Lonely Road

One of the thematic photosets I shot while in Jordan this past summer, the Lonely Road series is little Thrust walking down the empty streets of various ruins, his wee leash trailing behind him as the only sign he isn't completely alone in his journey.

Frame 1: Mukawir, or Herod's Palace on the King's Highway tour. This is actually a modern road that winds around the mountain for the ease of tourists visiting the site on top. The quicker climb is on the old palace road, which used to cut straight up the front of the mountain but is nearly all worn away. It's a hot and sweaty but quick climb up, and then a leisurely stroll down the new road (where you can take your time and wait for everyone to get around the bend so you can snap pictures of your plastic jet being adorable).

Frame 2: Mount Nebo, a modern dirt road used by the caretakers of the site. Mount Nebo is a memorial site to Moses, one of the places he's alleged to have visited in his lifetime, and also has the remains of at least one church and some stunning mosaics that survived a period of religious destruction of various iconographic art forms (the monks of this site preserved them, I believe, by placing new ones overtop the old mosaics to hide them).

Frame 3: The very end of the Collonade Street at Jerash, one of the best preserved Roman cities in the area. To this day I've never made it as far as that arch in the distance... we're just never given enough time on the tour. This is the furthest I've ever made it. Next time I'll take a cab up and take my time to walk it over, as I've still not seen everything there.

Frames 4 and 5: The Collonade Street at Umm Qays. Umm Qays is another Roman City and one of my favourite places to visit. So little of it has been excavated... there's an entire city under that olive orchard! Unfortunately olive trees are so valuable that little works gets done here, and nothing that will damage the landowner's trees. But the place is still beautiful and, like Jerash, I've yet to see everything here.

Photographs copyright Nikita Malha. Do not use without permission.

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