Kerak

Ah Al-Karak. It's a small city now but back in the day it used to be nothing but a Crusader castle on a hill. It used to be the home of Reynald de Châtillon, Lord of Outrejordain, who royally pissed Saladin off by raiding a convoy and contributed to the fall of the kingdom of Jerusalem. If you've seen Kingdom of Heaven you may remember this castle from that. In that movie they turned this:

 Into this:

As with everywhere else in that movie the castle had to be flat and lifeless while the real Kerak is on a hill surrounded by many other hills. Al-Karak (the name of the modern town) is the capital of the Karak Governorate and is located about halfway between Amman and Petra. It seemed like a logical place to stop since I knew the castle was supposed to be nice and I needed to get to Petra. The guidebook recommended I not do that and the guidebook was right. Unless you're driving it's probably best to go straight to Petra if you're on a tight schedule. Getting a ride to Petra turned out to be impossible. During the summer that might not be true, but I was there in January and there weren't enough people wanting to go to justify a servee. More on that later.

Al-Karak is nice for a Jordanian city. As with everywhere in Jordan it is dirty and poor, but there has been a definite effort to make the upper section where the castle is impressive. The main square has a statue of Saladin overlooking the castle. Unlike what you see in the movie he actually besieged the castle. He was quite famous for doing so because when Reynald sent out a messenger saying that there was a wedding party present Saladin asked which tower they were staying in and ordered his mangonels to avoid that tower. The city itself is quite small. Most Jordanian cities are. It occupies a large hill on the side of the castle.

Approaching the city you arrive at a junction. From there you get your best view of the castle. Unfortunately I arrived at night and unlike many European castles Kerak is not lit up at night. I only realized how close I'd been when I saw it from the top. The bus drops you off at this junction and there are taxis waiting to take you to where you want to go. I asked the driver to take me to a hotel and he dropped me off at the top of the city. It only cost a couple of dinars. There are several hotels up there and I just grabbed the closest one. The man there was friendly enough but excessively formal and seemed to display no emotion.

The picture above is of the hotel. Functional but nothing special. He didn't try to cheat me as some of the others did. If you can it is usually better to book in advance. One interesting thing about Jordan is that when they meet you, or want to thank you, or even just end their sentences, they say "welcome." I assume that that is the literal translation of an Arabic word for greeting. Get used to it because you're going to hear it a lot. If they know no other word most Arabs will know that one.

The castle is only accessible from the side facing the square. On all other sides it is a sheer cliff face. There is a moat between the city and the castle with metal bridges crossing it. I assume that it held a drawbridge at some point. In any event it doesn't look that effective at keeping back attackers. Given that it is only vulnerable on this one side I have to say that's not much of a problem. The fortress must have been virtually impregnable when it was functional. When Saladin did capture it it was through the garrison's starvation.

The castle opened to the public at 9 but the men running the ticket office didn't show up to unlock the gates until at least half past. All times are approximate in Jordan. Something very distinctive about Middle Eastern sites is that there are very few people involved in running them. A site like this in Europe would have dozens of people wandering around to help tourists and keep them out of forbidden or dangerous areas. Here I spotted two or three. They don't have audio guides, visitor's centers, or gift shops. I really like that. It feels more like you're actually experiencing the site as it was meant to be experienced. All of that stuff meant to entertain just takes away from the fun of actually discovering things for yourself. What they do give you is an extremely useful brochure which has a map of the castle and a description of the most important points. I understand that there was an American archaeological team working here a few years ago and I suspect that they designed the brochure. Unlike many translated writings this one doesn't suffer from odd spelling errors or strange grammatical choices. The map is also extremely thorough which screams archaeologists to me. At any rate it is extremely useful in finding your way around the castle, which can occasionally be a bit of a maze.

The site itself is a marvel. Being in the desert for all those years it is still almost untouched by the ravages of time. Parts of it look as if they were only just left. Other parts have fallen down with time. All of it looks abandoned. I don't know whether Kerak is more popular during the summer but when I went there the place was almost empty. There were perhaps 4-5 other people in there at the same time, although I admit that it's big enough for me to have missed it if there were more. I can't tell you how nice it was to be left alone in this place. I felt like an archaeologist exploring the city for the first time, which was fitting because I had my Indy hat and jacket on. You've gotta bring those if you're going to Petra right?

The walls of the city are one of the most impressive things when seen from below. I suppose because this side wasn't as steep a cliff as the others they built this ramped wall which prevents anyone from tunneling underneath or climbing up. This is the side that you see from the road when you come in and it is impressive as hell. The circuit wall is completely intact so you can walk the entire thing. Sections of it do have only metal platforms with guardrails though.

One thing that anyone who goes to Karak absolutely must do is visit the catacombs. These run underneath the whole city and are accessible through entranceways like these. This is where the real advantage of having no officials around comes in. Nobody there will stop you from going in. They aren't off limits as they almost certainly would be in a more controlled area. Be warned though: you do enter at your own risk. There is a reason that these would be sealed off at a regular site and that is that they can be dangerous. Better to go with a group or be very cautious. Flashlights are also important.

There are a lot of cavernous rooms under the ground. Some of them must have been for storage but I imagine that the people had to live somewhere in here. At any rate, the rooms are vast. You can go for ages until you think you've reached the end only to discover more rooms and corridors. There are also holes leading off to a lower level. I don't know what's down there but I wouldn't recommend going down by yourself. I don't know how you'd get back up. This is about as close as you can get to being in a functioning castle. You can see all the rooms just as they would have looked a thousand years ago. They really haven't changed that much and only a few of them have caved in.

The view from Kerak is extraordinary. There is a big, open valley on one side and a cluster of small hills on the other. Scattered throughout are typical Jordanian houses. I'm not sure how these are constructed but they look much nicer from a distance and in the sunlight. A lot of them are panted bright colors like pink or orange. It sounds tacky but they fit into the environment without feeling out of place.

More corridors. The site was riddled with them. Most of the entrances don't hook up with one another. I have to assume that this was done intentionally to keep intruders confused and trapped. It certainly confused me. Generally when you go in one entrance you have to go right back out the same way.

Al-Karak isn't as nice as the castle. To repeat myself: dirty, filthy mess. But it's filled with life. There are people swarming around buying food, clothing and whatever else. But honestly, what makes the place nice is the people. I met some of the friendliest people I've ever seen there. Jordan is an Arab nation and the Arabs have a very hospitality based society. If they consider you their guest there is no limit to what they'll do to make you feel welcome. It's only when they consider you a rich intruder that they try to fleece you. Even then they'll be polite about it. One of the guys in the square (whose name I forgot sadly) was very nice and actually sought out the guy who ran the servees. When that petered out since I was the only one who wanted one he never gave up looking for transport for me. He had me sit down in his cafe and gave me some tea while I waited. I should mention that at no point did I buy anything off him or pay him money for his help. If that sounds like I'm bragging about being an asshole what I mean is that he had no reason to help me except for sheer kindness. In the end he found me a ride with two German guys on holiday who were headed in that direction with a rental car. While I had planned on going to Petra in the morning and getting a bus back to Israel that night (a stupid plan) this seemed the only option I was going to get. And I never regretted it because there was no other way to see the King's Highway. Even though I spent the rest of the day traveling it never ceased to be amazing.

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31°10'50.32"N, 35°42'5.74"E