Jordan turns out to be a treasure trove of old-world wonders for Dunedin traveller Jim Guest.
I took a little persuading to spend a week touring Jordan, as a result of a less-than-wonderful experience in Cairo some years ago.
However, from the first hours to the goodbye a week later, it was thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating beyond expectations.
In late August my wife and I travelled to Jordan, leaving Dunedin after lunch on a Saturday and arriving at our hotel in Amman, Jordan's capital, late Sunday evening our time, and late morning Amman time.
Our first exploration was to the old part of Amman, which has retained traditional markets, a bazaar atmosphere, and a name for gold jewellery in the "Gold Souk".
I had to pinch myself as I stood among men dressed in formal white robes or everyday dish-dashes and women fully encased in black, surrounded by exotic produce such as green dates, fresh cardamom and exotic spices.
There were not many touristS, and the locals were tolerant, with a few forwardly friendly to a coUple of pale WeSterners from the southern winter.
This first forAy finished with a stop at a first-floor coffee-house overlooking part of the old towN.
Squeezed lemon blended with mint and ice, and tea with mint leaves in it, both common local drinks, are great in the 30degC-plus heat.
Later in the day We had a drive around Ammn with Ehab, the driver assigned to us for our week. The luxury of having a driver and a car is well worth the quite reAsonable coSt.
WitHin the confinEs of the suburbs of Amman are ancient ruins "Citadel Hill" or "Jebel al-Qal'a" and a well-preseRved Roman amphithEatre, the former allowing for great views over the city.
Citadel Hill has been an area of human settlement for more then 18,000 years.
The Romans obliterated most of what went before them, and subsequent civilisations adapted what the Romans left.
Nevertheless, there is much to see and appreciate, and Jordan's principal archaeological museum is here.
Again the temperature was well into the 30s, but Ehab surprised me by saying Amman gets snow in the winter.
Suburban Amman has large areas of extremely expensive mansions, built in stone with fiddly stone carving, and swimming pools.
Some Jordanians have made lots of money in business, and Ehab was a little dismissive about how they liked to show their success through extravagant houses.
Nothing new there.
But elsewhere in Amman, and in the smaller villages we drove through later in the week, there were more modest dwellings with reinforcing rods sticking out through the top.
They looked unfinished, but from the paint and the rust it was clear they had been like that for years.
Apparently there is a significant tax to pay on the completion of a house, so unless you are flaunting your wealth, you never "finish" your house.
Tax avoidance is alive and well everywhere.
Notable in the suburbs was the large US embassy, the largest in the Middle East.
It is a fortified compound, and the two entrances I could see had trucks with machine guns guarding them, and uniformed personnel well apparent.
Ehab anxiously reminded us not to take any photographs as we went by.
The historical sights in Amman were completely overtaken by the visit to Jerash the next day.
Here, set in a valley about 50km north of Amman, lies one of the best-preserved and explorable Roman cities outside Italy.
This huge site is still being excavated. The Romans were far from the first civilisation here.
Jerash is set in the hills of Gilead, which is mentioned in the Old Testament as a populated region, and evidence of Palaeolithic and Neolithic occupation has been found nearby.
The city itself was founded about 170BC. The Roman armies arrived in 63BC and the growth began.
It is said that for a short time, in AD129-30, during its association with the Emperor Hadrian, the city was the centre of the Roman Empire.
The ruins are well enough preserved to appreciate what a wonderful city Jerash was in its day.
Streets are laid out north-south and east-west. An oval plaza with columns forms a civic centre.
The wonderful Roman amphitheatre has an extraordinary acoustic trick.
If one stands on a point marked by the paving stones, and the indentation worn by millions of feet over the centuries, any speech or song is naturally amplified.
It sounds unlikely, but it works extraordinarily well.
An impressive main street has the remains of walls where there were shops.
There are ruts in the paving stones from chariot wheels, and significant remains of engineering works for water and sewerage.
There are the remains of temples and churches (the latter built post-Roman times), including the huge and significant Temple of Artemis.
Jerash is a really impressive visit, and at a minimum an absorbing half-day. In my humble opinion, it has greater impact on the observer than Pompeii.
The base for the next three days was Petra.
On the way from Amman, Ehab showed us where he had been trapped in snow with tourists for 12 hours, and recounted how they were ferried out by helicopter.
