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Following the footsteps of Jesus – in Jordan

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival to Amman

Meet and great up on arrival at Queen Alia International Airport by Jordan Experience representative, process visa to Jordan and pick your luggage.  Drive to Amman for overnight

Day 2: Amman – Pella – Jabbok River – Umm Qais – Anjarah – Amman

After breakfast in hotel: drive to visit Pella (Tabaqat Fahl) nestles exactly at sea level in the northern Jordan Valley foothills, with its antiquities from the Old and New Testament periods. Persecuted early Christians from Jerusalem fled to Pella for safety. Pella also may be the site of Old Testament Penuel, where Jacob (pbuh) wrestled all night with God in the form of a man.

Drive north (stop at the river Jabbok)to Umm Qais , the site of the ancient Greco-Roman city of Gadara, a member of the Decapolis, that is mentioned in the New Testament as the site where Jesus cast out demons and sent them into pigs, who then ran into the sea (Matthew 8:28-34). Um Qais, was built mainly out of black basalt. Here you can enjoy the impressive view over Lake Tiberius and the Golan Heights. Gadara was renowned in its time as a cultural centre. It was the home of several classical poets and philosophers, including Theodorus, founder of a rhetorical school in Rome; one poet called the city “a new Athens”. Perched on a splendid hilltop overlooking the Jordan Valley and the Sea of Galilee, Gadara is today known as Umm Qays and boasts impressive colonnaded streets, vaulted terrace and the ruins of two.

Continue to visit Anjurah, a local tradition at the town of Anjara, in the hills of Gilead east of the valley, recounts that Jesus, His disciples, and His mother Mary passed through this town and rested there in a cave, which has been commemorated in the form of a modern shrine/church to Our Lady of the Mountain. Back drive to Amman, where being transferred to the hotel for overnight

Day 3: Amman Visit – Raqeem Cave ( 7 sleepers cave) – Umm Rasas – Madaba

After Breakfast in hotel, we start day by visit Amman. Amman , “ Rabbath Ammon “ as mentioned in the Bible, goes back many millennia in history, as it was the capital of the Ammonites, who fought the Israelites for centuries before falling under the yoke of the Assyrians. Later it was dominated by the Nabataeans, when it became a great trade center in the Roman era and was renamed Philadelphia. It was also the place of the battle between David and Uriah (Goliath). We will visit Roman theatre and citadel of Amman before then drive seven kilometers east of Amman, where al Raqeem cave lies.

The great skeletons of the cavemen were pooled together in a small area, which can be seen through a small glass opening. Reports on the authenticity of the site ,as cited in the Holy Quran swing between affirmation and negation. Al Raqeem cave is a part of a Byzantine grave yard on the foot of a mountain. The Qur’an says “the People of the Cave and the raqeem” (18:9), and there has been great controversy among the Quranic commentators on what the word raqeem means. It seems that the area where the Cave exists is called Raqeem, and if this name was really there since before the revelation of the Qur’an, then the mystery is solved! Raqeem is the name of the area of the cave! Some said that it is either the valley, mountain, or town in which the cave is found.

Umm al-Rasas is an important archaeological site that was declared a World Heritage Site in 2004. Its structures date from the 3rd to 9th centuries and most have not yet been excavated. The site is especially known for its magnificent Byzantine mosaics, which have been uncovered in two churches dating from the 6th and 8th centuries. Drive to Madaba, check in hotel for overnight

