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Western travellers have been exploring the Middle East for well over a century, but Jordan remains a newcomer to tourism, welcoming only a fraction of the numbers who visit neighbouring Egypt and Israel. The country's popular image abroad encompasses not much more than camels, deserts and Bedouin, and there's little awareness of Jordan's mountains and beaches, castles and ancient churches, the urbanity of its people and richness of its culture.
Jordan is largely desert, but this one bland word covers a multitude of scenes, from the dramatic red sands and towering cliffs of the far south to the endless stony plains of volcanic basalt in the east. The northern hills, rich with olive trees, teeter over the rift of the Jordan Valley, which in turn runs down to the Dead Sea, lowest point on earth. The centre of the country is carpeted with tranquil fields of wheat, cut through by expansive canyons and bordered by arid, craggy mountains. At the southernmost tip of the country, beaches fringe the warm waters of the Red Sea, which harbours some of the most spectacular coral reefs in the world.
Jordan is part of the land bridge linking Europe, Africa and Asia, and has seen countless armies come and go. Greeks, Romans, Muslims, Christian Crusaders and more have left evidence of their conquests, and there are literally thousands of ruins and archeological sites from all periods in every corner of the country. In addition, Israel and Palestine, Jordan's neighbours to the west, have no monopoly on biblical history: it was in Jordan that Lot sought refuge from the fire and brimstone of the Lord; Moses, Aaron and John the Baptist all died in Jordan; and Jesus was almost certainly baptized here. Even the Prophet Muhammad passed through.
And yet the country is far from being stuck in the past. Amman is a thoroughly modern capital, and Jordan's respectable rate of economic growth means that grinding poverty is the rare exception rather than the rule. Kids may sell you cigarettes or offer to shine your shoes, but you'll see more desperate begging in the streets of any European or North American city than anywhere in Jordan. Government is stable, with leanings towards democracy under a constitutional monarchy, and manages to be simultaneously pro-Western, pro-Arab, founded on a bedrock of Muslim authority and dedicated to ongoing peace with Israel. Women are better integrated into positions of power in government and business than almost anywhere else in the Middle East, military conscription was abolished in 1991, and Jordanians are exceptionally highly educated: just over 2.5 percent of the total population is enrolled at university, a proportion comparable to the UK. Traditions of hospitality are ingrained, and taking up some of the many invitations you'll get to tea or a meal will expose you to an outlook among local people that is often as cosmopolitan and world-aware as anything at home. Though surrounded by instability, Jordan is the safest country in the Middle East by quite a long way, and domestic extremism is virtually non-existent.
Jordan is the safest country in the Middle East by a long way
Most people take great pride in their ancestry, whether they're present or former desert-dwellers (Bedouin) or from a settled farming tradition (fellaheen). Across the desert areas, people still live and work on their tribal lands, whether together in villages or apart in individual family units; most town-dwellers, including substantial numbers of Ammanis, claim tribal identity. Belonging to a tribe (an honour conferred by birth) means respecting the authority of a communal leader, or sheikh, and living in a culture of shared history, values and principles that often crosses national boundaries. Notions of honour and mutual defence are strong. Tribes also wield a great deal of institutional power: most members of Jordan's lower house of parliament are elected for their tribal, rather than political, affiliation. The king, as sheikh of sheikhs, commands heartfelt loyalty among many people and deep respect among most of the rest.
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• The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (in Arabic, al-Mamlakeh al-Urduniyyeh al-Hashmiyyeh, or al-Urdun) covers an area of around 92,000 square kilometres – a little more than Portugal and a little less than Indiana. About 85 percent is desert. The highest and lowest points are Jebel Umm ad-Daami (1834m) and the Dead Sea shore (408m below sea level).
• Well over 90 percent of the population of around 5.5 million are Muslim Arabs, with small minorities of Muslim Circassians and Chechens, as well as Christian Arabs. The population has increased nine-fold since 1952, and though its growth rate has now slowed to 2.5 percent, some 37 percent of the population is below the age of 14.
• Jordan is a constitutional monarchy, with universal suffrage over the age of 20. The king appoints the Prime Minister and together they appoint the cabinet. In the bicameral National Assembly, the forty-member Senate is appointed by the king and the eighty-member House of Representatives voted in by proportional representation. The single biggest sector in the economy – traditionally dependent on phosphates and potash production – is now tourism, which generates 13 percent of GDP.
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National identity is a thorny issue in Jordan, which has been perennially flooded with Palestinian refugees since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. Many people from tribes resident east of the River Jordan before 1948 resent this overbalancing of the country's demography, and the fact that incoming Palestinians, having developed an urbanized, entrepreneurial culture, dominate private-sector business. For their part, Jordanians of Palestinian origin – estimated to make up as much as sixty percent of the population – often resent the "East Bank" Jordanians' grip on power in government and the public sector. All are Jordanian citizens, but citizenship tends to mean less to many of Palestinian origin than their national identity, and less to many East Bankers than their tribal affiliation. Large numbers of long-stay guest workers from Egypt muddy the issue still further. "Where are you from?" – a simple enough question in most countries – is in Jordan the cue for a life story.
| Jordan's flag |
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Jordan's flag is a source of national pride. It is adapted from the revolutionary banner of the Great Arab Revolt of 1916–17, when Arab armies led by the Hashemites – a noble dynasty, now led by King Abdullah II of Jordan, which traces its origins back to the Prophet Muhammad himself – overthrew the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.
The flag has three equal horizontal bands. At the top is black, representing the Abbasid Caliphate that ruled from Baghdad in the eighth and ninth centuries; in the middle is white, representing the Umayyad Caliphate that ruled from Damascus in the seventh and eighth centuries; and at the bottom is green, representing the Fatimid Caliphate that ruled from Cairo in the tenth and eleventh centuries. On the hoist side is a red triangle representing the Great Arab Revolt of 1916–17. Within the triangle is a seven-pointed white star which symbolizes the seven verses of the opening sura (verse) of the Quran; the points represent faith in one God, humanity, national spirit, humility, social justice, virtue and hope.
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