The hundred-year-old citadel is the perfect place to start exploring Amán and understand its long history. The Ammonites were the first of the great kingdoms to establish themselves here, and from which the city’s name derives. After him, new civilizations left their legacy: Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Umayyads.
From this magnificent viewpoint you can see the remains of the Greco-Roman Philadelphia colony, named after Ptolemy Philadelphia, the ruler who rebuilt it in III BC. The theater, the odeon and the nymphaeum have been preserved; the latter is hidden among the streets of the lively souk that surrounds the al-Hussein mosque.
Going down on foot you can reach the center in just fifteen minutes. Although Amman lacks a historic center, its bustling streets blend with the noise of traffic, the shouts of vendors and the song of the muezzin calling for prayer. To finish immersing yourself in this amalgam of sensory stimuli, you should eat a good plate of hummus and falafel at the popular Hashem restaurant. But the best comes later: a trip to Arman wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Habiba Patisserie, where they serve arguably the best kunefe in the Middle East. It is a sweet originally from Palestine, made with a kind of angel hair, syrup and melted cheese that is covered with sprinkled pistachio.
The ruins of the Roman city of Gerasa, one of the best preserved in the Middle East, are an hour from Amman by bus. Gerasa had its golden age after the Roman conquest in 64 BC, when a large part of the buildings that have survived to this day were erected. Some are spectacular, such as the oval square, two theaters or the Arch of Hadrian. The city fell into decline in the Byzantine period due to the decline of the trade routes that crossed the region. The crisis increased after the Arab conquest in the 7th century, but the final blow came with a series of destructive earthquakes in the 8th century; Gerasa was then forgotten until the 19th century.
Jordan has three highways that make up the backbone of the country. The desert highway runs east and across the desert plain into Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Another important route connects the Dead Sea with the Red and runs through the Wadi Araba, the great valley that stretches between Israel and Jordan. And finally there is the Camino de los Reyes, the most historic and panoramic route of the three; since ancient times it was the main road connecting the lands of Transjordan. Given the country’s good infrastructure, it is best to rent a car. In this way, it will be possible to stop without depending on public transport which, except for the connections between the main towns, is erratic and inflexible for visiting intermediate enclaves.
Heading south out of Amman along the old Kings Road, the first stop of interest is Madaba, which has a sizeable Christian population. Madaba was especially important during the Byzantine period, as evidenced by the wide variety of mosaics that have been unearthed. The most famous is the Map of the Holy Land, made in the 6th century in the church of San Jorge; represents a map of the region in which cities of the time are detailed in addition to the main geographical features.
Just as impressive are the mosaics preserved in the Archaeological Park, especially those in the Hippolytus Room. I recommend going to Umm erRasas, just 30 km from Madaba, a Roman city declared World Heritage, hardly visited by foreigners and which has what, for me, is the best mosaic in Jordan: an 8th-century work located on the St. Stephen’s church depicting scenes from the Nile delta and cities on both sides of the Jordan River.
From Madaba it is worth taking a detour from the Road of the Kings to go to Mount Nebo, the place indicated by God to Moses to contemplate the Promised Land, which he could never enter as it is said that he died and was buried on this Jordanian hill. Although it is not known for sure which mountain the Bible was referring to, since Byzantine times pilgrims began to come here convinced that this enclave was the biblical Nebo. Some beautiful mosaics have been preserved from the church built in that period, successfully restored. Beyond the Biblical references, the views of the Jordan Valley, Palestine and the Dead Sea are spectacular enough to make you stop and try to imagine what Moses must have felt seeing the lands of Canaan after forty years of wandering in the desert.
MADABA: A city famous for the mosaics of its Byzantine temples, it is located at the beginning of the Camino de los Reyes, the old Via Nova Trajana.
DEAD SEA: The biblical Sea of Arab is 70 km long and 18 km wide. Its salinity is about 340 grams per litre. Its volume of water began to decrease in the 1960s after the construction of dams and canalizations of the Jordan River in Israel.
THE GREAT CANYON OF JORDAN: The Wadi Mujib Biosphere Reserve is home to a world of rocky passageways through which it is possible to go on hikes of varying difficulty.
The easiest walk through Wadi Mujib takes about 3 hours.
The Dead Sea is an endorheic lake fed by the Jordan River, which adopted this name due to the absence of life in its waters -except for some microorganisms- due to its high salinity, around 340 grams per litre, ten times higher than that of the oceans. Its waters and the mud extracted from its shores have been used since ancient times to cure all kinds of skin conditions. Today it continues to be an important balneotherapy center. Beyond the medical properties, the sensation of floating on the sea is fabulous. Many resorts offer overnight stays and access to private beaches, but you can also pay a day fee and use their access to the water and showers to wash the salt off your body after bathing.
From the road that runs along the Dead Sea, it is clearly seen how it has receded in recent decades – at a rate of one meter per year – due to the overexploitation of the Jordan River. After 30 km, the entrance to the Wadi Mujib nature reserve appears, a narrow canyon carved out by the course that runs between its walls and which you can continue walking on. The number of groups that enter the canyon is limited per day, it is necessary to wear a swimsuit and booties, and there are guards in some sections during the opening season, from May to November. Walking between the polished walls of the Wadi Mujib, where the sunlight barely penetrates, is a sensational experience. As the river rises and the canyon narrows, the water rises until it is waist high. The fixed ropes help to overcome with ease the small rapids and the most rocky sections.
