Abu Darwish Mosque - Amman, Jordan

For the half-day we scheduled in Amman, Jordan, I listed for our tour guide several mosques I wanted our group to visit. But for reasons that I'm still unsure of, our guide was reluctant to take us to them. He did come through with one for us, the Abu Darwish Mosque. This mosque, commissioned by King Hussein and Mustafa Jakazi, was built in 1961 and funded by Abu Darwish (Mustafa Hassan), who owned the land and financed the building. Hassan was born in Caucasus and loved Syrian architecture. He drew the mosque's design and had the stone for the face work brought in from Syria. It is the distinctive black and white striped face work which make it so appealing. 

Our original view of the mosque took place when we were visiting the Citadel of Amman, on a central hill surrounded by the seven hills of Amman. One of our group, Julia, noticed a black and white striped mosque on the top of one of the hills (named Jebel al-Ashrafiyeh) and asked if that was one of the mosques we were going to visit? I could not see it for a minute, but it turned out that it was, and I was impressed by her sharp eye-sight.

The Abu Darwish Mosque as viewed from the Citadel. It is at the top of the hill, right of center, visible by its minaret.

A close-up of the mosque as viewed from the Citadel.

We asked our guide to forego a tour of the Roman amphitheater to give us time to visit the mosque and it was a good thing we did. By the time our vehicle navigated the horrible Amman traffic, down the Citadel hill, through a valley, and up the steep and twisting one way streets to the top of Jebel al-Ashrafiyeh, it was time for the call to prayer. Our guide, a self-described liberal Sunni Muslim, asked us to stay outside while he went in to see if he could get us permission to visit after prayers were finished. We walked around the outside taking pictures, then inside an administration building across the street while the outside speakers intermittently issued prayers. I've linked a Youtube video of the mosque during the call to prayer (not my video), but the sound quality of it is horrible. 

View of the mosque from the administrative center across the street. The small room with the mihrab was apparently under the covered area in front in the shape of a semi-circle.

View from the front.

When we did get to the mosque with our guide the gate was padlocked shut, but our guide was able to waive to the sheikh inside who came out and opened up the locked gate and invited us in. We then got our own private tour. I had read that it might be difficult to get inside and a German version of Wikipedia confirms that the inside of the mosque is usually restricted to Muslims only. 

We took off our shoes and the women put on head scarves before entering. We were led into a very small room with a mihrab and small lecturn, just off a central room with a small circular washing area, using bottled water, for the ritual bathing. I was confused as I'd not seen such a small room in a mosque before, believing this to be the central worship spot. Through our guide acting as an interpreter (the sheikh spoke Arabic), we got permission to take pictures, and I got the impression that this first room was perhaps a place for children and for those just  learning how to pray. When asked, our guide showed us how he typically kneeled in prayer. Then the sheikh spent quite a bit of time conveying the message to us, through our guide, that Muslims are not mean and nasty killers and that ISIS is a political group and does not represent a true Muslim agenda. As a side note, tourism in Egypt, Israel and Jordan is way down because of the incidents going on with ISIS. I think that our guide presented the sheikh with the opportunity to educate some American tourists about Islam as the pretext to get us the tour and it was effective in that regard. Some members of our group later did express the feeling that the tour and opportunity to talk with the sheikh had impacted their feelings about Islam positively. 

Small room with mihrab and lecturn. 

Closer view of mihrab. Times for call to prayer are listed to the right.

Beautiful carpet.

Area for washing. They used bottled water.

We were asked if we would like to go upstairs and, of course, said, "yes." Another door was unlocked and we walked outside, up some stairs, and then into the main prayer room of the mosque, much, much larger, with another mihrab. Unlike the unusual outside, which is unique as far as mosques that Judy and I have seen, the inside was very simple, but beautiful.

The mihrab facing Mecca and the minbar from which sermons are given. 

Pillars supporting the dome.

Inside the dome. Extremely simple.

Pattern on the pillars.

Calligraphy above the mihrab.

Green carpet and colored wall tiles.

Simple carpet colors.

Various names for Allah.

Calligraphy on the wall.

Simple stained glass.

What I came away with from this visit, mostly, was the appreciation to meet a sheikh and his graciousness in allowing us to visit, including have a picture taken with him.

Our group posing for a picture with the sheikh. 

And allowing our friends to see, as we have in the past, that mosques are beautiful places of worship with a peaceful sacredness to them. 

Nutria or Coypu

The nutria is a large rodent originally native to South America, but now introduced to many areas around the world by fur farmers. It is primarily known as nutria in the U.S. and in Asia, but because in Spanish speaking countries "nutria" refers to an otter, the name coypu was adopted. It is also known as the river rat because it has a large bare tail like a rat. 

Nutria on the bank of the Jordan River.

We were in Jordan recently visiting the traditionally recognized place for the baptism of Jesus on the Jordan River, which is the border for Israel and Jordan. We noticed a large rodent on the Israeli bank of the Jordan which eventually went into the water. It looked like a beaver, with gray whiskers and a rat tail. An internet search later confirmed it as a nutria, introduced to Israel by fur farmers. 

Hartmann's Mountain Zebra

There are three species of zebra: the plains zebra, the mountain zebra and the Grevy's zebra. On our trip to Africa we saw two of the species, the Grant's zebra, which is a subspecies of the plains zebra, and the Grevy's zebra. On our recent trip to Texas we saw the third species at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, the Hartmann's mountain zebra, one of two subspecies of the mountain zebra, the other being the cape mountain zebra. One of the differentiating features of the mountain zebra is a dewlap, a small lump on the throat that is more pronounced in the cape mountain than the Hartmann's. 

