The Rough Guide to Jordan (Travel Guide eBook) , livre ebook

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2019

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World-renowned 'tell it like it is' guidebook

Discover Jordan with this comprehensive, entertaining, 'tell it like it is' Rough Guide, packed with comprehensive practical information and our experts' honest and independent recommendations.

Whether you plan to go Red Sea diving, go hiking, discover the Wadi Rum desert or explore ancient cities, The Rough Guide to Jordan will help you discover the best places to explore, sleep, eat, drink and shop along the way.

Features of The Rough Guide to Jordan:
Detailed regional coverage: provides in-depth practical information for each step of all kinds of trip, from intrepid off-the-beaten-track adventures, to chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas. Regions covered include: Amman, the Dead Sea and Baptism Site, Jerash and the north, the eastern desert, the King's Highway, Petra, Aqaba and the southern desert. 
Honest independent reviews: written with Rough Guides' trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, and recommendations you can truly trust, our writers will help you get the most from your trip to Jordan.
Meticulous mapping: always full-colour, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys. Find your way around Petra, Amman and many more locations without needing to get online.
Fabulous full-colour photography: features a richness of inspirational colour photography, including the stunning sweeping open desert in Wadi Rum and the never-ending highland cliffs in Dana. 
Things not to miss: Rough Guides' rundown of Petra, Amman, the Baptism Site and the Dead Sea's best sights and top experiences.
Itineraries: carefully planned routes will help you organise your trip, and inspire and inform your on-the-road experiences.
Basics section: packed with essential pre-departure information including getting there, getting around, accommodation, food and drink, health, the media, festivals, sports and outdoor activities, culture and etiquette, shopping and more.
Background information: comprehensive Contexts chapter provides fascinating insights into Jordan, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books, plus a handy language section and glossary.
Covers: Amman, the Dead Sea and Baptism Site, Jerash and the north, the eastern desert, the King's Highway, Petra and Aqaba and the southern desert. 

About Rough Guides: Rough Guides have been inspiring travellers for over 35 years, with over 30 million copies sold globally. Synonymous with practical travel tips, quality writing and a trustworthy 'tell it like it is' ethos, the Rough Guides list includes more than 260 travel guides to 120+ destinations, gift-books and phrasebooks.


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Publié par

Date de parution

01 octobre 2019

Nombre de lectures

0

EAN13

9781789196375

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

24 Mo

Jason Langley/AWL Images
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Where to go
When to go
Author picks
Things not to miss
Tailor-made trips
BASICS
Visas and entry requirements
Getting there
Getting around
Accommodation
Food and drink
The media
Culture and etiquette
Adventure tours and trekking
Shopping
Travelling with children
Travel essentials
THE GUIDE
1 Amman
2 The Dead Sea and Baptism Site
3 Jerash and the north
4 The eastern desert
5 The King’s Highway
6 Petra
7 Aqaba and the southern desert
CONTEXTS
History
Flora and fauna
Islam
The bedouin today
Books
Arabic
Glossary
SMALL PRINT
Shutterstock
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 region’s 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 Jordan’s 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, Jordan’s 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 you’ll 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 they’re 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 Jordan’s 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.

Alamy

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. Jordan’s 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 Abdullah’s 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 country’s 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
Jordan’s 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.

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TRAVELLING THROUGH THE WADI RUM DESERT

the search for water
Jordan is one of the five driest countries in the world. Annual consumption per capita (calculated as renewable water resources withdrawn) is about 170 cubic metres, compared with 630 as the world average, 800 across the Middle East/North Africa region – and 1650 in North America. Almost a third of the water used in Jordan comes from non-sustainable or nonrenewable sources. Three decades of pumping from the once-abundant Azraq oasis has brought it to the point of collapse. The River Yarmouk sports a large dam shared by Jordan and Syria, and all the major valleys leading down to the Dead Sea are now dammed in an effort to stop water draining into the salty lake – which has contributed to its rapid shrinking . Every winter the local newspapers publish reports tabulating levels of water storage in the country’s reservoirs, while Jordanians anxiously wait for rain. Water rationing is in place in Amman over the summer, though a US$1.1-billion pipeline now brings fossil water to the capital from desert aquifers at Disi, and plans are afoot for desalination plants on the Red Sea.
Jordan is part of the “Holy Land”: its religious sites include the Baptism Site of Jesus on the banks of the River Jordan, and Mount Nebo , from where Moses looked over the Promised Land. John the Baptist met his death at Herod’s hilltop palace at Mukawir after Salome danced her seductive dance. Nearby is Lot’s Cave , where Abraham’s nephew sought refuge from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Your most abiding memories of a visit are likely to be of Jordan’s varied and beautiful natural environment . With its sheer cliffs and red sands, austere Wadi Rum – where David Lean filmed Lawrence of Arabia – presents the classic desert picture of Jordan. Less well-known are the gentle northern hills around the Ajloun forests , hosting walks through flower-strewn meadows and cool, shady woodland. In the south, tranq

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