Al Aqaba, Jordan

Tuesday | September 27, 2016

This morning I arrived in Al Aqaba Jordan, a short one mile cruise from where we were docked in Israel last night. In fact, Eilat and Al Aqaba are directly across the bay from one another. Yet because of the bizarre state of international relations between Jordan and Israel, we were forced to sail out of Israeli waters, to international waters, and then back into Jordanian waters. So instead of taking 20 minutes, the trip took a little over six hours. (One can only imagine how much fuel we wasted doing this.)

As Jordan’s only port city, Al Aqaba fills a vital role in the nation’s economy. Ruled at various times by Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Muslims, and Ottoman Turks, Aqaba was captured by a group of Arabs led by TE Lawrence during World War I.

Visible were the red mountains of the Jordanian desert.

We could also see a cargo ship, directly across the pier, that had obviously succumbed to a major and crippling fire.

Of course, this would not be an Arabian country without a neighborhood mosque.

And one could definitely not miss the massive Jordanian flagpole.

But the past few days had been exhausting, so I mostly stayed on the ship, listened to lectures, and read up on my Jordanian history.