Note the small dewlap on the throat of this Hartmann's mountain zebra. Also note the buff background color, particularly pronounced on the upper back. 

I like the large black stripes and large white gaps on the rump and the braided look on the backside above the tail.

Like the Grevy's, the Hartmann's does not have stripes on the belly. The background color of the cape mountain zebra is white, but the background color of the Hartmann's mountain zebra is slightly buff. 

I love the profusion of stripes going in different directions with different widths.

There are an estimated 9,000 Hartmann's mountain zebras in the wild. They are found in the transition zones between the Namib Desert and central plateau in Namibia, with some extending into southwestern Angola. 

We were able to get much closer to these zebras than those in Africa.

Crayfish: Steamed and In Butter

Crayfish are also known as crawfish, crawdads, mudbugs or freshwater lobsters. 

Crayfish are brown before being boiled - then they turn red.

My first experience with crayfish was when we visited Louisiana as a family. We were driving through Bayou Country when we spotted a metal shack off the side of the road with a "Crawdads" sign out front. I ventured in to find two men, one of whom looked just like Bubba from the Forrest Gump movie. The Bubba look-alike, who was buying crawdads, showed me how to eat them. You chew on the head, then suck out the juice, then pull of the tail, peel it, and eat the tail meat. I purchased five pounds of crawdads and we started to eat them in the car. The juice was really good. Then I started to notice that the juice I was sucking out was yellowish/green. It started to gross me out as I figured that the yellowish/green substance was probably crawdad waste and I couldn't eat it any more. After that we focused just on the tails. 

Recently we were in a Chinese market and noticed a frozen bag of wild caught "Cajun Cooked Crawfish." The directions directed us to let them thaw 10 to 12 hours, steam them for 2 to 3 minutes and then eat them. 

Steaming crayfish in a pot (the lid was put on the pot to retain the steam).

I twisted the upper body and the tail and then pulled the tail off. The tail is covered with a yellowish substance, the same stuff that grossed me out years earlier. The yellowish substance is known as crawfish "fat" but it is actually only about 30% fat  and comes from an organ that functions like the liver. It serves the same function as the substance in a lobster known as tomalley. It is full of flavor and very edible. I found it easiest to cut the top portion of the shell on the tail and then pull out the tail meat. However, I watched several youtube videos on eating crayfish tails and learned that there are easier ways to do it. 

Crayfish tails on the plate and getting ready to get another tail. Note the yellow on my fingers and on the tail. It is crawfish "fat" and is edible. 

The tail is removed from the rest of the body.

I used kitchen shears to help remove the tail. I learned from some youtube videos that there are easier ways to do it.

The tail removed from the shell.

I collected a big group of tails and then immersed them in melted butter and ate them. Crayfish are a little softer than lobster meat and a little more sweet. They are quite tasty, but a lot of work. But after watching the video, I see that the tail meat could have been obtained much faster. 

A pile of tails ready to eat.

Crayfish tails inserted in melted butter.

A fork-full of buttery crayfish tails. 

Because these were frozen, I did not attempt to suck the juice out. One day I would like to try fresh crawdads again and I think could enjoy eating them the way they do in the south, now that I have a better idea of what the yellowish substance is. 

Fallow Deer

The fallow deer is a deer I've always associated with petting zoos and small amusement parks. It is hard for me to associate them with being wild. 

Fallow deer

According to the IUCN Red List, it appears that the fallow deer originated in Turkey, southern Italy, Sicily and the southern Balkan peninsula (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Slovenia). Other populations were introduced: to the western Mediterranean by the Phoenicians, to central and northern Europe by the Romans and Normans, and in modern times by many introductions from various sources. Most of the European animals are descended from domestic stock and the color varieties are considered to be a result of domestication. The only animals in Europe not considered to be from domestic stock are those on the Island of Rhodes and in the Duzlercami Game Reserve in Termessos National Park in southern Turkey, both of which are genetically distinct. Their current distribution in Europe is very patchy and most of the populations are fenced and not truly free-ranging. In modern times they have been introduced to countries worldwide, including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. 

We saw a number of fallow deer at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas, but I had a hard time getting too excited about them when we were also seeing exotic African wildlife. Their are four main variants of coat color in the fallow deer. The common color is a chestnut coat with white mottles. The leucistic (not albino) is pure white in adults (fawns are cream-colored) with dark eyes and nose and no spots. 

A leucistic fallow deer.

The melanistic is all-black to a grayish-brown. 

A melanistic fallow deer eating out of Judy's hand. 

And the menil has more distinct spots than the common and no black around the rump or on the tail. 

Red Deer

The red deer is one of the larger deer species and is found in much of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, Turkey, northern Iran, Iraq, much of the Stans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), northern Afghanistan, northern India and northern Pakistan, Siberia, Mongolia, western and northern China and in the Atlas Mountains in northern Africa between Morocco and Tunisia. They have also been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.

Red deer at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.

The American elk or wapiti is a distinct species and is a little larger. The red deer is typically thought of as a distinct species but there are actually separate species and disputes as to how many.

In our recent visit to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas, we saw quite a few red deer, which they identified as European red deer, and fed several of them. I was able to stroke one particular red deer's neck and feel its jaw and muzzle. It was a lot of fun and gives me a desire to see them in the wild.