In mid-May, I traveled to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Standing amid magnificent ruins, I touched the history of humanity and civilization stretching back millennia to prehistoric times. I also glimpsed the rich lives of people living in the present and their future. Jordan sharpens a visitor’s sense of history and time, offering encounters with the Middle East rich in fascination.
A Journey Through a Crossroads of Civilization: 1,200 Kilometers in 8 Days
Day 1: Amman, the Citadel
Queen Alia International Airport in Amman combines scale with comfort—an airport befitting a capital. Jordan doesn’t require visa procurement for Japanese passport holders, and immigration was remarkably smooth. Photographer Ohashi and I climbed into a van where our unhurried Japanese-speaking guide and taciturn driver waited. We began an eight-day, roughly 750-mile road trip.
First, we headed to the St. Regis Amman in the city center. The roads were well-maintained, and the surrounding townscape lacked any chaotic impression. Thanks to the Middle Eastern desert climate and Amman’s high-altitude location, the air at around 77°F was pleasantly dry.
This region tends to be broadly categorized as “the Middle East,” but Jordan occupies a unique position geographically and politically-economically. While sharing borders with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt, it maintains balance among major powers, connecting that to national stability and international trust. When conflict erupts somewhere in the Middle East, journalists and diplomats from Japan and many other countries often first arrive in Amman and use it as a base. Jordan is even called “the cornerstone of stability in the Middle East.” This also connects to the safety of people’s daily lives—welcome news for travelers.
Prompted by our guide, we immediately headed to the “Citadel.” Described as a “fortress” in the city center, I was astonished upon arrival. It was a massive complex of ruins that could without exaggeration embody and embrace all of Jordan’s history. Atop a hill overlooking the city stood ruins layered one upon another: Neolithic settlements from around 6000 BCE, the Persian period, the Greek era, the Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) period, and the Umayyad (Islamic) dynasty. The Temple of Hercules, whose columns you could touch directly, has stood there since the second century. The Citadel is where rulers from various eras established palaces and bases. Traces of continuous human habitation remain here longer than anywhere else in the world, though much within the fortress remains unexcavated.
Come to think of it, the primary hashtag the Jordanian Embassy in Tokyo—which supported this trip—taught me was “#KingdomOfTime.” In Japanese, “the Kingdom of Time.” This meant that ruins and historic sites marking the flow of time from prehistoric ages exist in multiple layers throughout Jordan. This has been a crossroads of trade with surrounding great civilizations since ancient times, where various goods and people have passed through and accumulated over millennia, even giving birth to unique civilizations.
Day 2: The Ancient Town of As-Salt, Iraq al-Amir, Jordan Museum
We headed to As-Salt, a town about 19 miles northwest of central Amman. A town that prospered since ancient times along the road connecting Amman and Jerusalem, it declined in the twentieth century as Amman expanded. Now, with its old townscape preserved, it’s popular as an ancient capital where people live quietly. The entire town is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The As-Salt Historical Museum (Abu Jaber House), developed with cooperation from Japan’s JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), used a late-nineteenth-century building to introduce modern history and ethnic culture. Though we’d been told to be cautious about photographing women culturally in Jordan, Ohashi promptly obtained permission from the subject and photographed a female staff member. As-Salt is said to be a museum-town as a whole, but the presence of people living and working there is indispensable.
On the return to Amman, we descended a few kilometers down a valley road and stopped at Iraq al-Amir. This village has Hellenistic (Greek) ruins from the third to second century BCE, where you can touch parts and walk inside. It was unbelievable that lion-shaped sculptures from that era were so close at hand. Has this really stood continuously in this dry valley? I simply marveled at the fact.
We visited a local community center and leisurely enjoyed handmade Jordanian cuisine at an outdoor table for lunch. This place aims to foster small businesses by local women, with pottery and papermaking workshops on the premises. Such centers hold significant meaning in many developing countries where women’s employment and social advancement opportunities remain limited, and they’re gradually expanding domestically. The women working there were impressively intellectual and forward-looking while respecting tradition.
