Ash Showbak

Ash Showbak is a castle built by Crusaders about 1000 AD, it's actually one of the newer castles. It's built on top of a high hill, overlooking the Jordan desert in all directions. The crazy thing is, this castle was built on a high hill, how did they get water??? They built a deep tunnel/staircase of 376 steps down to the base of the mountain, where there is a nearby spring. When Saleah-Al-Din overtook it only like 100 years after it was built, he overpowered them by siege (they cut off their water and food supply) for a year and a half, and then used cannons to ultimately take over. Yikes. It was actually inhabited until the late 1950's!!! Wow. Now it is being restored.
We hired a guide to take us through it, he was a character, but he started to get a little too fresh if you know what I mean...awkward!

This is the more distant view of the Castle on the hill

Inside the castle, here is where the school was, and in it they taught Arabic all the way until the 1930's!
Inside where the church was, the treasure room. The guide took Jenni down there and brought her to this hole and said to Justin "your greatest treasure, right here" Amelia was surprised about Mommy in the treasure room.
Also in the church, there was an arch in the middle of it, that contained 33 stones, one for each year of Christs life.
An Olive Oil press
This is the tunnel to the water source. After the tour Lane, Justin, Jeremy and Jared went all the way down and out at the bottom, they said it was VERY dark, good thing they had flashlights, and very cool.

The kitchen!
Our "friendly" tour guide

In the Castle
I'm sitting on the throne...cheek to cheek with my new friend who was waaaay too touchy...and had Stinky breath among other things, he was really nice though.
Finally, Amelia and Me
What a great trip!!!