Floating in the Dead Sea: the lowest point on Earth, the saltiest water, and the mud that does work
Four hundred and forty metres below sea level, 34% salinity, and the mud worth the dirt under your fingernails. How to do the Jordan-side r…
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The Hejaz Railway ruins at Wadi Rum: Ottoman engineering, T.E. Lawrence sabotage raids, and the station that survived
Built 1900–1908 to carry pilgrims from Damascus to Medina, sabotaged by T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt 1916–1918. The Wadi Rum station a…
The Jordan Pass deep dive: what it covers, when it pays off, and how the visa waiver works
The combined ticket that bundles the visa fee with entry to Petra, Wadi Rum, Jerash, the Citadel, and 40+ other sites — when it actually sa…
The Irbid archaeology museums: two collections at Yarmouk University, plus Tell Irbid itself
Two of the best regional archaeology museums in Jordan are on a single university campus 70 km north of Amman — the Museum of Jordanian Her…
The Amman Citadel: 9,000 years of city in a single hilltop walk
Bronze Age fortress, Roman temple, Byzantine basilica, Umayyad palace — and the best view of downtown Amman. The Citadel is a lazy 90-minut…
Little Petra (Siq al-Barid): the free Nabataean stop most visitors skip
Eight kilometres north of the main Petra gate sits a smaller, free, near-empty Nabataean caravan suburb — and the only Painted Biclinium in…
Petra without the rush: a 6 a.m. walking plan for the Rose City
An opinionated, partner-co-signed walking plan for Jordan's UNESCO-listed Nabataean capital — what to see, when to start, and what to skip.
The Jordan Trail: 40 days, 8 sections, 675 km from Umm Qais to the Red Sea
Established 2017, the Jordan Trail is a 675 km north-south thru-hike from Umm Qais to the Red Sea, divided into 8 sections that can be walk…
Qusayr Amra: the Umayyad bath house with the only fresco zodiac dome surviving from early Islam
Built between 723 and 743 CE in the Eastern Desert by an Umayyad caliph, Qusayr Amra has the most complete surviving early-Islamic frescoes…
Mukawir (Machaerus): the Hasmonean fortress where Salome danced and John the Baptist died
On a 1,100-metre hilltop above the Dead Sea, Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus built a desert fortress in 90 BCE. Herod rebuilt it. Accordi…