Back in Amman, we visited the Jordan Museum, also built with JICA cooperation—a place worth stopping to learn about Jordan and the region’s history. Among the exhibits, the expression and eyes of the “Ain Ghazal” plaster figures from 7700 BCE—the world’s oldest double-headed statues—allowed me to sense roughly 10,000 years of temporal flow in this land.
Day 3: Jerash, Umm Qais, Jordan Trail
We left Amman early and headed for Jerash, about 31 miles north. I’d heard there were “ancient Roman ruins,” but what I saw upon arrival far exceeded imagination. It was a complex of ruins where the outline and structure of a city over 2,000 years old remained intact. Just standing still for a while, I was absorbed by the beauty, and touching the ruts left in the stone pavement and church mosaics, I felt pulled into ancient Rome. The amphitheater was the pinnacle. Sitting in the seats, quietly gazing at what would be the stage area, I felt as if I could see scenes and hear cheers from 2,000 years ago.
Next we headed to Umm Qais, the country’s northernmost town. I gradually noticed trees increasing around us. Northern Jordan is quite green, and from a nature reserve facility we stopped at, I could see vast, untouched forest areas that overturned the Jordan-equals-desert image. Green and lush, Umm Qais is a border town continuing to Israel and Syria. Opening the curtains in my guesthouse room, the Golan Heights appeared right there. The guide said, “The Golan Heights—Syrian territory occupied by Israel.” Land Israel occupied in the 1967 Third Arab-Israeli War, not just “the Golan Heights,” apparently. Though shocking that the Golan Heights I knew only from news and contemporary history spread outside the window, currently there’s only Jordanian border security and military stationed nearby—no sense of tension for travelers. Looking again at the guesthouse and surrounding area, it was remarkably peaceful, with pleasant climate and dappled sunlight.
Umm Qais has the northern terminus starting point of the “Jordan Trail” that runs the length of Jordan, and we actually walked about thirty minutes with a trail guide. This trail extends roughly 370 miles north to south, with routes also following trade routes continuing from ancient times to now. A trail where you can literally walk through “time.”
Next, we were guided to a plateau near the border. A modest coffee stand stood alone, and the guide and driver smoked while drinking coffee with the trail guide. Gazing at the Israeli-occupied Syrian territory of the Golan Heights from the Jordanian side while drinking coffee and chatting—quite a rare situation. The world’s complexity exceeds a traveler’s understanding.
Returning to the guesthouse, a local woman showed us traditional weaving crafts. Using techniques passed down in the region since ancient times, she skillfully wove banana peels and reeds to make baskets and trays. She said they sell them not only as household goods but also as souvenirs, connecting to regional economic activity.
For dinner, we were invited to the home of a woman who teaches cooking locally. The kitchen was spacious, orderly, and clean. We ate charchour, a traditional dish from northern Jordan, in the guest room. Visiting people’s homes and lives is the most enjoyable part of traveling. Even more so if you’re shared meals locals prefer. Receiving hospitality, I got the impression that Jordanians, historically and culturally, know well how to treat travelers. Everywhere I went, the sense of distance with people I met felt very comfortable.
Day 4: Madaba, Mount Nebo, and On to Petra
We descended south from Umm Qais and arrived at Madaba. Also called the “Mosaic City,” this beautiful town has many ruins from various eras remaining, and development as a tourist destination is progressing. Most importantly, the Old Testament records this land as the place where Moses, who left Egypt, met his end—important land for those who know Christianity, Judaism, and the Bible. From Mount Nebo outside Madaba, we looked out over the Great Rift Valley and the Jordan River, the West Bank across the river, Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea. For me, ignorant of religion and the Bible, understanding that land’s meaning wasn’t easy, but I understood that Mount Nebo is precisely the Old Testament scene where Moses gazed upon the “Promised Land” yet never reached it, ending his life in this place, and that the view from there has remained virtually unchanged for millennia, giving visitors a special emotion.
