The Steamy Quest for John B's head

The next day we headed out to Tall Hisban, just north of Madaba on the Kings Highway. Took us a while to find the entrance to the site (apologies to the family whose front yard we canvassed), but when we did we delighted in the ruins of a multi-period tell site. After trolling around the tell, we wandered down the street to check out the late Ottoman (?) remains. Beautiful stone houses that – it appears – the road cut right through.
We packed a crabby kid (“I’m tired of falling down columns and old houses.”) back into the car and headed south for Mukawir, a fortress overlooking the Dead Sea. Mukawir is Machareus, where Salome is said to have danced for Herod in order to secure her request for John the Baptist’s head. Perched on a whopper of a hill next to the Dead Sea, the views and the climb are more spectacular than the partially reconstructed ruins. We arrived at the same time as a bus load of Italian tourists, and were treated to some hymns and a dramatic reenactment of Ms. Salome’s dance and request for John’s head…in Italian. Ran into another archaeologist (that we had seen at Hisban) on the hike up to the palace (who else does this?) and enjoyed the hike up, and even more so down, Mukawir. Drove back via the Dead Sea and stopped at some thermal springs on the way. As you descend, the rock color changes to black, and the temperature rises – both inside the car (as it’s a really steep, treacherous road) and out. The waterfalls and springs at Hammamat Ma’in are 60 degrees CELCIUS. Wild. In our wanderings at the park, Noah was chased and eventually lured (with Doritos…the gals had his number) over to where a family was picnicking. We sat and chatted a bit, learning just how pathetic our Arabic is, and thoroughly enjoying the company. Noah, for his part, kindly obliged and gave good-bye hugs when we left (Doritos are a powerful bribe). We beat a hasty retreat back to Amman so as to be at ACOR in time to return the rental car. Curiously enough, we didn’t get pulled over by the police once today. All bets were lost.