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Visit the cradle of civilisation
Jordan: The kingdom
with more jaw-dropping
historical wonders than
you can shake a neolithic
stick at. By Maya Boyd
Discover a lost civilization
The Lost City of Petra is an
adventurer’s fantasy. Undiscovered
by Westerners until 1812, it was
known only by folklore and to the
kohl-eyed Bedouin tribesmen who
inhabited its caves like fleeting,
blue-robed moths.
Petra was founded as early as
312BC by the Nabataeans, a group
of Arabian nomads who, after
trying unsuccessfully to infiltrate
local tribes, were cast out into the
desert. There, in Jordan’s
inhospitable hinterland, they
discovered a narrow canyon that
snaked deep into the flank of what
many consider to be the biblical
Mount Hor, on the side of a rocky
mountain range.
Deep inside the heart of the range,
they carved Petra from the
sandstone itself, ‘a rose red city,
half as old as time,’ in the words of
19th-century poet John Burgon.
Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt
rediscovered the city in 1812 after
years of searching.
Visitors still access the preserved
site through that same canyon, only
two metres wide in places, which
spills out into the airy plaza of the
Treasury building. This vast,
colonnaded edifice soars high above
the camels that cluster beneath it,
and presides over the mystical valley
of ornate tombs, deity carvings and
a complex system of aqueducts that
allowed Petra to reign supreme for
hundreds of years.
The Jordan Archaeological Museum
may well the best museum in the
world. Housed in an unassuming
stone building atop the ancient
citadel of Amman, it’s stuck in a
time warp from 1951 and crammed
to the rafters with ancient wonders
so unfathomably important as to
defy belief.
Among the artefacts are the Ain
Ghazal statues, the oldest in
existence, dating from 8,000 years
ago. There is also material from
palaeolithic flint hunting tools to
Hellenic glass jewellery. In short,
it’s a museum as museums ought
to be, and it wears its mantle of
importance lightly. Entry is the best
£1 you’ll ever spend.
See the desert with Bedouin
The Wadi Rum is home to neolithic
rock paintings, soaring eagles and
vast sandstone mounts so deeply
eroded they resemble monstrous,
melting Gaudi creations. Jordan’s
largest wadi, or desert valley, was
Lawrence of Arabia’s preferred
stomping ground and contains the
country’s highest peak, the
sandstone and granite mass of
Mount Umm Dami, which soars
over 1,800m above sea level.
The local Bedouin tribesmen,
who have turned tourism to their
advantage by exploiting their own
natural affinity for trekking and
rock climbing, largely control
tourism here. The many desert
camps in the area are run by these
locals, who use them as a showcase
for traditional skills such as zarb
cooking (sand roasting) and camel
handling.
The desert itself is an intense, red,
Mars-like landscape punctuated by
rough scrubland and the odd
caravan of camels silhouetted on
the crest of a dune. The Wadi Rum
is reachable from the capital,
Amman, and from the Dead Sea in
just a few hours by car.
Trace stories from the Bible
Jordan shares its borders with the
more unsettled countries of Syria,
Iraq, Israel and Palestine. It is
steeped in geographical and
historical wonders – many of
which are noted in the Bible – yet is
compact enough to be explored on
in just a few days.
Exodus (exodus.co.uk) offers a
nine-day Jordan In Luxury trip
covering the highlights including
Petra, Amman, the Wadi Rum and
the Dead Sea. Its main guide, Dr
Sami Atmeh, is a Jordanian with a
degree in political science from the
University of Michigan.
The trip includes return flights
from Britain, transfers, one night at
a luxury Bedouin camp and seven
nights in five-star hotels, breakfasts
and one dinner, from £1,699 per
person. The next departure is on
September 27.
Avoid the height of summer
Jordan’s climate consists of long,
hot summers and shorter, cool
Visit the world’s coolest museum
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winters (there is frequent snowfall
in December at altitude). Expect
the best travelling and exploring
conditions in spring, early summer
and autumn, when temperatures
hover between 25C and 30C. July
and August can be inhospitably
hot, when the Sirocco wind brings
blasts of 45C heat and sandstorms.
Getting there:
British Airways (BA.com) has direct
flights from London Heathrow to
Amman from £400.
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Saddle up: Bedouin tribesmen run tourist trips through the Wadi Rum desert
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Old timers: Petra was founded around 312BC, making it a relative youngster compared to the Ain Ghazal statues, which are around 8,000 years old
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