Tourists at Ajlun and Jaresh

This afternoon we did it! Same old clothes, but we hired a driver who drove us north to Ajlun and the ancient castle pictured here, and also to Jaresh, an amazing collection of Greek, Roman, Christian and Muslim monumental ruins. In fact, when we visited the museum, their collection included stone implements from the days before the locals learned to work with metal!
Our wonderful guide reminded us that Elijah the Tishbite grew up just over the next hill in Tishbeh! And he also shared a local oral history that Jesus came to Ajlun to visit his mother Mary after feeding the 5,000 and casting the demons out of the two Gadarenes, but then being rejected for causing the death of so many swine. At the top of this wonderful hill, the earliest ruins were of a Byzentine ((AD 321 - 621) Church, followed by several forts, one of which was to counter the Crusaders on the other side of the Jordan River.
Apparently our guide, now a man of some years, had helped excavate this and other sites and really absorbed the history. How fun it was to listen to him describe how this fort could send color coded signals to Jerusalem by mixing different minerals into the fires.
Jaresh was also damaged beyond repair by a major earthquake in the 800s. Yet it is fascinating. At one point a mute with a rather distorted face befriended us and showed us that he could make one of the 30 feet tall pillars actually totter enough for us to see movement in the tiny lever he used, and feel it at the tips of our fingers in one of the joints! Vonnie decided to move back at first, but eventually felt the movement herself. This same mute showed us a local plant that looked just like the plants carved at the top of the so-called Corinthian columns.
Then a 15 year old came along and took over as our guide, telling us in English, "He is not speaking any language." I tried to teach him the English word "mute". He then showed us an amazing mosaic floor in an old church, a Greek theater, and a temple to Artemis (Venus).
Our wonderful driver, Mustaffah, took us to a restaurant much less expensive than the hotel and we enjoyed our fill with pita breads, hummus, cucumber salad and kebab.
When back to the hotel, we discovered our bags wouldn't be delivered until midnight tonight. And we've promised to meet our driver at 7:30 for Friday's adventures.