Petra, the jewel in the crown of Jordan’s antiquities, has been declared by popular ballot one of the ’new’
Seven Wonders of the World. The magnificent rock-hewn
city of the Nabateans hardly needed further billing (since Jean Louis Burckhardt discovered it in the 19th century, it has been a favorite destination for Europeans) but at sunset on a winter’s day, when the rose-pink city catches alight, it’s easy to see why it has charmed a new generation of visitors.
Not to be outdone by Petra’s success,
Wadi Rum, that epic landscape
of Lawrence and Lean - ’Arabs’ man’ and moviemaker - is a contender as one of the
Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Two such weighty accolades would be entirely disproportionate to the minimal size of Jordan.
But Jordan, once an important trading center of the
Roman Empire and straddling the
ancient Holy Land of the world’s three great monotheistic religions, is no stranger to punching above its weight. Stand on
Mt Nebo, newly consecrated by Pope John II, and survey the land promised to Moses; unwrap a scarf or two at
Mukawir, where Salome cast a spell over men in perpetuity; float in the
Dead Sea, beside a pillar of salt, reputed to be Lot’s disobedient wife - go just about anywhere in Jordan and you’ll find every stone bares a tale, and those of
Madaba’s legendary mosaics tell more tales than most.
With so much history wrapped up in this tiny desert kingdom, it’s easy to overlook the modern face of Jordan - something the new king is trying to address in ambitious
developments at Aqaba and along the Dead Sea. In the meantime, the Bedouin still herd their sheep across an unchanged landscape in living continuity with the ancient past.
GeographyJordan shares borders with Israel (and the Palestinian National Authority Region), the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. At 400m (1,300ft) below sea level and living up to its name, the
Dead Sea in the northwest of Jordan, is the
lowest point on earth and one of the country’s most distinctive features. By contrast, the
Red Sea, to which Jordan has a narrow access at
Aqaba in the southwest, is teeming with life. The
River Jordan flows into the Dead Sea from Lake Tiberias (Israel) and there are plans to build a canal that would link the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. The capital of Amman perches above the Dead Sea Depression at a height of 800m (2,625ft) on a plateau that extends 324km (201 miles) from the Syrian Arab Republic to Ras en Naqab in the south. It is surrounded to the north by undulating hills - some forested, others cultivated - and by desert escarpments to the south that are grazed by the sheep and goat herds of nomadic tribes. Jordan’s northeastern flank is comprised of flat desert sprinkled with a few oases while the
spectacular southeastern desert is characterized by wind-eroded forms and brightly colored sandstone cliffs.
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