Jordan's Many Treasures

By Jeffrey Laign 

C amels coexist with Cadillacs. Bedouins brew cardamom coffee on campfires alongside modern highways. Gleaming skyscrapers flank ruins dating from the dawn of recorded time.

Jordan is an ancient land in a new millennium. Jordan is full of history, but she also offers comfortable hotels, safe streets and world-class restaurants. 

Among Jordan's most famous biblical sites are Mount Nebo, from which Moses is said to have glimpsed the Promised Land; and Bethany, the Jordan River bank where scholars believe that Jesus was baptized.

Exploring Jordan

Amman 
Start off in Amman, Jordan's bustling capital. It's a clean, modern city, with first-rate stores and restaurants. But the city's crowning glory - The Citadel - dates back to the days when Hercules was worshiped.

From Amman you are within easy driving distance of any tourist destination in the country. Foremost is Petra. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Petra was built by the Nabataeans, an Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years ago and dominated trade routes of the ancient world.

Deep within a narrow desert gorge, Petra is an amazing conglomeration of cliff-hewn tombs, baths, temples and administrative buildings, the most famous of which is the stunning Treasury. But with a history stretching back more than 10,000 years, Jordan is full of other wonders.

Jerash 
Jerash is called the "Pompeii of the East" and is considered one of the best-preserved Roman provincial cities in the world. As you wander among ruins in the Hills of Gilead, you may imagine how this once-thriving metropolis must have looked when Roman Emperor Hadrian visited in 129 CE.

Madaba 
The main attraction here is a vivid 6th-century Byzantine mosaic map of the Holy Land covering the floor of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George. The masterpiece is composed of more than 2 million bits of colored stone.

Kerak  
The 12th-century Crusader castle here is a maze of stone-vaulted halls and seemingly endless passageways.

Dead Sea 
Four hundred meters below sea level, this famed valley is the lowest point on earth. Rich in minerals, the sea yields nutrients used by the many spa resorts here. The valley also is the site of five biblical cities, including Sodom and Gomorrah. 

Wadi Rum 
"Godlike," is how T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, described this vast, starkly beautiful desert. Among the mountain gorges Bedouins sip mint tea as camels graze.

JAX FAX Travel Marketing Magazine ©