Jordan is one of the best countries to explore in the Middle East and home to some of the most impressive treasures of the region. I ‘ve traveled there in 2010, but it was a dream of mine to return and hike part of the Jordan trail, which runs throughout the entire country from north to south over eight regions on a length of about 670 km. It traverses the diverse landscapes and vistas – from the wooded hills of the north, the rugged wadis and cliffs overlooking the Jordan Rift Valley, the rose rock of Petra, the dramatic sands, and towering mountains in Wadi Rum, to the Red Sea. What makes it even more fascinating is the fact that many of these trails have been laid down over the course of several millennia as parts of ancient trade routes and have changed little since the dawn of antiquity. That makes traveling Jordan by foot a practice that is as old as these ancient trails.
The trip started in Amman, which lies on land that has been inhabited by humans since the Neolithic times dating back as early as 8500 BC. Once capital of the Iron Age kingdom of Ammon, it became in turn a Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine city, then heart of the Umayyad province of Al-Balqa, an abandoned field of ruins and a late-19th century Ottoman village. Only after Amir Abdullah made Amman his capital in 1921 did it begin to grow again but has been truly transformed in the last 70 to 80 years. While Amman only had around 20.000 inhabitants in 1940, today it’s home to over 4 million people and is spread over 17 hills. It is a city with a vibrant mix of older historic buildings, ruins, and landmarks alongside with more modern architecture that keeps popping up as the city quickly expands.
We spent two days in Amman and early in the morning of the third day we took the bus to Dana Biosphere Reserve, which was the start of our hike. It is an area of outstanding national beauty, and the only reserve in Jordan that encompasses the four different bio-geographical zones of the country Mediterranean, Irano-Turanian, Saharo Arabian and Sudanian penetration. It is also home to some 600 species of plants, 180 species of birds and over 45 species of mammals and it is scattered with archaeological sites, such as the Copper Mines. So, it comes as no surprise that the hike from Dana to Petra was named by National Geographic as one of the best fifteen hikes in the world.
At the end of the first day when we reached our camp, I was feeling that i have experienced the complete spectrum of Jordan’s diversity but what strike me most, is that you are truly on your own with very few people around. I remembered reading an ancient Arab proverb, “the deeper you go into the desert, the closer you come to God”. Regardless your religious or spiritual convictions, under the sun, nature takes over again. You start listening to the silence, you reconnect to a more authentic truth.
When we sat around the fire, our Bedouin guide started weaving tales of people who have called this desert home for centuries, illuminating their daily lives and culture, along with insight into his own tribe and family. His colorful descriptions inspired question after question and his hilarious remembrances have us rolling with laughter, until we fall back into that comfortable and delicious silence with a vast blanket of stars above our heads.
For the next three days we walked up and over mountains, down into steep wadis, had dinner with local Bedouins and camped in the remote desert in the middle of nowhere before reaching the renowned, stone-city of Petra.
It was the capital of the Empire of Nabataeans, which were nomads of Arabic origin. This was a very modern civilization with brilliant engineers and craftsmen, and they were masters of irrigation and other water technology, which of course is a skill that comes in handy in such an arid environment. The city played a vital role as a center of trade and commerce for the silk, spice and other caravan trade routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece, and Rome in ancient times. Sadly, in 693 A.D. Petra was hit by a terrible earthquake that devastated its water management systems and many of its buildings were destroyed. After Saladin and his armies took over this part of the middle east, Petra was largely abandoned and faded from memory in the western world, thus earning its nickname of the “Lost City”. It was lost to the west for hundreds of years until a Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, disguised as an Arab scholar, infiltrated the Bedouin-occupied city in 1812.
We entered the site through its backdoor directly from the Monastery, one of the main places of interest. Most of the visitors will arrive here in the heat of the day only to go back all the way again, but we enjoyed the stunning views of the monuments only with few people around.
After the Monastery we made our way down through the ancient city, which strewn over a vast area of mountains and wadis. First, we saw the Great Temple, the largest freestanding building yet excavated at Petra. Then we walked towards the city center and the Royal Tombs come into view at the base of Al-Khubtha Mountain. The Nabataeans are said to have taken great care to honor their dead and these massive, intricate tombs certainly demonstrate that.
Quickening our pace and pulling out our cameras, we headed towards the treasury and when we saw it, it took our breath away. It’s carved into a sheer sandstone cliff almost 40 meters high. And despite it’s name, it was probably a royal tomb or temple rather than a treasury.
We spent the night in Wadi Musa, the town next to Petra, where we had a drink in a bar and a proper shower and the next day we took the bus to Wadi Rum. Known also as the Valley of the Moon, it offers one of the world’s most spectacular desert landscapes. In addition to this, petroglyphs, inscriptions and archaeological remains in the site testify to 12,000 years of human occupation and interaction with the natural environment. When we arrived, we were greeted by our Bedouin guides, and we started driving towards the desert. It fell off like the edge of the world-into the sand and nothing, but mountains and lunar landscape lay before us. Our first stop was a small wadi, with ancient writings and bursts of green sprouting from its oasis, followed by an enormous sand dune, where we climbed to the top. Standing there, you are but a pin on a map. A truly humbling feeling that brought me back to myself a time or two. After lunch stop, we continued wandering till we reached the sunset point which was a dune overlooking what felt like the entire desert. When the sun had dipped behind the mountains, we headed to camp for a buffet of chicken cooked underground, pita, and mezze in the communal area.
It was our last night in the desert, so we all have set our alarms for the darker time of the night to gaze for one more time the starry night sky. In the early morning, the intense darkness of the night starts to fade as the sun begins to rise. And then the most magical moment of the day: the moment that the sun rises above the horizon and casts its light on the sandstone mountains of Wadi Rum.
Our Jordan adventure was almost at the end, and on the way back to Amman we did a stop at the natural water of the Dead Sea. It is over 400m below sea level, and this makes it the lowest point on the face of the planet. But the coolest thing about the Dead Sea, is that the water is incredibly salty, and you can float effortlessly and this is absolutely awesome.
Written by Dimitris Papageorgiou
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