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Day 1
Morning transfer from Jerusalem to the Allenby Bridge. Enter the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Drive to Ajloun; private tour with your local guide of Saladin's magnificent mountaintop castle. Continue to Jerash, known as the "Pompeii of the East", one of the world's best preserved Greco-Roman cities. Your local guide will escort you on a private tour of the Temples of Artemis and Zeus, the Roman Forum, Hadrian's Arch, the massive Theatre and the mile-long Street of Columns. After lunch, continue, to Amman, the modern and ancient capital of Jordan; enjoy a panoramic city tour before checking into your hotel. Second only to Petra in tourist appeal, the ancient city of Jerash is remarkable for its unbroken chain of human occupation. Here at a well-watered site in the hills of Gilead, you find remains from Neolithic times, as well as Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Omayyad and others. Jerash's golden age, however, arrived with Roman rule. Today it is acknowledged as one of the best preserved Roman provincial towns in the world. Jerash was a member of the Decapolis, a dynamic commercial league of ten cities. When Emperor Hadrian visited Jerash in AD 129, it was already thriving. To honor its guest, the city raised a Triumphal Arch, just one part of a massive building program.
Day 2
Travel along the King's Highway as it winds its way south. Stop at Mount Nebo, where Moses viewed the promised land; enjoy  the breathtaking view of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea. Continue to Madaba, Byzantine center of master mosaicists, where you will see the oldest surviving mosaic map of the Holyland. Then, after lunch, continue to Kerak, where you will see one of Jordan's many castles dating back to the time of the Crusaders. On to Petra, where you will overnight.
Kerak is distinguished by its fine crusader castle built in the 12th century on the remains of earlier citadels, which date back to Nabataean times. There is a small but interesting museum in the castle, which is one of the finest of its type surviving today.
The jewel of South Jordan is Petra, the unique, 2,000-year-old rock-carved city, the pink and salmon coloured capital of the Nabataean Arabs. Petra is always breath-taking, never to be forgotten. It flourished for over 400 years around the time of Rome and Christ, until it was occupied by the Roman legions of the Emperor Trajan in 106 AD. The Petra basin boasts over 800 individual monuments that were mostly carved from the kaleidoscopic sandstone by the technical and artistic genius of the Nabataeans. The wealth and political power of this indigenous Arab people derived from their control of the international trade routes that linked China, India and Southern Arabia with the wealthy Mediterranean markets Greece, Rome, Egypt and Syria.
Day 3
A most unforgettable day in Petra! Your local guide will take you on a private tour into the "rose-red" city (by horseback and foot) which begins at the "Siq", a winding canyon road. At the end of the passage you'll see Petra's most beautiful monument - the Treasury. Beyond the Treasury, you'll discover soaring temples, elaborate royal tombs, a theatre, burial chambers and water channels. Overnight in Petra.
Day 4
After breakfast, tour the Wadi Rum. Afterwards, proceed to Israeli border at Arava. An hour's drive south of Petra brings you to magical, majestic Wadi Rum -- a vast, silent landscape of ancient riverbeds and pastel-colored stretches of sandy desert, suddenly shattered by towering sandstone mountains and sheer, shimmering cliff-faces. It offers something of interest for every taste. Here is an unspoilt natural beauty forged by millions of years of geological formation, erosion and evolution, but easily accessible on a good paved road for those who want simply to drive into Wadi Rum for an hour on their way south to Aqaba. This is also home for the semi-nomadic bedou living in their great goat's hair tents, tending their herds of sheep and goat, and preserving an ancient lifestyle that has been practiced in the Arabian desert for thousands of years. |
