Umm Ar-Rasas

Today we visited a site about an hour south of Amman called Um Ar-Rasas, which is still actively being excavated. The site dates back to the end of the 3rd century, and it served as a fortified camp in the Roman period to protect trade caravans from the Arabian Peninsula to Syria.  During the Byzantine and early Islamic period, many churches and chapels were constructed, as were houses and olive presses, that you can still see remnants of today.

And this is a great place to bring two little boys with a lot of energy. on a beautiful day like today. There were lots of trails to run on, rocks to climb, and places to explore.

There were a lot of interesting carvings under the arches. 

Benjamin wanted to take a break to play with his car.

 We saw a lot of big beettles crawling around, ewww.

And then we got to the first main site, the Church of St. Stephen, which was preserved under the white structure. This is one of the four original churches of the village, with amazing mosaics on the floor dating back to 785 AD.

This incredible mosaic on the church's floor is one of the largest discovered in Jordan, only in 1986.

It shows cities that has religious significance in the 8th century AD, and the names of these ancient cities. Written are 27 cities of the Holy Land, 9 cities on the East Bank of the Jordan River and 8 cities on the West Bank, and 10 Egyptian cities north of the Nile Delta.

Then we just walked around and explored some more.

Nathan has such a creative eye, and he took some nice black and white pictures:)

We came across another church with lots of fabric buried in the sand. You can't really see from this picture, but there is a mosaic underneath. We figured they are preserving them until they can be properly protected.

Maybe over the next few years while we are here, these mosaics will be uncovered.

Next we climbed up a hill and had a great view of the area. A shepherd was tending his sheep down below.

Benjamin sang baa baa black sheep to them :)

Caleb running down the trail.  The boys were really good hikers today.

And on the way out we saw three bedouin boys riding their donkeys.

We ended the day with a picnic outside the visitors center of peanut butter and jelly and pretzels, and got some drinks at the store as a treat.

We took a different drive home, and went through Madaba.

We love coming to this city too, but today was just to drive through.

It was a fun way to spend half of a day, and we will definitely be coming back again to enjoy being outdoors! Happy Friday :).