Lost in Amman

Today's Jordan Times included an astounding article about the stunned residents of a part of Amman not too far from where I work, who looked out of their homes around midnight last night to the obviously unusual sight of a Boeing 707 airplane driving through their neighborhood. Apparently, the airplane was of Egyptian origin and had been purchased at some point by a Lebanese businessman, who was having it towed to Beirut to turn into a restaurant. It had started the Jordanian leg of its journey in the city of Aqaba--on the Red Sea in the south of the country and across the water from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula--but at some point took a wrong turn in Amman, and had gotten lost in a residential part of town. The picture above is from the article in the newspaper, which can be found here. The best part of the story is that it is apparently not illegal to pull an airplane through town. No laws were broken, the police--who were just as confused about what was going on as the local residents--were just called in because the plane was lost. Assuming the plane finally found its way, though, its adventure is not over. It still has to be driven through Syria--where a civil war is currently raging--and from there the only way to Beirut is through and down the rocky mountains that separate the two countries. I hope the food is good.