For most of the drive from the Dead Sea to Aqaba, we were but a hop, skip and jump away from Israel. In fact the whole drive was spotted with border sentry points like you see in this picture. These were, at times, half a mile away (at best). Beyond that was Israel (and of course, Israel’s checkpoints).

You can literally walk over to Israel if you could negotiate the two checkpoints, that is.

Prior to the 1994 peace treaty, there used to be a lot of checkpoints on this road itself. After the treaty (where both parties agreed that a third country cannot use their land to attack the other country), all those checkpoints were removed.

Curiosity led me to read what happened after the 1994 treaty. Just search for Israel Jordan Peace Treaty in Wikipedia. Couldn’t help being impressed by King Hussein’s commitment to peace in the area.

We were going thru a lot of mountains. Eventually, the mountains started receding in the horizon and the desert took over.

The rather predictability of the horizon was suddenly broken by this very odd landscape. Look at the particular rock I am referring to. It is almost flat on the top for *many* *many* miles. Looks almost like a perfect plateau. Except that it is flanked by either side with normal mountains.

Not sure about what makes it this way.

Do you remember the story from Mongolia?

I asked my friend Mahmoud. He was not too sure. Hope to find out soon what those half buried ties here mean…

After a lot of very hard rocks, salt and then the desert sands, suddenly we were hit with a lot of limestone mountains! I was not expecting this in the least…

Roger, this sure brings back the memories of the Bactrians in Mongolia. I think these would be more difficult to ride than those. What sayest thou?

Reminded us so much of the divi divi trees in Aruba island! (We are not sure why the trees here evolved to look like that)

Some of the scenes reminded me of Mongolia. Except that – that was a cold desert and this is a decidedly hot one…

The salt vats ran for miles! (these are salt farming operations trying to extract salt from the Dead Sea. I am assuming they do not have to try hard)

(And that is not a moon in broad noon; that is a reflection on the windshield I was taking my shots thru)

The shot was taken from about half a mile away. The difference between a gypsy and a bedouin, I was taught by my Jordanian friend Mahmoud, is that gypsies tend to be a lot dirtier and more unhygienic around their tent and tend to shun work (instead beg). I cannot vouch for that but surely this particular tent was far more unkempt than the Bedouin tents I had seen during my last trip.

This is a rock formation on top of the mountain. We are seeing the backside. And there is a good reason for it. According to Biblical stories, this is King Lot’s wife turning her back to the destruction caused by Sodom and Gomorrah. We did not go to the top but from the front, apparently this natural rock formation has an uncanny look for a women’s face.