Away with travel advisories and cautious friends, I’m in Amman, in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a vibrant city of battered and bruised cars, with Petra, first of seven cities on my six-day odyssey, firmly in my sights.

There’s just me, my tour company driver and 280 km to drive in his executive car with a ready supply of cold, bottled mineral water. A family man of middle years, courteous and professional, he is to be my constant daytime companion, waiting patiently while his guiding duties are relinquished to local experts along the route. His English is excellent, and my few words of Arabic go quite a way to cementing the friendship.

We drive along the ancient Kings Highway of biblical times, where families picnic happily, undeterred by the proximity of this busy road. Our first sightseeing stop is the ancient Moabite market town of Madaba, 29 km south-west of Amman. The town has strong Christian roots, dating back to 451AD, and today, is home to the largest population of Christians in Jordan. Dubbed ‘the city of mosaics’, it boasts numerous Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics. Most famed is the 6th century Madaba Mosaic Map, discovered in 1884, preserved in the floor of the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George. Covering the area from the Nile Delta in Egypt to Palestine, it originally comprised two million pieces of coloured local stone, and depicts the major Biblical sites, including Bethelehem and Jericho. The eye is drawn to the earliest known detailed map of the Holy City of Jerusalem, complete with city walls, gates and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Other mosaics have been carefully restored at the Archeological Park (Hussein bin Ali St) and can be viewed in comparative solitude.

We continue our Biblical theme, with a 30-minute stop at Mount Nebo in Moab, believed to be the last resting place of Moses. The local guide is knowledgeable, engaging and thrills me with the stories of Joshua and Rahba, Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah. A dust haze restricts the view of the ancient cities of Jericho and Jerusalem, but I am moved by the knowledge that I am standing where this historical giant surveyed the Promised Land that he would never walk upon.

From Mt Nebo we continue our journey towards Petra, with an unscheduled stop at Qasr Shobak, where a Crusader castle (cAD1115) is gradually being restored. Admission is free and in this remote, hillside location, I’m the sole visitor, but I’m surprised to find the local caretaker/guide in the guard-house, and willingly engage his services. Local Bedouin inhabited the castle until the 1950-60s, when the government built them villages, with the foresight that these untouched ruins would one day attract tourists with a passion for archeology.

The last stop before Petra is Siq Al-Barid or Little Petra, as the name implies, a more compact version of its famous namesake. I walk with a Bedouin guide through the narrow canyon to find a temple and rooms carved into the rock, probably used as dining rooms for travellers.

Amazingly, there’s a preserved sample of a Nabataean painting. It’s possible to walk to Petra from here: a Bedouin guide can be arranged to allay safety and map-reading concerns, and the one day trek or overnight camp is reported to be well worth the effort.

After a refreshing night in a Petra hotel, I meet my local guide. Sameer  has extensive knowledge and a strong family history of guiding in Petra, adding significantly to my experience of this magnificent archeological and UNESCO World Heritage site.

Walking through the canyon-like Siq, I observe the ancient Nabataean carvings, from niches to place their gods, most importantly Dushara, to the man with a camel train. His head, like those of many carvings here, is thought to have been removed by later iconoclasts.

I am astounded by the ingenuity of this ancient people who developed the aflaj irrigation system, which captured, stored and channeled spring, rain or well water. They were perceptive enough to separate the channels for clean and dirty water.

It’s possible to take a horse and carriage through the Siq to the Al Khazneh, or Treasury but I feel you miss much in doing this, not least the spectacular view as you exit the narrow Siq into sunlight, to be greeted by the pink hue of this famous building, carved into the sandstone in the first century BC.

There is much speculation regarding the purpose of the Treasury, but my guide prefers the romantic option, that it was built to honour the king’s wife. Its popular name comes from the historic Bedouin myth that it was full of treasure, evidenced by shot marks on the urn from attempts to break it: protecting this treasure was one reason why Petra remained long undiscovered.

As we walk, Sameer points out tombs of varying degrees of quality, evidenced by their positioning and quality of workmanship. He tells me that the amphitheatre beyond the tombs was built in a semi-circle so that all could hear equally and no seat would be in the glare of the sun. The Romans later added a stage and increased the seating to 3000. Around AD106, Petra was absorbed into the new Roman Province of Arabia.

At the Colonnades and temple Qasr al-Bint, I negotiate the hire of a mule for the 800-step climb to Al-Deir, the Monastery, a stopping place for the Nabataeans and traders on their journeys north. The mule-ride is not for the faint-hearted, but is preferable to walking on a very hot day: and you can then enjoy the view on the downward journey.

My reward is the magnificent Al-Deir bathed in sunlight, simpler in design than the Treasury and showing clear evidence of Roman architectural influence. The holes in the walls secured scaffolding while the stonemasons carved – for some a lifetime’s work.

We walk beyond the monastery to gaze from the mountaintop at the surrounding vista, enjoying some solitude before the descent. At the base, rather than retrace our steps through Petra, my guide suggests a ride up the other side of the mountain. Once more, I find myself on a mule, among the happy Arabic chatter of a half-dozen Bedouin men, enjoying the most spectacular mountain views changing with the sunset hues – and yes, I feel safe, treated like a princess, a moment I will never forget.

Leaving Petra, we drive to Wadi Rum, the desert made famous in the west by T E Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia. I have a two-hour 4WD trip scheduled, but immediately wish it were longer.

With a local guide I start the drive from Wadi Rum village to the visitor centre, where the mountain peaks, Lawrence’s seven pillars of wisdom rise from the desert plain. I long to substitute the car for a camel trek, inspired by the magic of these ‘ships of the desert’ against the mountain backdrop. Instead, I enjoy hospitality in a Bedouin tent: tea (shay) or coffee (Qawa) with dates.

Next, Morad and I drive 188km to the Dead Sea and Bethany Beyond the Jordan, the site where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist and recorded in many medieval and Byzantine texts. My emotions are stirred by its significance and the weight of history. Pottery, coins and architectural structures discovered over the years confirm the site was used early in the first century AD. It is believed that the nearby site of Tell Mar Elias is where Elijah was taken into heaven. With my electronic listening guide, I take the courtesy bus to the baptismal site and the river that borders Israel, where modern-day baptisms take place on both sides.

My final stop in Jordan takes me north of Amman to the city of Jerash
(Gerasa), truly one of the wonders of the world. It’s one of the best-preserved Graeco-Roman Decapolis cities, which stretch across modern Jordan, Syria, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. My archeologist guide had worked on the site for 30 years and told me they had still uncovered only 30% of the city.

I enter via the imposing Hadrian’s Arch, built to commemorate the visit of the Emperor in 129AD. It was an administrative, commercial and religious centre and I marvel at the amphitheatres, temples, churches and colonnaded streets: truly mind-blowing to imagine how many feet have trodden these roads throughout history

Sitting in the airport, I feel somewhat smug that I have ignored the naysayers regarding my visit to Jordan and I bask in the glow of the hospitality and history of this ancient land and its people.

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