Madaba’s center also had stylish cafe-style restaurants bustling with tourists. While there are many Roman and Byzantine era ruins and historic sites, most impressive was the “Madaba Mosaic Map.” A mosaic map of the Middle East made around 1 CE, depicting Jerusalem and other places as they appeared then. The fact that over 2,000 years ago this land had human life, religion, technology and art, and parts of that remain visible up close today.
Leaving Madaba, we headed to Petra, one of this Jordan trip’s highlights. While Jordan’s north-south routes include the ancient trade route “King’s Highway” (a road still exists) along the east side of the Jordan River and Dead Sea, the “Desert Highway” was built through the eastern desert to enable high-speed mass transport. We raced along that highway toward Petra, viewing rocky deserts and phosphate mining sites in the distance.
Hours later, we arrived at a hotel near Petra’s entrance. The Old Village Hotel & Resort converted a tribal village that lived in this land directly into accommodation, and I heard many staff had the tribal surname Nawafle. The facility’s high grade indicated Petra’s popularity as a tourist destination.
Day 5: Petra, On to Wadi Rum Desert
World Heritage Petra is the urban remains of the Nabataean Kingdom that flourished from the second century BCE to the second century CE, with many massive structures remaining in mountainous areas. Many are characterized by being precisely built by carving into cliff faces of mountains dozens of meters high. Multiple trail courses wind through the ruins, but the main course is well-maintained and easy to walk. Detour routes and back trails, and as you proceed deeper into the ruins, stairs and steep mountain paths increase, taking on the aspect of serious ruin trekking.
I spent nearly a full day at Petra, but not only its scale—its presence and temporal axis were so overwhelming that the boundary between reality and imagination seemed to blur. I’d had that sensation since arriving in Jordan, but Petra was special. The advanced hydraulic and water management infrastructure the Nabataeans boasted over 2,000 years ago, architectural technology, traces of agriculture’s origins—it transcended conventional imagination, and my existence as a traveler, or as a single human being, felt very small within the tremendous flow of time. I even thought things like, does recording and writing about travel experiences as a writer have meaning? Ohashi also said something like, “The ruins’ existence is so overwhelming, I’m losing the meaning of the act of photography.” Petra was a place you could call otherworldly.
At the Petra Museum, built with JICA cooperation, unglazed pipes Nabataeans used for water management were displayed—in other words, waterworks from about 2,000 years ago. Also displayed were facts that Nabataean civilization arose through trade with great civilizations, and furthermore historical facts that the origins of the Arabic script and human agriculture originated from this Nabataea. Amazingly, Petra is one of the places where things that became ancestors of modern civilization were born.
Murmuring in my heart that I must return to Petra again, I got back in the car and headed to Wadi Rum, a World Heritage desert nature reserve continuing to the Saudi Arabian border. A world of only fine red sand and rocky mountains. That night we stayed at a desert camp in the middle of the desert. A wild tourist destination. The interiors of the bubble-style tents and simple cottages where we stayed were comfortable, but when night fell the surrounding temperature dropped sharply. We were truly in the heart of the desert.
Day 6: Wadi Rum Nature Reserve, to Aqaba
Early morning, we went on a desert safari in a 4WD. Racing through the middle of the empty desert, the driver handled the steering wheel and accelerator as freely as a captain navigating the open sea. They said there’s no place in the desert they don’t know. This is land where people lived before recorded history, and whose name appears in Greek and Roman texts. Grapevines and such once grew here apparently, but now it’s a world of only red sand earth and rocky mountains. It’s also been used as a filming location for movies as the Martian surface. The seemingly infinite expansion of space and presence of time continuously stimulated my brain through vision and the smell of wind.
