3312 ISRAEL (Jerusalem) - Via Dolorosa - part of The Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls (UNESCO WHS)

Via Dolorosa (Sorrowful Way‎) is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem, believed to be the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion. The winding route from the former Antonia Fortress to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - a distance of about 600 metres - is a celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions. It is today marked by nine Stations of the Cross; there have been fourteen stations since the late 15th century, with the remaining five stations being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

3290 ISRAEL (Jerusalem) - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre - part of The Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls (UNESCO WHS)

Located in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection or Church of the Anastasis by Eastern Christians, contains, according to traditions, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he is said to have been buried and resurrected. The tomb is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicula. The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.

3268 ISRAEL (Jerusalem) - Dome of the Rock - part of The Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls (UNESCO WHS)

The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was initially completed in 691-692 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik during the Second Fitna on the site of the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The original dome collapsed in 1015 and was rebuilt in 1022-1023, being in its core one of the oldest extant works of Islamic architecture, even if it was patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces.

ISRAEL (Jerusalem) - The Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls (UNESCO WHS)

The Old City of Jerusalem is a walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. Until 1860, when the Jewish neighborhood Mishkenot Sha'ananim was established, this area constituted the entire city of Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew Bible, before King David's conquest of Jerusalem in the 11th century BCE the city was home to the Jebusites. It was identified southeast of the Old City walls, outside the Dung Gate. In the Bible, David's son, King Solomon, extended the city walls to include the Temple and Temple Mount.

1879 JORDAN - Black iris, Jordan's national flower

Black iris (Iris nigricans), a flowering plant in the family Iridaceae which needs direct sun and sharp drainage, is the national flower of Jordan and can be found all across the country, particularly in the Karak Governorate. Actually it is endemic to Jordan and is an endangered species. It blooms in the spring with dark black petals and is a symbol of growth, renewal and change.

The postcard is special because has, as you can see, a typographical error, respectively on front is written "PLACK IRIS" instead of "BLACK IRIS".

1230 JORDAN (Amman) - King Abdullah I Mosque

Completed in 1989 as a memorial by the late King Hussein (r. 1952-1999) to his grandfather, Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, Emir of Transjordan between 1921 and 1946, and king of Jordan since 1946 until 1951, this unmistakable blue-domed mosque can house up to 7000 worshippers inside, and another 3000 in the courtyard area. This is the only mosque in Amman that openly welcomes non-Muslim visitors. The cavernous, octagonal prayer hall doesn’t have any pillars, yet it’s capped by a massive dome, 35m in diameter. The inscriptions quote verses from the Quran.

1171 JORDAN - Jerash Archaeological City (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Situated in the north of Jordan, 48km north of the capital Amman towards Syria, Jerash is the site of the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, also referred to as Antioch on the Golden River. Ancient inscriptions establish the foundation of the city as being by Alexander the Great or his general Perdiccas. It was a city of the Decapolis (Ten Cities), a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Jordan, Israel and Syria. Recent excavations show that Jerash was already inhabited during the Bronze Age (3200 BC - 1200 BC). The Romans, who conquest the city in 63 BC, ensured security and peace in this area, which enabled its people to devote their efforts to economic development and encouraged civic building activity. The Persian invasion in 614 caused the rapid decline of Jerash, and in 749 a major earthquake destroyed much of the city. During the period of the Crusades, some of the monuments were converted to fortresses. Small settlements continued in Jerash during the Ayyubid, Mameluk and Ottoman periods.

0432, 1139 JORDAN - Wadi Rum Protected Area (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 26.12.2012, 10.07.2014
Placed between Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Israel, sharing control of the Dead Sea with the latter two, and its only port, at the Gulf of Aqaba, with Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, Jordan consists of an arid plateau in the east and an highland area in the west, with arable land and Mediterranean evergreen forestry, part of the region considered to be "the cradle of civilization", the Levant region of the Fertile Crescent. Controlled by the ancient empires of Persians and Macedonian Greeks, and later by the Nabatean kingdom and Roman Empire, it became a heartland for the Arabic Islamic Empire, and in 1516 was incorporated in the Ottoman Empire. During WWI, the Transjordanian tribes fought against the Ottoman Empire as part of the Arab Army of the Great Arab Revolt, supported by the Allies. The chronicle of the revolt was written by T. E. Lawrence (in the picture, on the first postcard) who, as a young British Army officer, played a liaison role during the revolt, and become the basis for the iconic movie Lawrence of Arabia. In 1922 Transjordan came under the British Mandate, which ended in 1946.

