Unlike historic sites in other countries, you can do whatever the hell you want at historic sites in Jordan. This past weekend, I went to an 800-year old Crusader Castle in al-Karak (about 2 hours away) and played jungle gym on an extremely old building. Instead of having signs telling you what everything was (really, there was no curation at all), you could just climb all over the castle and pretend you were a Crusader or something and learn what everything was for from that. I even accidentally walked in without paying – oops! No rules!

According to my field research, on the left is the spot where the crusaders would sit and hide to scare their little sisters, and right is where they would sit to try and spy on their neighbors. Behind me is like a 500 ft drop literally straight down (it’s the side of the castle) – no railings, no signs, no fun police, no real police.

But they really did put it in an excellent position. From the top there are great views all around to see them heathen enemies approaching in all directions. Too bad they missed me!