Whoever said time travel is impossible obviously hasn’t been to Jordan. Every twist in the road and every tree has a story to tell of man’s path to the modern world and traveling down the King’s Highway is a microcosm of living history.

There are two ways of getting to Petra from Jordan’s capital, Amman, down the modern highway to Aqaba or through the plateaus and mountain passes of the Great Rift Valley. I opted for the latter, better known as The King’s Highway. Only 335 km long, the highway was to take me through an ever-changing landscape of green pastures, tiny villages, desert tundra and rolling valleys offering some of the most stunning vistas of the endless desert below.

There are no trains to speak of in Jordan and so getting around is best done with a chauffeur and private car. This is comfortable, personalized and cost effective if you want to cover a lot of ground like I did. Hertz Jordan offers tailor-made chauffeur driven tours and I turned to them as a friend visiting Jordan had recommended them to me. They provided me with Wajdi, a jolly little man who looked like an Italian pop star and kept me up to date on both official and unofficial histories of the sites that we passed.

Before leaving Amman we headed to the Citadel, which is on top of one of the many heights that make up the city. Here there is evidence of numerous people and civilizations including Neolithic, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Arab Islamic cultures.

The site is compact and easy to get around and there is a good museum with artifacts found in and around the site that charts the various civilizations that have lived here through the ages. Aside from all the history the views are quite spectacular and you can really get a feel for how people live and work today in this vast and diverse city.

Before leaving Amman to travel south towards Petra, we headed about an hour north through evergreen hills, vineyards and valleys to one of the most exciting historical sites in the world. An archaeological work in progress, Jerash is the world’s most intact Roman town and includes a breathtaking temple, 20 churches and temples, a spherical piazza, amphitheatre and marketplace.

I really recommend getting a guide to take you around the site. The official guides congregate under a tree next to the entrance to the site, shooting the breeze and playing chess. You should easily find one that speaks any of the major languages fluently and their knowledge and passion for the site is almost as awe inspiring as the ruins themselves.

After a night in Amman, we were up with the early-morning market traders. The King’s Highway needed to be conquered, which would take around five to seven hours. At first all you see is fields and villages but then the landscape drops away from either side of the road and you realize that you are stepping onto the Great African Rift which starts some 6000 kilometers south in Mozambique!

Mount Nebo is the first stop in the tale of Jordan’s participation in the story of World culture. This is said to be the site of Moses’ death and burial. Early Christians built a church at the site and, though housed under a corrugated iron roof today, this little church is home to fantastic mosaics worthy of the Vatican.

And talking of mosaics the next stop on the way is Madaba, which has a 6th century map of the known world, taking up most of the floor in the Church of the Virgin and the Apostles. History seeps out of every pore of this mountain town and so if you want more you can also visit the archaeological museum which charts the 5,000-year history of the King’s Highway.

Creative man is well represented on the route, as is destructive man. Kerak Castle is testament to the darker side of history. Home to European Crusaders, the castle has a most bloody past. A crack in the highest wall of the castle (some 450 meters above the ground) was often used to expel enemies and people that generally displeased the lord and lady of the house. Worse than this, the lord took pleasure in encasing the victims’ heads in a wooden box before throwing them out so that they wouldn’t lose consciousness until they hit the ground.

Nearing the end of our King’s highway drive, Wajdi pulled over to the side of the road. I thought he was stopping for a short break but he motioned for me to follow him through the bushes…I am glad he did as we were standing on the edge of a majestic green canyon which is now Jordan’s newest nature reserve, Dana. Here wildlife abounds and it reminded me of something out of Africa.

The jewel in our journey was our final destination on the King’s Highway — Petra. I am often struck by the feeling of disappointment when visiting a monument or place that has been heavily depicted in magazines and on postcards, the image that you already have is pretty much all you get. But the familiar picture of the ornately carved Treasury Tomb is only a taster when it comes to Petra.

Hidden deep within the Wadi Musa, a huge canyon, the Nabatean city of Petra was in fact ‘lost’ for around 1,000 years following its decline in the seventh century. It was rediscovered for the world in 1812 by an English explorer whose desire to uncover the city’s location had been lit by the many legends. This led him to convert to Islam and take up local dress so that the few Bedu who knew of its location would accept him.

To get an overview of the entire site you need to commit to at least a full day of walking and you should start out as early as possible to avoid the rush of tourists that are bussed in by highway from Amman.

You will enter through the long gorge which twists and winds through the rock. This is called the Siq and walking through it I felt like I was entering a secret world that was mine to discover. Once in, we headed straight up to one of the high points and I suddenly realized just how much walking I was going to do. In every direction we looked there were ornate tombs carved into the rock all unique and all with their own tales to tell.

I walked approximately 13 kilometers according to my guide, Talal. It was a good antidote for the long drive from Amman, but an antidote from the long walk was also needed. My antidote was a dip in the restorative waters of the Dead Sea. Floating on top of the ever so salty waters I had plenty of time to ease the aches and pains and collect all the stories, histories and characters that I met along the way.

The trip through Jordan’s historical tapestry is one of the most amazing journeys I have undertaken and it filled me with a true sense of how civilization and religion came into being.

Travel File

Hertz Jordan offers tailor-made chauffeur driven tours. Enquiries and reservations can be made by calling

+ 962 6 553 8958 or the 24 hour phone line

+962-79- 5646961 or by faxing + 962 6 553 8406.

For more information visit www.hertzjordan.com

or email [email protected]

Royal Jordanian fly daily to Amman from Jeddah and Riyadh.

For more information on Jordan visit www.see-jordan.com