Jordan

I've always wanted to visit Petra.

This October my wish came true when we spent a week in Jordan.

Amman

Our holiday started and ended in Amman.  As a holiday destination it wasn't my favourite place as it was too full of traffic, but we found some nice places to visit whilst there.

King Abdullah I Mosque

We were on an organised tour and our first trip was to see the desert castles.

Qasr Al Azraq

Qasr Amra

Qasr Al Kharanah

Next we drove to a resort on the Dead Sea.

Israel on the far bank.

The following day we left Amman and would be staying near Petra for the next two nights.

Mount Nebo

View of the Promised Land.

Inside the church there were lots of mosaics.

The Holy Land Mosaic, Madaba

Shobak Castle, French Crusader fortification

Little Petra

The highlight of the tour for me was Petra and we had a whole day there.

Petra

Walking down the Siq

The first glimpse of the Treasury.

We decided to climb the 900 steps up to the Monastery.

Only trouble with 900 steps up is, there are 900 down!

Back down again and time to climb up to another part of the site.

Then on to the Royal Tombs.

All that walking/climbing around amazing Petra was thirsty work.  I sat down to drink a pomegranate juice

and was joined by a friend!

Our next destination was the Wadi Rum where we stayed in a Bedouin-style camp for the night.  First we went on a fantastic 4x4 trip through the desert.

Wadi Rum

2,200 year old rock carvings.

We sat on a rocky ledge and watched the sun set.

After the magical day in the desert, we were up early the next morning to catch the sunrise.

We climbed an outcrop of rock and watched as the sun peeped over the horizon.

On our last full day in Jordan we travelled to Jerash to see the vast Roman city ruins.

Jerash

At the Temple of Zeus wearing the cover-up that I was making in the last post.

We left Jerash for Ajlun to see the Muslim Crusader castle.

Ajlun Castle

If you are interested in seeing our trip in more detail, I have published a travel log on YouTube.