Rough Guides - The Rough Guide to Jordan (Travel Guide eBook) (Rough Guides)

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Contents

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Introduction to

Jordan

Western travellers have been exploring the Middle East for well over a century, but Jordan is a relative newcomer to tourism, welcoming only a fraction of the numbers who visit neighbouring Egypt and Israel. Its popular image abroad encompasses not much more than camels and deserts, yet this is a country of mountains, beaches, castles and ancient churches, with an urbane people and a rich culture. It is safe, comfortable and welcoming and by far the regions most rewarding destination.

Jordan is about 85 percent desert, but this one plain word covers a multitude of scenes, from the dramatic red sands and towering cliffs of the far south to the vast stony plains of volcanic basalt in the east. The northern hills, rich with olive trees, teeter over the rift of the Jordan Valley, which in turn runs down to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. The centre of the country is carpeted with tranquil fields of wheat, cut through by expansive canyons and bordered by arid, craggy mountains. At Jordans southernmost tip, beaches fringe the warm waters of the Red Sea, which harbours some of the most spectacular coral reefs in the world.

Jordan is part of the land bridge linking Europe, Africa and Asia, and has seen countless armies come and go. Greeks, Romans, Muslims, Christian Crusaders and more have left evidence of their conquests, and there are literally thousands of archeological sites from all periods in every corner of the country. In addition, Israel and Palestine, Jordans neighbours to the west, have no monopoly on biblical history: it was in Jordan that Lot sought refuge from the fire and brimstone of the Lord; Moses, Aaron and John the Baptist all died in Jordan; and Jesus was almost certainly baptized here. Even the Prophet Muhammad passed through.

And yet the country is far from being stuck in the past. Amman is a thoroughly modern Arab capital, and poverty is the exception rather than the rule. The government, under head of state King Abdullah II, manages to be simultaneously pro-Western, pro-Arab, founded on a bedrock of Muslim authority and committed to peace with Israel. Women are better integrated into positions of power in government and business than almost anywhere else in the Middle East. Jordanians are also exceptionally highly educated: roughly four percent of the total population is enrolled at university, a proportion comparable to the UK. Traditions of hospitality are ingrained, and taking up some of the many invitations youll get to tea or a meal will expose you to an outlook among local people that is often as cosmopolitan and world-aware as anything at home. Domestic extremism is very rare.

Most people take great pride in their ancestry, whether theyre present or former desert-dwellers (bedouin) or from a settled farming tradition (fellahin). Across the desert areas, people still live and work on their tribal lands, whether together in villages or apart in individual family units. Many town-dwellers, including substantial numbers of Ammanis, also claim tribal identity. Belonging to a tribe (an honour conferred by birth) means respecting the authority of a communal leader, or sheikh, and living in a culture of shared history, values and principles that often crosses national boundaries. Notions of honour and mutual defence are strong. Tribes also wield a great deal of institutional power: most members of Jordans lower house of parliament are elected for their tribal, rather than political, affiliation. The king, as sheikh of sheikhs, commands heartfelt loyalty among many people and respect among most of the rest.

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Fact file

• The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan ( Al Mamlakeh Al Urduniyyeh Al Hashmiyyeh , or Al Urdun for short) covers around 90,000 square kilometres roughly the same area as Portugal or Indiana.
• Of the 9.9 million population , well over ninety percent are Muslim Arabs , with small minorities of Christian Arabs, as well as Muslim Circassians and Chechens. Over thirty percent of the population are non-Jordanians, including 1.3 million Syrians .
• Life expectancy is around 75 up from 71 twenty years ago.
• Jordan is a constitutional monarchy , with universal suffrage over the age of 18. The king appoints the prime minister and together they appoint the cabinet. The Senate is appointed by the king, and the House of Representatives is voted in by proportional representation.
• Jordans per-capita GDP is under US$6000. It has virtually no oil. Key economic sectors are phosphate and potash production, as well as tourism.
• Jordanian workers are entitled to a minimum wage of JD190/month (US$268).
• King Abdullahs father, King Hussein , and mother, Toni Gardiner (later Princess Muna), met on the set of Lawrence of Arabia in 1961.
• King Abdullah once appeared in a non-speaking role in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager .
• The 2015 film The Martian was filmed at Wadi Rum .

National identity is a thorny issue in Jordan, which has taken in huge numbers of Palestinian refugees since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. Many people from tribes resident east of the River Jordan before 1948 resent this overbalancing of the countrys demography, as well as the fact that Palestinians, having developed an urbanized, entrepreneurial culture, dominate private-sector business. For their part, Jordanians of Palestinian origin by some estimates comprising more than sixty percent of the population often resent the East Bank Jordanians grip on power in government and the public sector. All are Jordanian citizens, but citizenship tends to mean less to many of Palestinian origin than their national identity, and less to many East Bankers than their tribal affiliation. Recent influxes of refugees from Iraq and Syria, plus large numbers of long-stay guest workers from Egypt, muddy the issue still further. Where are you from? a simple enough question in many countries is in Jordan the cue for a life story.

Where to go

Jordans prime attraction is Petra , an unforgettably dramatic 2000-year-old city carved from sandstone cliffs in the south of the country. Its extraordinary architecture and powerful atmosphere imprint themselves indelibly on most visitors imaginations.

There is a wealth of other historical sites , outstanding among them the well-preserved Roman city of Jerash , but also including Umm Qais , set on a dramatic promontory overlooking the Sea of Galilee, and Madaba , which has the oldest known map of the Middle East, in the form of a Byzantine mosaic laid on the floor of a church. After the Muslim conquest, the Umayyad dynasty built a series of retreats in the Jordanian desert, now dubbed the Desert Castles , including the bathhouse of Qusayr Amra , adorned with naturalistic and erotic frescoes. Centuries later, the Crusaders established a heavy presence in southern Jordan, most impressively with the huge castles at Karak and Shobak . The Arab resistance to the Crusader invasion left behind another fortress at Ajloun in the north.