After the visit to the Wadi Mujib, it is advisable to turn inland to recover the Road of the Kings at the height of Kerak, where the imposing Krak of the Moabites stands. This Crusader castle was one of the strongholds of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the pillars of the defensive system in Transjordan. Despite serving its purpose for decades, the castle fell to Arab troops after the Crusader armies were defeated by Saladin at the Battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187, and the holy city was lost.
Continuing south through arid mountainous landscapes you come to the small, bucolic village of Dana, a cluster of stone houses that has become the hub of the Dana Biosphere Reserve, the largest in Jordan, centered in the homonymous valley. There are many trails that go to the bottom of the valley, or that go through its highest part and allow you to contemplate some privileged views of the canyon.
The Road of the Kings continues in a southerly direction until the first sandstone formations appear, announcing the proximity of Petra. About ten kilometers before reaching Wadi Musa, the nondescript town located at the entrance of Petra where all the hotels and restaurants are, it is highly recommended to take a detour in the direction of Siq al Barid, better known as Little Petra. This ancient Nabataean suburb north of Petra was founded in a narrow canyon and contains tombs carved into high sandstone walls that are a perfect introduction to what awaits the traveler in the capital of the Nabataean kingdom.
Petra is much more than an archaeological site: in this place history and nature merge. The sandstone formations and the symphony of colors of the rock further highlight the expertise of those Nabataean architects, who carved temples and tombs frozen in time on these mountains.
THE NABATAEANS TURNED PETRA INTO A SAFE STAGE ON THE ROUTES TO PERSIA AND INDIA
A CITY CHISELLED INTO THE PINK ROCK
The singularity of the tombs of Petra are their facades, with friezes, columns and Hellenistic-style sculptures that make them even more like a temple or a palace than a tomb. Some have a rough appearance, possibly due to erosion and centuries of neglect. Inside, the ocher veins run along the walls and the square or round openings allow the desert wind to pass through. In the upper image, the Urn Tomb, which housed a Byzantine church.
The Nabateans were a tribe from the northern Arabian Peninsula who settled in this region around the 4th century BC. and they took control of the trade routes that crossed the region until, after a short time, they held a monopoly on products such as frankincense and myrrh from Arabia.
As the kingdom grew richer, Petra became a great metropolis thanks to the hydraulic works devised by the Nabataeans in the form of pipelines, cisterns and dams, which allowed a city of its size to subsist in a semi-desert environment; even after the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century BC, the Nabataeans managed to preserve their independence under Roman rule. Petra’s golden period lasted until AD 106, when the Nabataean kingdom was finally annexed by Emperor Trajan. Petra then began a slow decline due to the diversion of the old commercial routes and the opening of new naval routes, to which were added several earthquakes that ended up destroying it. The city would fall into neglect and oblivion that lasted until 1812, when the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Buckhardt, dressed in Arab clothes, managed to penetrate that mysterious rock city.
To visit Petra you need at least a whole day, although the ideal is to have two to enjoy the visit calmly, travel the roads less traveled and discover side valleys that house ancient tombs and remains of Nabataean constructions that have hardly been visited. Beyond going through the Siq, the gorge that leads to the Treasury or Al-Khazneh, the tomb immortalized in the adventures of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and whose first sight is a memory that remains forever etched in the mind of any traveler, there is much more to see in Petra: the long climb of 800 steps to the magnificent Monastery, one of the largest surviving Nabataean structures; the vision of Petra from the top of the sacred Altar of Sacrifices; the demanding climb to Jebel Haroun, the tomb of Aaron, the brother of Moses who, according to tradition, was buried here. And, without a doubt, one should visit one of the city corners, the charming Wadi Farasa, a valley where beautiful tombs are hidden and the polychrome rock walls seem to have been painted by an artist.
Wadi Rum’s most famous guest was Lawrence of Arabia, the British soldier who led the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans during World War I and who described this desert in his book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. As much as it has changed since Lawrence’s time, Wadi Rum is still a magical place. To fully experience it, you have to spend a night in one of its camps, taste a plate of zarb (marinated meat and vegetables cooked for hours in an oven dug underground) or a mansaf (lamb with fermented yogurt sauce), and finish the night contemplating the blanket of stars that phantasmagorically illuminates the great masses of stone. There are also one-day tours in all-terrain vehicles that visit the most famous and spectacular places.
Just over an hour’s drive from Wadi Rum through a desolate landscape, surrounded by barren mountains, the city of Aqaba appears like a mirage. Jordan’s gate to the Red Sea is located on a small stretch of coastline where the borders of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia meet. Until a few decades ago, Aqaba was no more than a small fishing village, but its declaration as a duty-free zone and its tourism promotion transformed it into a modern city with a powerful hotel infrastructure.
If Aqaba is famous for something, it is for the richness of its seabed and the amount of fish of all colors that can be seen a few meters from the shore. This allows even non-scuba divers to enjoy the coral reefs with just a pair of goggles and a snorkel. What better end to this tour than to sit on the shores of the Red Sea to eat a plate of sayadieh, a local specialty of fish and rice, while watching the sunset as the lights of Elad, the neighboring Israeli city, begin to glow in the night. darkness
