| Madaba | Highway Sites | Petra |
Jordan is a very small country and has three main north-south highways. It takes about 5.5 hours to travel from the north to the south. The fastest road south is the Desert Highway which travels through the Eastern Desert, fast but dull. There is also the Dead Sea highway which travels along the shores of the Dead Sea but the best highway to travel, if you have the time, is the Kings Highway which travels through the countryside and its many towns.
This highway has only been paved since the 1960's but it has existed since prehistoric times, supposedly Moses was refused permission to travel on this road. There is a lack of public transportation along this road but many hotels can make arrangements to hire a driver and car to take you where ever you want to go or you can get a tourist taxi that makes stops along the way between Amman and Petra. We meant several people who rented a car to travel this road.
Madaba is the first stop from Amman if your taking the tourist taxi. Many people also use it as a base to explore the area instead of Amman since it is only about 30 km from Amman. Madaba is a small easy going market town and in a country full of friendly people the friendliest live in Madaba. The town is also famous for its Byzantine mosaics, there are dozens. The most famous is probably the map of the Holy Lands located in the St. George Church.
Although Madaba was mentioned in the Old Testament and was probably in existence around 850BC most of the town today dates from 1879 when
Christians settled in the area after leaving Karak. The construction of St. George Church in 1884 uncovered the mosaic of the Holy Land map. Scholars and archaeologists soon uncovered many mosaics under churches and homes all over town. Near St. George Church is a large area called the
Archaeological Park which is the remains of several homes, a palace and church and contains more mosaics plus a second century Roman Road. Along with many more mosaics Madaba also has a small museum.
If you have not yet visited the Dead Sea, the area is easily visited from Madaba. On the road to the Dead Sea you will pass Mount Nebo the location where Moses saw the Promise Land. Moses is probably one of the most important people in the Jewish faith but the site marker only indicates that the area is a Christian pilgrimage site, no mention of its importance to Jews. The site contains the Moses Memorial Church where you can view more mosaics - are you sick of mosaics yet? When we were visited there was a group of Japanese pilgrims who were conducting a service in Japanese. A mass in Japanese, camera toting Germans and Japanese, tour guides in many languages - it felt like a Fellini movie.
If you take a tourist taxi there are specific stops the driver will take from Amman of usually about an hour each to arrive in Petra at around 5. If you want to visit any area located off the set route then hire a private driver or rent a car. Hiring a private driver is generally the same as the fare for three people in the regular tourist taxi. The usual stops for the tourist taxi from Amman are Madaba (St. George Church), Wasi al-Mujib, Karak, Shobak, and Dana Nature Reserve. Our first stop from Madaba was Mukawir.
Mukawir is the location of the palace of Machaerus where Salome danced for King Herod and demanded the head of John the Baptist. Today not much remains of the palace, there is much archaeology left to be done. Some of oldest mosaics in Jordan have been recovered and are located in the Archaeological Park in Madaba. The remains of the Roman assault ramp are easily seen and the view is awe-inspiring, you can see the deep blue of the Dead Sea.
The Wadi Mujib is a deep canyon that cuts across the Kings Highway. The tourist literature calls it the Grand Canyon of Jordan and at 1200 metres is deeper than its Arizonan cousin. Your journey will take you to the bottom and up the other side. Your driver will stop for picture taking, there is also a nature reserve.
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Karak is one of the best preserved castle towns in the Middle-East and is still encircled by the Crusader walls. A scene in the recent movie Kingdom Of Heaven took place outside the walls of Karak but the natural landscape is much different in reality, the castle has sheer cliffs on three sides not flat plains as depicted in the movie.
The castle Karak is located on the southern edge of town and its restored walls looms over the ravines below. Reynald use to throw prisoners over the walls into the ravines below. This is a huge castle and you can spend several hours just wondering around or get a guided tour. After several hours at Karak and a brief stop at the Dana Nature Reserve we arrived at the town of Wadi Musa, the most unfriendly town in Jordan. Why visit Wadi Musa if its that unfriendly? Because this is where Petra is located - the main tourist location in Jordan and probably second only to the Giza Pyramids for the entire Middle-East. Its not really unfriendly but just a typical tourist town. |
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It is THE reason to visit Jordan, Petra. When there is no trouble in the region over 2000 people visit everyday during the height of tourism season. Grand tours of the Middle-East that include Israel, Jordan and Egypt will visit Petra. With trouble in the region the numbers do drop and the area is so huge it is easy to get away from the crowds but you will not be walking by yourself in the morning as your enter the site. Its a long walk from the entrance gate to the entrance of the Sig but if you are lazy there are rides available on horse or donkey or as the local touts say "air condition taxi".