Another of Ehab's driving exploits involved taking Norwegian journalists into Iraq at the height of the invasion, wearing a flak jacket, and having to drive at more than 160kmh on long straights to avoid snipers.
We went to Petra via Karak, where there is the best-preserved Crusader castle in the Middle East.
Started in AD1142 by knights of the First Crusade, it is huge and largely complete.
Tourists can walk around battlements, enter the archers' stations, and walk through the stables, cooking areas, and underground passages.
There is a very useful small museum on-site.
The drive then took us through startlingly rugged geography, including what is sometimes called the "Grand Canyon of Jordan".
Though impressive and beautiful, it was not quite up to the real Grand Canyon. After that, it was up to Mount Nebo, where Moses was reputed to have seen the Promised Land, and later to have died.
While there has been religious activity on the site for more than 2000 years, the modern focus is the Moses Memorial Church, with ancient mosaic flooring on display.
The ancient city of Petra is Jordan's "must see", situated in craggy limestone mountains about 1100m above sea level, and a few kilometres from the modern town.
Petra has hosted civilisation for as long as there has been civilisation in the Middle East. It was part of the early trade routes, and is mentioned in the Old Testament.
But it was the Nabatean civilisation in the centuries before and after Christ that created the extraordinary buildings that can be seen today.
The experience begins with a walk of about 3km along the original entrance route, narrowly squeezed between towering coloured limestone walls on either side.
Into the walls are cut water channels that used to supply water to the city, and the occasional shrine. Wild caper bushes punctuate the walls.
Then the moment that makes the visit so special - around the last corner bright sunshine breaks through an opening that seems little more than a crack, and the red limestone facade of the treasury at Petra partly reveals itself.
It is absolutely stunning.
You then emerge from the narrow path into the space dominated by the treasury.
Further along the route lies the rest of the ancient city, mostly buildings cut into the limestone, many with impressive carved edifices.
The next day saw us on an excursion to the south, for a ride in the desert at Wadi Raam, a huge expanse of red sand and towering rock formations, with the odd collection of Bedouin tents, goats, and camels, before a final day spent at the Dead Sea.
On the way to the sea, we also stopped at the second of the two well-preserved Crusader castles. Being there in the early morning, we had the ruins to ourselves.
We walked around the battlements, the guardhouses, the places where the archers stood to shoot arrows through vertical slots in the walls.
Below there were goat-herders, but nothing else. It is difficult to describe the eerie serenity.
The road to the southern end of the Dead Sea descends through dramatic mountain scenery to a basin below sea level.
Driving up the east bank of the Dead Sea, where it is somewhat industrial and there is evidence of military tension, was one of the few unspectacular parts of Jordan.
Jordan and Israel are both very interested in this stretch of water that separates them, and it is closely watched. No boats or other watercraft are permitted in this touchy part of the world.
Nevertheless, there were two brief stops on the way up the east bank.
Both related to the biblical story of Lot, and his wife and daughters, fleeing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were told not to look back during their flight.
When Lot's wife disobeyed, she was turned into a pillar of salt, but Lot and his daughters found refuge in a cave near the southern end of the Dead Sea. The first stop was the reputed site of that cave.
The second was a pillar above the road reputed to be the remains of Lot's wife. Ehab and I shared a joke about disobedient wives, which was not unanimously appreciated.
The Dead Sea has a row of very well-appointed resort hotels, one of which was ours for a night.
We seemed to be sharing the pool area with wealthy Russians, and very few English-speakers.
The compulsory splash in the Dead Sea, and the smearing on of the therapeutic black mud, was easily achieved, being a few steps down from the lower hotel swimming pool.
The water was very warm, clean, and of course extremely salty and buoyant. But neither the water nor the mud did anything for ageing skin.
The heat, particularly in the evening, was like nothing ever experienced.
We all know altitude means cooler temperatures, but I had never thought of the reverse: descending more than 400m below sea level imparts a significant increase, and the evening breeze was like the output of a hair-drier.
Ehab picked us up the next morning for the hour-long drive to Amman, and the flight down to Dubai.
From Dubai it was a long direct flight to New York, but that is, as they say, another story.
Getting there quickly: Emirates flies from Christchurch to Dubai.
There is a brief stop in Sydney, then 14 hours overnight from Sydney to Dubai, arriving about 5.30am Dubai time. In less than two hours, we were on another Emirates flight to Amman, and our luggage was checked directly from Christchurch to Amman.
We made it from door to door in less than 30 hours.
