Umm Qays

So after the lovely Eastern castles trip, I decided that I can manage hiking as long as it's not a nature reserve, etc. A few weeks after, Charles asked if I wanted to go to Umm Qays and the Battle of Yarmouk. I had never been to the Yarmouk battle site, and honestly Umm Qays is always worth the trip, so I agreed. Drew had a paper due earlier than he thought and ended up staying up the whole night to finish the paper and decided to sleep in. 

Luckily Madison joined us at the last minute and the three of us headed on our way to the north. It's a wee bit of a drive, but we had fun making fun of Charles' driving (he had improved a GREAT deal over the summer and honestly driving in Jordan is kinda crazy) and having a good time as friends. 

Map showing both Amman and Umm Qays/Qais ignore the lived/visited stars(not my map)

We get to one of the battle of Yarmouk observation points and it's gorgeous! It's easy to see how the battle was won given the landscape. 

Madison smiling in the 100 degree weather

And I realized that many probably don't know the story of the Battle of Yarmouk. Ok, so it's one of the most decisive military battles ever. It happened in 636 AD and was between Byzantine forces and the Rashidun forces (earliest Islamic caliphate, the Rashidun were the four "rightly guided" caliphs who ruled after the death of Muhammed, PBUH). There were an estimated 100-150,000 Byzantine troops and around 20,000 Rashidun forces that participated in the battle. The years following Muhammed(PBUH)'s death were filled with expansion and battles as the Islamic forces expanded their empire from Arabia, to Iraq, to Syria and inwards towards Palestine. However, in each of these battles, they were fighting Byzantine troops and so the Byzantines decided to finish the Rashidun troops off once and for all. Palestine is a crossroads in the ancient (and current) world and therefore an important area to hold in the region. 

However, despite wanting to surprise the Rashiduns, the Islamic forces learned of the impending troops and set up battle lines at the site that is now Yarmouk. It is easy to see why they picked it. If you look in the picture below, you can see a valley. There is a dark green swatch where farmlands are beside a small river and a hill that splits the valley into two, smaller valleys. The Rashidun troops were positioned on the hill and were able to attack the Byzantine troops from above. The battle lasted around six days and at the end of it, the Rashidun troops had only lost about 3,000 men, whereas the Byzantine troops lost between 50,000 -100,000 men. That's between 1/3 and 2/3rds of their troops. This event was massively embarrasing for the Byzantines and greatly depleted their resources and troops in the region. This battle also emboldened the Rashidun troops and they were able to win a series of important victories in the region following this battle. This battle is still studied in military warfare as it is an important lesson in a vastly smaller force utilizing superior generalship to overcome an overwhelming enemy. 

Also the area is quite lovely. 

Although a bit hot

Olive trees!

More of the valley

Valley 

As we finish up at the site (only about a 15-20 minute stop) we hop in the car...and it doesn't start. It doesn't even make the puttering sound. It is just completely dead. We are absolutely baffled. Even if we had left the lights on, 20 minutes should not be enough to kill the battery. So...we are stumped for a bit. At the time the car died, there is literally NO other car nearby. This location is a bit remote and at least 10-15 km from the closest town... Luckily, there is a military posting here, given that it is an important battle site and that it's right near the border with Israel/Palestine/Syria. But there's like 3 guys there. So we go up and ask for help. Between the 3 of us, our arabic is good enough to communicate and try to get the car started. They eventually called a few of the local villagers to come and bring jumper cables and try and help us out. 

We had gotten a rental car, so we also call them up to try and figure out if either a. they can send someone to fix it or b. if they can send us a new car. That was also a bit of a crazy complicated situation. Arabic over the phone is SO HARD to understand. Thankfully Madison was able to get it sorted out...mostly. They decided to send us a replacement car, and we would meet up in Irbid...which was 2 hours from Amman and 45 minutes from our current location. So...we had a problem to try and figure out how to get the car to Irbid. At this point, over an hour had passed with us trying to get the car situation figured out. The locals were wonderful and had been charing the car battery up...but no go so far. 

At this point, Madison and I are frantically trying to reach anyone who is in Irbid who might be able to meet us or help us out. I was able to reach the branch president who is there (yay church!) and luckily he served his mission in the US so his English is perfect. Not gonna lie, the thought of having to explain car troubles in arabic slightly terrifies me. We get ahold of him and he agrees to meet us for lunch in Irbid when we can. (It's about 2:30 at this point). Our car starts as we literally are on the phone with someone who is going to come out from Irbid to help us, and we're able to drive to Irbid to pick up the other rental car and meet the branch president for lunch. 

Pic of everyone around the cars wondering what to do

Masoud (the branch president) was so nice to meet us and help us to find a nice restaurant. We had a great chat, and it was expecially nice as it was a nice break after the freaking out over the car stuff. I forgot to take a picture of him, but I got his number and I'm sure I'll see him again in the future at some district activity. 

After eating, we were ready to go to Umm Qays (we ended up eating until around 4) and wanted to have enough time to see the park before it closed. (We weren't sure if it being peak tourist season it would be open later than usual--sunset). We drive up and it's just as beautiful as I remember. Although with a broken foot, it is MUCH bigger than I remember it being. 

Charles overlooking the valley that separates Jordan/Israel/Palestine/Syria

Little town

Roman ruins

Another Charles pic, this time with Lake Tiberius in the back

Hi Mads!

Charles convinced me to take a pic there too. :P 

Charles and Madison went to explore the artemis temple (or whatever the main structure is) as I meandered along the roman road. 

I love how you can see the marks from where the carts wore down grooves in the path as they trundled along 

Charles and Madison finally caught up wth me and we explored to the end of the road before heading back. It's such a lovely time to go--right before sunset-- all of my pictures are hyper-defined and the shadows and play on light is amazing. 

Peekaboo!

The heart! We found this stone last time and Drew reminded me to look for it. 

Bye Umm Qays!

After exploring for about 2 hours, we hopped in the car and headed back to Amman. It was a fun trip and despite the car troubles, we had a great time.