Last Day in Jordan

This is the Muhammad Ali mosque. I think it looks like an alien space ship.

The aliens made us take off our shoes.

Barefoot inside the space ship we discovered it was just a mosque. And a beautiful one at that.

The rows are where people kneel to pray (usually just men). They stay in rows because everyone is equal before God. The women had to wear hooded dresses inside, that's what you see in the background. There may or may not have been a Star Wars video filmed with one outside of the mosque...

On the left is the niche that shows the direction of Mecca, so everyone faces it when they pray. And on the right is fancy wooden staircase which surely has a proper name where the imam (mosque leader) preaches sermons.

This space ship control panel is actually the times of prayer. Muslims pray five times a day, it is one of the five pillars of Islam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Pillars_of_Islam). The times change a little bit throughout the year depending on sunrise and sunset, but this is typical since we've been here. There is a call to prayer just before each of these times from a loud speaker at the minarets and I have come to love it. The first few weeks I woke up to the call at 4am, but since I've learned to sleep through it, I love the call to prayer. I'll miss it for sure.

This is Hercules' temple. We listened to "Zero to Hero" a few times here to get pumped up. It's amazing how a name makes something so much cooler. Good thing Foote is a cool name.

We found this in the museum next to the temple. An ancient pothead.

This was the only other thing really picture worhty, and boy was it picture worthy. This ancient head replica was made by UNR. Nevada has made us proud! We thought it looked like a Nevadan, and this is proof!

Okay, maybe this was the best part of the trip.

The river is not exactly clean, but I like to assume it's been polluted in the last 2,000 years and it was clear then. The trees are pretty anyway.

This is the traditional baptismal site of Christ. It was really cool to be in the Jordan River in this place. This is one of the lowest places on earth with a steep ascent from here to Jerusalem. It is also here that Joshua (which is the same name as Jesus) led the children of Israel from the wilderness into the promised that. I love that parallel and the connection to our own lives. We must follow Jesus down into the waters of baptism and then stay on the path for the steep climb to the promised land.