The southern desert of Jordan conjours all the romanticised visions of
Lawrence of Arabia's travels, the brilliantly coloured desert mountains and
solitude of Wadi Rum completed by Petra.
But a sojourn around one of the most hospitable countries of the Middle East
promises much more - from the hubble bubble of capital Amman to newly opened
eco-camps in the Dana Nature Reserve and five-star spas on the Dead Sea.
Jordan is a small country with big sights and big-hearted people. Our guide,
Mahmud, insists that Jordanian people live in harmony whatever their creed.
And he tells us that to date over 250,000 archaeological sites have been
recorded, dotted around dramatic landscapes.
We were there for four nights - arriving late in Amman, the capital, before
heading south to Dana Nature Reserve, Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. On
the way to Dana we stop at Madaba, a market town littered with Byzantine
mosaics. The most famous, a huge 7th century map of the Holy Land, covers
the floor of St George's Church.
Mahmud points out the major historic sites on what is a lop-sided yet
remarkably accurate cartographical record for its time, made out of over two
million stone squares. Nearby there's more brilliant mosaics on Mount Nebo,
where Moses is said to have viewed the Promised Land and spent his last
days.
The Dana Nature Reserve is one of the most important of the country's many
protected areas, with an abundance of flora and fauna, and some plant
species found nowhere else in the world. Dana Guesthouse has traditional
Jordanian styling, and balconies that hang on the edge of the mountain at
over 1,500m, with a view from the mountain top to the desert floor near the
Dead Sea.
We take the two-hour trek around to the Rummana Camp, remaining near the top
of the valley. Here, guests stay in sealed tipi-shaped tents and can trek
for hours without encountering another human being. The camp manager and
guide, Salah, a young English student and Bedouin, welcomes us with lashings
of sweet mint tea after dinner, and stories about his culture.
To the amusement of those present, much is lost in translation, but the tea
and surroundings are intoxicating. Salah's explanation of the woman's place
in his society doesn't go down well with the females present - mainly
because wives are expected to bear children and do most of the work, as well
as share her husband with other wives in his harem.
The evening ends with joke telling, Mahmud and Salah revealing more about the
cultural divide in those few minutes than during the rest of the trip with
bizarre unfunny jokes that have us in stitches ("Why did the chicken
wear an egg necklace? So she could see a picture of herself when she was
young").
It's a 90-minute early morning drive to Petra, where the entrance is as
affecting as the monuments, tombs and temples themselves. The walk down
through the Siq, a narrow gorge that at places is only a couple of metres
wide, is nearly a mile long. The vertical cliffs used to be joined, now
wrought apart by earthquakes and other natural forces. The bright red hues
of weathered sandstone hint at the majesty ahead.
For most people, the image that typifies the Red Rose City is that of the
Treasury, carved out of the same vertical cliffs as those that line the Siq.
Emerging from the gorge, the massive, ornate wall is revealed gradually and
is awe-inspiring even if you've seen the picture hundreds of times. This one
tomb is only the beginning of the ancient city, created by the Nabateans, an
Arabic tribe that took advantage of trading routes to dominate a large
swathe of the Middle East long before the Romans arrived.
The Bedouins are thought to be descended from the Nabateans, and the city was
inhabited by the more modern tribe until 1985, when Unesco made it a World
Heritage Site. The dwellers had a village built with free electricity and
housing, but a few have returned to live in caves on the periphery.
