North Jordan - Notes

As I only had a few days to spare in Jordan before heading up to Syria, I skipped the obvious attractions of Petra and Wadi Rum and instead just concentrated on a few of the sights in the North of the country and along the King's Highway. This Highway is an ancient road which skirts along the edge of the high plateau above the Dead Sea, from Amman down towards Aqaba. Although the modern Desert Highway is a much faster route, the King's Highway passes a number of interesting sites and some truly spectacular scenery, notably the precipitous drop into the chasm of Wadi Mujib.

Like Syria, Jordan's a remarkably friendly place though the standard of living (and the cost) is a good deal higher than its northern neighbour. For me the main attraction was the Umayyad desert palaces, particularly the extraordinary bath complex at Qusayr Amra. This brilliantly restored structure has some of the only surviving examples of early Islamic figurative art, painted around 715AD, before the depiction of living things was prohibited. Contrary to popular belief, the Koran doesn't explicitly forbid such art - that prohibition came with the Hadith (a book of traditions, compiled mainly in the later 8th century.)

Also readily accessible from Amman is the mainly Christian town of Madaba - famous for it's Byzantine mosaic map of the holy land. (I deliberately did those photos of the map at a higher resolution so they might be a bit slow to download)