The Eastern Desert

Miss Petra said she had been everywhere in Jordan. And so, we went to nowhere. The drive to the Eastern Desert was a trek into awe-inspiring emptiness. Flat, rocky and completely lifeless, the desert's endlessness stretched beyond human imagination.

But why go into nothingness? Well, there were a few outpost castles set up by various past peoples. And there was an oasis called Azraq.

Azraq, sadly, had been devastated. What had once had been marshy wetland had been reduced to a dry dusty truck stop supported only by Iraqi and Saudi truckers. The wells of Azraq had been overused leaving miles of thirsty bushes. Impoverished Bedouin set up ragged tents between piles of trash. It was a hell, isolated.

The castles were pretty neat, though. One set up by Umayyad in 700 AD featured pornographic images of naked women upon indigo backgrounds. Gasp, those early Muslims were a bit naughty!

Traveling during Ramadan proved to be nice as the castles were completely empty. In fact, the guards, who could not be bothered to open the castles up for us, simply gave us the keys to explore the castles on our own.