Journey to Jordan

I started exploring the country in the capital Amman. Amman is almost a white city; exteriors of houses are of white yellow colors. Roads and streets wind up and down, so you climb for 10 minutes and then walk down for another 15. I had about a 25-minute walk from the hostel to the Citadel. The Citadel is set on the Amman Hill, 838 meters high.

At the top of the Citadel, the Temple of Hercules, also known as the Great Temple of Amman, is an ancient Roman temple dedicated to Hercules. The temple has two massive pillars, and nearby is a stone sculpture of three bent fingers. Human fingers were once part of a huge statue of Hercules, which experts believe may have been more than 12 meters high. It gives tourists a sense of how magnificent the Citadel is in this time. The view from the top of the hill is magnificent and you can see on all sides.

The tour of the Citadel took a long time, and since it took me about half an hour to get back down to the city, I was too hungry to continue the walk. So, I stopped at a nearby restaurant for a snack. In Jordan, a typical snack is hummus (chickpea spread). Snacks are called mezze. This chickpea spread is the best known, but they also have several others, for example falafels, which are fried chickpea balls, labneh, which means Arab cheese, mutabal or baba ganoush (eggplant spread), etc. Mezze is eaten by dipping Arab bread (which looks like a tortilla) into various sauces with your hands. In the Middle East, bread is usually used instead of utensils.

As I refreshed myself, a tour of the Roman amphitheater followed. The Roman Theater in Amman dates from the 2nd century and has a total of 6,000 seats winding steeply downwards. The amphitheater really fits into the city center, the view from its highest point offers a view of the city and the Citadel and is the perfect combination of historic Jordan with the vibrant modern life of the city.

In addition to mezze, in Jordan one of the specialties is also mansaf. It is a chicken or lamb cooked in sheep milk yogurt (jameed) with spices and served with rice. The meat is served completely soft and is really a very tasty food for lunch or dinner. I indulged in myself in one of the restaurants in the center, after a full day of sightseeing.

One of the interesting things inside the city was also the Mosque of King Abdullah I. Its dome decorated with blue mosaics became a landmark of Amman. Next to it rise two smaller domes and two futuristic-looking minarets. The mosque is the only one in Amman that is open to non-Muslims, so also to tourists who would like to peek inside. Of course, they dress you from head to toe in a long-hooded dress.

After a two-day visit to Amman, a visit to Petra followed. It took few hours of driving from Amman, this time to the south of Jordan.

Petra lies at an altitude of about 1,000 meters. To visit Petra, you need to visit a place called Wadi Musa. Wadi Musa rises even higher above the city of Petra. I lived somewhere right at the top of the city, so I had a 30-minute walk down to the foot of Petra.

Petra is said to have been inhabited in 9000 BC and was probably founded in the fourth century. It was known as the capital of the Nabataean kingdom. The Nabateans were nomadic Arabs who built Petra near trade routes by making it the main trading center.

Petra is accessible through a 1.2-kilometer-long gorge called Siq, which leads directly to Al Khazneh or, in translation, the Treasury, which is one of the most photographed buildings. It flourished most in the 1st century, when its famous Treasury was built, which is said to have been the mausoleum of King Aretas of Nabataeans. After the earthquake in 363, many structures were destroyed and Petra remained forgotten until 1812, when it was discovered by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.

Petra is also called the Pink City because of the color of the stone from which it is carved. It has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1985, as it has been described by UNESCO as "one of the most valuable cultural features of human cultural heritage". In 2007, the Treasury was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Petra is a symbol of Jordan and is its most visited tourist attraction. In 2010, it is expected to be visited by as many as one million visitors.

Less than an hour of driving from Wadi Musa I visited the slightly smaller town of Wadi Rum, where travelers usually sleep in the desert under the stars. I extended my visit for another night, since on the third day in the morning I made a trek to the highest point in Jordan, Mount Jabal Umm ad Dami. The mountain is located on the border with Saudi Arabia, and the view to all sides shows how rocky and dry these two countries are.

But first into the desert. The Wadi Rum desert has lots of orange sand and interesting rocks. Also known as the “Valley of the Moon,” it became famous after Lawrence of Arabia and his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom. From Wadi Rum, the Bedouins and I rode on camels towards the first stop, also named after him. Lawrence’s spring is part of natural springs – natural spas that in the past allowed caravans to travel between Syria and Saudi Arabia. Today it serves mainly as drinking water for camels and other animals. From here we went into the desert by jeep.

On the way we had a few stops, such as dunes, various sightseeing points and walks through the canyons, and when the driver, who was also our chef at the same time, found a suitable point for lunch, we stopped. He was cooking, and we were lying on the Bedouin carpets, which he laid on the desert sand, sunbathing and impatiently waiting for lunch, as it smelled quite nice from the pots. Later we had another tour and then we drove to the tents in the desert where we spent the night. Let me tell you, we also had shower water. The next day, new tours of the desert followed. One of the most interesting to me was the climb to the natural bridge Jabal Umm Fruth. It’s just one of the many natural bridges in the Wadi Rum desert.

The third morning, as I mentioned, after a rich breakfast, it was an hour’s ride by jeep to the border with Saudi Arabia, where the ascent to Jordan’s highest mountain began. The ascent took about two hours in extremely hot sun, so it is necessary to be prepared with a supply of water. The path is not well marked, so it is advisable to hire a guide. The views from the top were fantastic. When I looked to one side, the desert, and the orange sand of Wadi Rum, and a stone sculpture here and there, but when I turned to the other side, there was rock after rock after rock in Saudi Arabia. A wonderful experience.

I would not visit Wadi Rum in Petra again since I took plenty of time there (Jordanian government offers multiple days to enter Petra plus visa for entering the country, so if you buy it as a single ticket together for both, you can receive a discount). But I would visit the city of Amman, enjoy Arab cuisine, and immerse myself in the history of Jordan a bit more.