Enlightening

Once in while, you come across someone who makes what could otherwise have been just another site (while that doesn't really do justice to the brilliance of the sites we saw every day here) into something amazing.

So it was with Ibrahim Smadi, our tour guide at Ajloun Castle, a Saladin-era castle in the north of Jordan. Ibrahim's tour, and the stories he had to share of his time working on archaelogical sites around the region, absolutely brought the place to life. He looked every bit of the retired archaelogical adventurer; a local Indiana Jones now content to take over-enthusiastic visitors through the passages and the past of this beautiful old place.

In the large banquet hall, a brilliant beam of light came in through an old chimney-hole; in the situation, I couldn't resist doing something I've never done before - I asked someone to pose (I hate that word...) for a photo. Ibrahim obliged, and I like to think I captured something of him and the place which will always remind me his amazing tales.