Petra and the South

Petra and the South concentrate Jordan's two most iconic sites and one of the most extraordinary pairs of attractions in the world. The region revolves around two major poles just 100 km apart — Petra (the Nabataean city, UNESCO 1985, 7th Wonder of the Modern World since 2007) and Wadi Rum (the UNESCO 2011 desert, Martian landscapes of red dunes and sandstone cliffs) — to which are added the historical sites of the King's Road (the Crusader fortresses of Kerak and Shobak, witnesses to the Crusades).

Petra is arguably one of the most striking archaeological sites in the world. Founded around the 4th century BC by the Nabataean people — caravan merchants who mastered the incense routes from Arabia to the Mediterranean — the city reached its peak between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD, when it was the capital of a kingdom extending from Sinai to Syria. Carved directly into the pink, ochre and purple sandstone cliffs of Wadi Musa, Petra was at once royal necropolis, ceremonial centre and global trading crossroads. Its dramatic access through the Siq — a natural canyon 1.2 km long and 80 m high narrowing to just 3 m wide — emerges abruptly onto the façade of the Khazneh ('the Treasury'), a Nabataean royal tomb 40 m high carved into the cliff, certainly the most photographed façade in the Middle East. But Petra is not just the Khazneh: 800 monuments have been recorded on the site, including the royal tombs, the Roman theatre (8,000 seats), the colonnaded street, the Great Temple and especially the Monastery (Ad-Deir) — a monument even larger than the Khazneh (47 m high), accessible after a climb of 800 steps cut into the rock (1h-1h30 walk from the main entrance).

1h30 drive south of Petra, Wadi Rum — nicknamed the 'Valley of the Moon' — is one of the most beautiful deserts in the world and one of the most otherworldly landscapes ever photographed. This vast expanse of 720 km² of orange dunes and red sandstone cliffs sculpted by winds since the primary eon (the rock itself dates from the Cambrian era, 540 million years ago) hosted T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) during the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans (1916-1918) — he found inspiration there for his book 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' (the name is also that of a rock formation at the entrance to Wadi Rum). The desert has since served as a backdrop for dozens of films: Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962), Mission to Mars (Brian De Palma, 2000), Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012), Star Wars Episode VII and IX, Rogue One, Aladdin (Disney, 2019), Dune (Denis Villeneuve, 2021) — hence its nickname 'Hollywood of the Middle East'. The key experience is the night in a Bedouin camp — either in a traditional goat-hair tent, or in a transparent bubble suite to observe the Milky Way — accompanied by a zarb dinner (cooking underground in the sand, meat and vegetables).

The King's Road (Highway 35), the oldest commercial road in the world still active (mentioned in Genesis, travelled for at least 3,000 years), connects Amman to Petra crossing the Jordanian plateaus. Two remarkable Crusader fortresses dot the itinerary: Kerak (Crac of the Moabites, built in 1142 by lord Reynald of Châtillon, one of the most powerful fortresses of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem) and Shobak (Montréal, 1115, built by Baldwin I), both conquered by Saladin in 1187-1189. Further south, the Dana Nature Reserve (320 km² of biodiverse canyons, descending from 1,500 m to 50 m altitude in 14 km) offers one of the most beautiful hikes in the Middle East — from the Mediterranean forested plateau to subtropical desert in a few hours.