Day 4: Madaba visit – Mount Nebo – Mukhait – Mukawir-  Madaba

After having breakfast in the hotel – head to explore the city of mosaic Madaba. Madaba has a very long history stretching from the Neolithic period. The town of Madaba was once a Moabite border city, mentioned in the Bible in Numbers 21:30 and Joshua 13:9. Madaba dates from the Middle Bronze Age. It has become known as the “City of the Mosaics” for the many Byzantine mosaics that have been uncovered throughout the city. The most famous of these is the Madaba Map, a 6th-century mosaic map of the Holy Land. Continue where Moses climbed to Mount Nebo, from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the Promised land…. Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendents.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day on one knows where his grave is. –Deuteronomy 34:1-6 Continue further to step , where Jesus stepped before at the Khirbat Mukhayyat , the original site of Mt. Nebo village, is the Church of SS Lot and Procopius. Inside this unremarkable building is a remarkable mosaic representing the daily life activities , like agriculture and winemaking and others telling more about that time. Drive south-west Madaba , to get to Mukawir on a top of a 700 meter high hill , the fortress ( Al-Meshneq ) that belonged to Herod Antipas the Great during life of Jesus Here and mentioned in the New Testament as the palace in which Salome performed her fateful dance and John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded. (Exchange for the head of Johan the Baptist on a platter (Mark 6:21-29). Evening drive back to Madaba – transfers to the hotel for overnight.

Day 5: Madaba – Bethany & Jordan River – Moses spring – Petra

Leaving Madaba after breakfast, driving to Bethany. When Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” … Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Now some Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. (John 1:25-28) Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.” And in that place many believed in Jesus. (John 10:40-42) When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. (Luke 3:21-23) When Jesus (pbuh) spent 40 days in the wilderness after his baptism (Mark 1:12), he had been in the stark, desolate marl area immediately east of Jordan River and north of Bethany. He spread his message throughout Transjordan on several different occasions, including during his last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem (Matthew 19). Drive south via the Kings’ Highway to visit the Moses Springs. It is one of the two places where the great man is believed to have obtained water by striking a rock. You can get the chance to see some low lying ruins of a couple of churches in the very charming countryside.Further continue to Petra, The giant red mountains and vast mausoleums of a departed race have nothing in common with modern civilization, and ask nothing of it except to be appreciated at their true value – as one of the greatest wonders ever wrought by Nature and Man. Transfer to hotel for overnight .

Day 6:  Petra full day visit

After breakfast: pick up to visit Petra, there is no visit of Jordan will be complete without having seen the capital of the ancient Nabatean kingdom, Petra. The long-lost city of Petra, carved entirely by man into the rose-red sandstone rocks, puts your imagination to the test. Its aMystic and glorious place, an eternal tribute to a lost civilization. Petra was the central meeting point of the Nabatean spice routes which originated from the Persian Gulf, Western Arabia and the Red Sea. About two thousand years ago Petra became the capital of the Nabatean Empire. The city was so renowned that one of its kings, Aretas IV, is even mentioned in the Bible. The natural richness of the mountainous area combines in a superb way with the refined culture and massive architecture of the Nabateans, who carved their theatre, temples, façades, tombs, monasteries, houses a nd roads entirely i nto the rose-red sandstone rocks. No wonder UNESCO placed Petra on its World Heritage List one enters Petra by passing the Siq, a deep and narrow gorge, at the end of which all of a sudden dramatically appears the most famous monument in P etra: al-Khazneh or the Treasury. Maybe you will recognize it as the stage of the final sequence of the movie ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. But the Treasury is just the start. Walking and climbing in Petra hundreds of buildings carved in stone and eroded through the centuries into fabulous multi-colored walls will be revealed to you. overnight in hotel.

Day 7: Petra – Wadi Arava – Lot’s cave – Dead Sea – Amman

Breakfast in the hotel. Leaving Petra heading north to Amman, via Wadi Arava First stop will be at lot’s cave, the biblical story tells of Lot and his family escaping from the un-righteous cities of Sodom and Gommorah. Lot’s wife looked back, and turned to a pillar of salt. The cave that the family took refuge in became a shrine. Most of an ancient monastery built in front of the cave has crumbled down the hill due to earthquakes. Driving all the way north till you reach Amman –, in way we will stop to have time for bathing in Dead Sea  and then be ready to be transferred to the hotel for &overnight.

Day 8:  Amman – Airport (Departure day)

After breakfast: meet our representative again and drive to Airport for final departure

Exciting Activities

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