The Sig is a narrow canyon, about 150 metres high and only a couple of metres wide at some locations, that was once a river bed and evidence of the former stone work of the Nabatean roadway can be seen as you walk through the Sig. You can also see evidence of the water channels and piping used to channel water into Petra, remember this all was constructed around 50 AD. The first building you will see is the Treasury, this view will be familiar to all people who saw the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which was partial filmed here with the royal family in attendance. The local town of Wadi Musa plays up the fact that the movie was filmed in the area including naming stores after the movie, even incorrectly. The treasury is 40 metres high and 30 wide and craved from the cliff face. The building is a combination of Hellenistic and Middle East design and was probably constructed in the first century BC.
Some people visit Petra as a very long day trip from Amman, we ran into our guide from Jerash while there and he was taking some people around on just such a trip. He gave both of us a big hug and introduced us as his Canadian friends. Don't visit Petra as a day trip. We spend two complete days visiting Petra which allowed us to see all the major sites and several long hikes into the hills which allow a
an overall view of Petra.
I don't want to get into a big description of all the sites at Petra since a guide book can do a much better job than I but I would like to mention some of the
highlights for myself. After the Treasury a walk further along the Sig will lead to a theatre, while similar to the many Roman theatres in Jordan this was carved into a cliff face, not builted of stone blocks, and can hold 8500 people. You will also see many tombs carved into cliff faces. The best tombs along the east cliff are the Urn Tomb and Palace Tomb. The city centre was destroyed by an earthquake in the 8thcentury, like many areas in Jordan, but there is much
archaeology being undertaken. Brown University is working on the 7000 square metre Great Temple and a Byzantine church has recently been uncovered and parts of the original Roman road is visible. Much of Petra city probably still lies under the sand. At the far end of the city centre is a small museum and a large Nabatean temple.
If you only have time for one hike at Petra make it the hike to the Monastery, the most impressive building at Petra, its about a hour hike from the museum and a climb of 220 metres. The views are also great. The facade of the Monastery is 40 metres by 40 metres and a local entrepreneur as set up a refreshment stand nearby inside a cave, the drinks are cold. Close by is a viewpoint of the Wadi Araba about 1000 metres below. The direction of the Wadi Araba is the direction of Israel, any local will tell you that on the other side of the border is where Israel has its nuclear weapons.
If you are in Petra at the right time another great way to visit Petra is Petra By Night which happens only once or twice a week. This trip happens after dark and the path along the Sig to the Treasury is lit only by candles.
What do I mean by disaster tourism? Basically visiting an area shortly after something horrible happened in the area since prices will be lower and the crowds thin. I have never planned a trip because of a disaster and except for delaying a trip to Hong Kong by several months since airlines were cancelling flights and countries were refusing to issue visas to Canadians because of SARS I have never cancelled a trip because of one. I visited Los Angles several months after the Rodney King riots, Peru after the Japanese embassy incident, Tanzania and Kenya after the American embassy bombings, Bali after the nightclub bombing and other incidents. While in Petra we meant up with an older British women who had just arrived from Taba, Egypt. About a month previous there was several bombings in Taba and other resorts in Egypt and she was deliberately visiting Taba because of the terrorist attack. She claimed to be the only guest in a 55 room hotel, she also said she visited Bali about 2 months after the terrorist attack there. I wonder if she has visited Thailand or Sri Lanke since the tsunami?
Its probably not a bad idea, wait a couple of months for the clean up, the heighten security to kick in and you can visit an area cheaper and free of other tourists and your business will probably be welcomed by most locals. July 2005 - anyone planning on visiting London?
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Although the natural landscape is different in real life the look of the actual castle is similar enough that when I saw a preview of the movie I was thinking that it looked a lot like Karak without the actual location being mentioned in the preview. The actual story of the battle between Reynald of Chatillon and Salah ad-Din is much more interesting than that depicted in the movie, Reynald was an SOB and the only Crusader lord that Salah ad-Din executed. Of course time compression in the movie gives the impression that events took place over the course of months not years, but otherwise another great movie from