Located at 60km to the east of Aqaba, Wadi Rum (transcribed by archaeologists as Wadi Ramm), also known as The Valley of the Moon, is the largest wadi (a dry riverbed, that contains water only during times of heavy rain) in Jordan, cut into the sandstone and granite rock. Due to its iconic desert landscape, renowned for its spectacular series of sandstone mountains and valleys, natural arches, and the range of narrow gorges, towering cliffs, massive landslides, and dramatic cavernous weathering forms displayed, but also due to the evidence of long-term patterns of pastoral, agricultural and urban human activity (25,000 petroglyphs, 20,000 inscriptions, and 154 archaeological sites, stretched over a period of at least 12,000 years), Wadi Rum Protected Area became an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. In the West, Wadi Rum is best known for its connection with T. E. Lawrence, who based his operations here during the Arab Revolt of 1917-1918, so in the 1980s one of the rock formations in this wadi (in the picture) was named The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, after Lawrence's book with the same name.

0535, 554, 1109 JORDAN - Petra (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 02.03.2013, 15.03.2013, and 21.06.2014 
"...from the rock as if by magic grown, / eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!", as described it John William Burgon in a poem from 1845, Petra is undoubtedly one of the most amazing cities ever raised on this planet. (Re)discovered by Europeans 200 years ago, after a millennium of oblivion, this city lies on the slope of Mount Hor, in the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, today in Jordania. Pliny the Elder and other writers identify Petra as the capital of the Nabataeans (ancient Arabs of North Arabia) and the center of their caravan trade, controlling the main commercial routes which passed through it to Gaza in the west, to Damascus in the north, to Leuce Come on the Red Sea, and across the desert to the Persian Gulf. Came into prominence in the late first century BC, Petra continued to be a prosperous city 150 years after the Roman conquest (106), even if the native dynasty came to an end, but after that, probably because Palmyra attracted the Arabian trade, it gradually declined in importance, and ended by being completely deserted.

Nabataeans ability to control the water supply and also the flash floods, using dams, cisterns and water conduits, allowed them to create an artificial oasis and to build a city in the midle of the desert, simply carved into the rock, as the name implies (Petra means stone in Greek). The eastern entrance leads steeply down through a narrow gorge (in places only 3-4m wide) called the Siq (the shaft), which served as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa. At the end of it stands Petra's most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh (popularly known as the Treasury - in the first postcard), hewn into the sandstone cliff. A little further, at the foot of the en-Nejr mountain, is a massive theatre. At the point where the valley opens out into the plain, the site of the city is revealed with striking effect. The amphitheatre has been cut into the hillside and into several of the tombs during its construction.

 

The Monastery (in the second and the third postcard), Petra's largest monument, dates from the 1st century BC. It was dedicated to Obodas I and is believed to be the symposium of Obodas the god. This information is inscribed on the ruins of the Monastery (the name is the translation of the Arabic "Ad Deir"). It is similar as design with the Treasury, but is much larger and much less decorated. The flat plaza in front was carved out of the rock, perhaps to accommodate crowds at religious ceremonies, and was originally surrounded by a colonnade. The interior consists of a single room with double staircases leading up to a niche.

0715 JORDAN - Quseir Amra (UNESCO WHS)

Located roughly 85km from Amman, this complex from Quseir Amra is a desert castle built in the early 8th century, both a fortress with a garrison and a residence of the Umayyad caliphs. What stands today is a small country cabin, meant as a royal retreat, without any military function. It is most notable for the figurative murals that remain on the ceilings inside, which depict hunting, naked women and, above one hammam, an accurate representation of the zodiac. It was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.

0574 JORDAN - Um er-Rasas (Kastrom Mefa'a) (UNESCO WHS)

Located south-east of Madaba, on the edge of the semi-arid steppe, Um er-Rasas is an archeological site, largely unexcavated, which started as a Roman military camp and grew to become a town from the 5th century. It contains remains from the Roman, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods (end of 3rd to 9th centuries AD) including a fortified Roman military camp and sixteen churches, some with well-preserved mosaic floors, the best known being the one of the Church of St Stephen, made in 785 and illustrating the most important cities of the region.