After about half an hour of being on the road we stopped for boiling hot coffee (also so he could have one of his incredibly strong cigarettes) he was telling me about his family, his kids, his adventures driving across Iraq in the 90s and also sharing his prolific knowledge of his country: Here are some snippets of things he said:
How Iranian tourists are banned from travelling to Jordan due to the Sunni/Shia muslim rift and the number of Shia holy sites in Jordan which they can't visit.
How Israeli politicians have sex with Palestinian politicians and then blackmail them.
How Jordan is taking in an unbelievable amount of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Palestine.
How Palestinians still don't have full rights in Jordan ( Over one third of the population of Jordan are displaced Palestinians.)
He kept saying that if political strife ever hit his country then where the hell would all the people go?
"There is just no country free of strife anywhere around. Jordan has to try and keep itself politically stable, otherwise we are all completely f**ked."
OK this is a depressing picture but he was a jolly guy really who kept laughing through his cigarette induced coughing fits.
Shobak Castle,originally called Montreal. It was built in 1115 by Baldwin I of Jerusalem but was quickly aquired by a French Lord who attacked the trade caravans which passed by. He also planned to attack Mecca. This news reached Saladin and of course he wasn't very happy about this so decided on a plan of attack first.
We arrived at Shobak Castle about 10am. It was all pretty desolate really. A massive castle ruin on a desolate hill with just a few villages below. It was an atmospheric, yet creepy place not helped by the fact that I was the only visitor. A local guide said he would take me around for a quid. That was money well spent, without him the whole place would have just been a crumbling, dark,creepy wreck. But he bought the place to life.
The Muslims decided to just store olives (or so my guide said!)
The remains of the Church from 1185
Boulders thrown from Saladin's catapults ..Really?!
Saladin's Islamic inscriptions on the crusader turrets from 1187.
Saladin sieged the castle for two years but unbeknown to him there was an escape tunnel for the canny crusaders. It was dug through the basement of the castle,through the hill right out into the far plains below. If I were a fit, brave woman, with no fear of heights and the dark and enclosed spaces, I could have descended into this tunnel as it is still navigable. Ummm, I might travel alone but I still have strong survival instincts. So I kindly rejected my guide's 'kind' offer to take me down into the tunnel of hell.
We then left the desolation of Shobak behind. The castle was in direct sunlight but these photos give an idea of the land around.
Beautifully barren.
Me in the middle of nowhere. Shobak village is behind me and the castle is just to the left.
We then drove off to Karak. it was turning into a highly historical morning. I've read about Crusaders and the might of Saladin but now finally I was seeing the places with my own eyes...it was very exciting.
Karak castle was better preserved and obviously had more tourists and funding. For me though, it lacked a bit of the atmosphere of Shobak but the history was still amazing. This land had been home to the Moabites of Biblical times and the Nabateans. But it was in the 12th century, when crusaders came and started to charge road tax to traders, when the current fortress was first built high on the hill over the town.
Above picture is nicked from here I never got to see the castle like this because I just arrived through a crazy traffic system which my driver seemed to know like the back of his hand.
The crusader Lord of this castle would throw people off the barricades with wooden boxes over their heads so that they remained conscious for a long time when they finally hit the ground below. Saladin really was fighting against a notorious bunch of money grabbing, sadistic bastards. He conquered the place in 1188 and that was the end of the Crusader presence in this area of the Middle East.
The wall on the right was built by the crusaders over 300 years before the Mamluks built the crappy extension on the left. You have to give it to the Crusaders...they built things to last.
My guide was an old man but as as sprightly on his feet as a mountain goat. His pronunciation was poor but his knowledge was amazing. Here we are in the small prison cells when the castle was used as a jail in the 13th century.
A prayer niche shows the conversion of Churches to Mosques. Saladin spared everyone's life at Karak castle apart from the sadistic Lord, who he killed himself.
In neither castle was there a great sense of 'doing things for the tourists' There were hardly any signs or information. Because I paid for guides I was fine and I really liked the rough and ready edge of these two castles. I know it was quiet because I was travelling in low season but to be honest it all added to the creepy menacing atmosphere of these amazing castles.
It was time to leave. I had lunch with my driver and he told me how much he hates Karak because of the awful traffic in the town below. Luckily today had been a good day and we had arrived early. I told him it was my birthday tomorrow and he guessed my age as 50. Cheeky bugger! I tried not to let this get me down and luckily my lunch was tasty enough for me to forget the insult. He told me to have get prepared, we were about to descend over 500 metres and the quick descent sometimes gave people headaches. Yes, I was finally off to my birthday treat...floating in the Dead Sea.
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