then proceeded north out of town. The ride would take a couple hours to get there. We passed some mountains that actually had trees growing on them. There was also more green foliage then there had been on this entire trip.

Inside the castle In the olden days this area of northern Jordan was called Gilead. I remember an old song that was a favorite of mine in my younger years called, Balm of Gilead.

The well built castle sits prodominately on a hill. It has arches, secret passage ways, large rooms and slits in the walls that enabled the warriors inside to shoot arrows at their enemies on the outside without being too much of a target themselves. Another thing they did at the castle was throw boiling oil on their enemies if they tried to get in by scaling the outside of the walls, or if they tired to use ladders.