With feet and clothes covered in sand, we arrived from Wadi Rum at Aqaba, Jordan’s southernmost city—the only place in the country facing the open sea. A port town with sixth-century BCE ruins that also appears in the Old Testament. Jordan’s maritime trade hub, across Aqaba Bay you can see Israeli port towns and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. This city has an established economic zone, making international goods distribution easier compared to other domestic regions. There, the Ayla Project—large-scale private comprehensive development including residences, commercial facilities, and a golf course—is underway. High-spec residences and stores by international standards line the premises, anticipating visits and investment from countries worldwide. Jordan’s first full-size golf course was designed by Greg Norman, with the 18-hole course uniquely yet authentically utilizing desert sand. It might become a new option for golfers worldwide. Within the comprehensive development project grounds stand luxury hotels like the Hyatt Regency, and at the nearby Saraya Project, Jordan’s first proper outdoor pool facility has also been completed.
Aqaba is expected to continue expanding and developing centered on its economic zone and comprehensive development. With good access to Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea resorts, it’s expected to become a new hub for Jordan tourism, and European LCCs already serve King Hussein International Airport in the suburbs.
Day 7: The Dead Sea
From Aqaba we headed north on the highway at Jordan’s western edge toward the Dead Sea, the world’s lowest elevation. The elevation shown on the altitude app dropped rapidly, exceeding minus 1,150 feet. Before long, the southern end of the Dead Sea came into view. Due to climate change and reduced water inflow, the Dead Sea is shrinking and currently split into two, north and south. Land around the southern Dead Sea was mainly utilized for agriculture and industry. The northern Dead Sea is larger, with more resort facilities here. We checked into one, the Hilton by the Dead Sea, and immediately headed out to the hotel’s private beach facing the Dead Sea.
My body certainly floated on the water’s surface. Someone wrote it was “a sensation close to the womb experience,” and perhaps that’s so. But a few minutes was enough for me. Not only did salt water painfully enter my eyes, but stimulation also felt too strong for surface wounds and such. While various benefits to the body from the Dead Sea are discussed—high oxygen concentration due to ultra-low elevation, ultraviolet reduction through water vapor—what most stirred my heart was the beauty filled with transcendent stillness of the sea surface (lake surface) and surrounding mountains that surpassed everything.
Day 8: Bethany, to Queen Alia International Airport
On the final day, we stopped at “Bethany Beyond the Jordan,” located a few kilometers north of the Dead Sea. The place where Christ is said to have been baptized, where you can visit the banks of the Jordan River that forms the border with Israel.
The width of the muddy river covered with vegetation was only about 33 feet. On the Israeli side across the river as well, many visitors quietly continued praying while putting feet in the river, bathing, or actually receiving baptism. I couldn’t fully understand that situation with my limited knowledge of religion, but I felt it wasn’t a place to casually visit as a mere tourist spot. In the world, there are places where it’s difficult to find significance in standing there without shared concepts. Travelers should respect that.
Thinking such thoughts, I headed to Queen Alia International Airport in Amman. To end eight days of travel and head to my next destination, Abu Dhabi. Since departing Amman seven days earlier, we’d covered nearly 750 miles, but with no serious problems with the car, guide, or driver, we were able to keep going.
Even arriving at the airport, the Jordan travel experience I’d raced through was so intense I remained half-dazed. One thing was clear: I was convinced Jordan is one of the places in the world a traveler should visit. Precious experiences concentrating important elements of travel centered on time exist there, valuable for understanding people and their history. Jordan is truly “the Kingdom of Time.” But that doesn’t simply mean it makes only past historic sites into tourist resources. All the ruins and such there, even after millennia, still exist continuously connected to the present and future. What we should feel and read from there is limitless.
Throughout Jordan, I learned various charms as a new travel destination: its position within the Middle East, ongoing ruin excavations, cutting-edge industrial development in places like Aqaba, and a changing society led by women’s advancement. Most of all, having opportunities to closely interact with various people and experiencing their gentle, warm hospitality was a happy experience as a traveler. For me, that’s become the best reason to someday visit this land again.
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