Click here to see our mission statement in Arabic.

Diary Entry: 17th-24th Sep 2005 - Heading South towards the rose stone city�
Diary Entry: 24th-29th Sep 2005 - Entry to Egypt
Diary Entry: 21st-24th Oct 2005 - Bobbing About the Dead Sea

Photo Album for Jordan

Country Highlights En Route

Jerash

Jerash rose to prominence when it was conquered by the Romans and it was established as a trade city. For a few centuries, Jerash grew to become a prospering Roman city, with theatres, temples, a market place, baths and a forum. After the 3rd century AD, due to wars, invasions, earth quakes, and changing of trade routes, the city declined and was eventually even deserted, only to be repopulated in the 19th century.

Petra

Inhabited since prehistoric times, this Nabataean caravan-city, situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, was an important crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. It is one of the world's most famous archaeological sites, where ancient Eastern traditions blend with Hellenistic architecture.

Desert Castle Loop

Soon after leaving Amman, the road takes you to the desert, a stony, flat, greyish desert stretching out to the horizon on all sides. It is in this desert that in the 7th and 8th century BC the Umayyad rulers in Damascus built desert castles, the function of some of which is still not completely clear.

Wadi Rum

Has some of the most spectacular desert scenery in the world. Lawrence of Arabia spent some time here during the Arab Revolt, and many of the scenes from the film were shot here. Don't expect sweeping sand dunes: Wadi Rum is a landscape of bizarre, soaring rock formations, known as jebels.

Umm Qais

Umm Qais, or Gadara as it was called in ancient times, flourished from around 200 BC to 747 AD, when it was largely destroyed by an earthquake and abandoned. What remains, are ruins of a city, which was part of the Decapolis, or ten cities, conglomerate.