Traveling in Jordan: Wadi Rum desert. Part one

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an ArabState situated in Southwest Asia. The ruling dynasty of Jordan comes from the lineage of Prophet Muhammad; that is why in the name of the kingdom the word Hashemite (the Hashemites¹) is used. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, by Iraq and Saudi Arabia to the east, and by Israel and Palestinian autonomy to the west. A section of the south border is washed by the waters of the Gulf of Aqaba. The territory of Jordan is a little over 92 thousand square kilometers. Its population is 6.7 million people.

Most of Jordan’s territory – close to 90%, is occupied by deserts and semi-deserts. In the north-west of the country there are plateaus steeply descending to the valley of the Jordan River, known as the EasternHeights. They start from the YarmoukRiver that separates them from the Golan Heights. Their medium height is 1,067 meters. Along the western border of the kingdom, a deep rift valley is stretching that includes the Jordan River valley, the Dead Sea, and the Wadi al Arabah depression.

The Jordan desert has a thin arid soil covering. The precipitation here is scarce – from 150 millimeters in the west to just a few millimeters in the east. The reserves of fresh water were discovered on the territory of several oasis, the largest one of which Qasr al-Azraq is situated 80 kilometers east of Amman.

The Jordan River has two tributaries: the al-YarmoukRiver that divides Syria, Jordan, and Israel, and the al-ZarqaRiver that flows solely within the Jordan boundaries. The length of the Jordan River is 160 kilometers; and the river descends from the elevation of 3,000 meters above sea level to 403 meters below sea level. South of the Dead Sea the land elevates along the Wadi al-Arabah depression to 300 meters above sea level, and then falls gradually toward the coastal city of Aqaba on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. This is the only outlet of Jordan to the sea.

The climate in Jordan is continental. In winter the mercury column of thermometer sometimes drops below zero. Yet in summer in Jordanian valley the temperature rises to 49 degrees Celsius.

The plant life is represented by drought-resistant annuals (xerophytes) and low-growing perennial herbs and shrubs.

Although most part of the country’s territory is a desert and an arid steppe, the fauna is rather diverse; it harbors hyenas, gazelles, foxes, partridges, mongooses, hyraxes, and mountain goats.

95 percent of the population are Arabs, and the remaining 5 percent are the Adyghe (Circassians), the Chechens, the Armenians, the Turkmen, the Kurds, and other nationalities. The official language is Arab. Faith confessions are represented in the following way: Sunnites (92%), Shiites (3%), and Christians (5%). The capital of Jordan is Amman. Amman’s population is roughly over 2 million people.

The territory of modern Jordan is closely related to Biblical history. Within its territory there are the historic regions of Gilead, Ammon, Moab, and Edom. In the New Testament times, the regions of northern Jordan were a part of a Decapolis, which means ten cities in Greek, and they were under the rule of the union of ten large cities of Antiquity, including the modern city of Amman, which in the ancient times bore the name Rabbath Ammon.

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ taught in this land and did great miracles here (Gospel of Matthew 4:25; Gospel of Mark 5:20; 7:31). In the New Testament it is stated that when Jesus was passing through the neighbouring area, great crowds followed Him from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from across the Jordan River (Gospel of Matthew 4:25).

Being driven by our quest to learn new things, early this year – from January 4 to January 11, we decided to make a journey in Jordan with our guide in Israel Slava Kim. When we arrived in Amman, our Jordanian guide Fahris told us that a powerful snow storm named Huda was approaching Jordan, and because of this we had to make changes in our travelling plan. As it turned out later, it was a wise decision. According to the adjusted plan, the first spot of our journey would be the Wadi Rum desert, as well as the cities of Petra and Little Petra.

We decided to spend our first night in Jordan in Amman, and early the next morning to go to the south of the kingdom – to Wadi Rum desert, and after that follow our plan. The night was abnormally cold, and it seemed to us that the temperature dropped below zero Celsius. In order not to freeze altogether, we decided to visit one of the restaurants and to get acquainted with the local cuisine. Everyone knows that the Arabs cook the best meat dishes.

Restaurant Tawaheen al-Hawa that translates as the Windmills was located not far from our hotel, and, judging by the number of visitors, it enjoyed popularity among the local people. In the restaurant’s lobby there was an improvised Bedouins oven with an iron brazier, where an old lady was baking Kmaj bread, filling the entire lobby with its aroma. Upon our entering the restaurant, we were immediately offered to taste a traditional mint tea. It was pleasant and unusual. The restaurant itself is decorated rather simply, there is nothing excessive there: the lights are dimmed, the tables are large and low, with couches next to them where one can sit or lie down. That evening the restaurant was full, there were large companies at many tables. Next to our table there was a table with a Jordanian family around it. At the head of the table the head of the family was sitting – an elderly man in a traditional Jordanian hat called keffiyeh (kufiya); next to him his sons were sitting with their wives and at the opposite end – his grandchildren with the grandmother – the wife of the head of the family. It was interesting to watch these close ties between several generations in the Jordanian families.

Following the advice of our guide Faris, we ordered traditional Arab meze, and assorted meats mashavi. Oriental hospitality is truly boundless. We hardly even finished our order, when they started to serve us. First we were offered drinks, freshly baked Bedouin bread and more than a dozen little plates with all kinds of salads and appetizers. We ate all these viands without silverware – using the bread instead. After we fully enjoyed the appetizers, there came the turn of assorted meats. On a large dish, brought out by two people, a huge quantity of meat foods was steaming and sending forth an indescribable aroma; these meats were cooked on a grill, or to be more precise, on open fire. Mashavi meat assortment consisted of lamb chops and veal chops, shish kebab, juicy chicken parts, tender veal, and kebabs of all sorts. After we ate our fill of meats, and enjoyed different tastes and aromas, added to the dishes by various spices, we proceeded to the concluding stage of our meal – desserts. For dessert we were offered fruit and Jordanian sweets, baklava with sesame seeds and pistachios, knafeh with cheese, and “wasat” coffee, made from moderately roasted coffee beans.

Having enjoyed a wonderful supper, we thanked the hospitable owners of the restaurant and headed for our hotel. We needed a good rest to prepare for the journey, because early the next day we had to travel to the kingdom’s south – to Wadi Rum desert, and the towns of Petra and Little Petra.

The distance between Amman and Wadi Rum is about 285 kilometres. You can cover this distance by car in three hours. Leaving at eight o’clock in the morning and making a little stop on the way, we reached our destination by noon.

Wadi Rum desert, or as it is also called the Moon Valley, is located 60 kilometres to the east of the resort town Aqaba and 285 kilometres from the Jordanian capital – the city of Amman. Wadi Rum is a continuation of the Arabian Desert; that is why it is very similar to it. Wadi Rum is a rocky desert and it occupies the territory with an area of 74,180 hectares. The climate in Wadi Rum is arid. In some places the desert turns into a semi-desert with freestanding droughty trees and shrubs.

The highest elevation of Wadi Rum is Jabal Umm ad Dami, 1830 meters high, and one of the most recognizable rocks of Wadi Rum is the rock called “Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” which is situated near the Tourist Centre. The surface of the desert is mostly uneven; it has plenty of local canyons, pits, and elevations. The air temperature in Wadi Rum varies between 32 degrees Celsius in the daytime and 4 degrees at night. Most of the territory of Wadi Rum desert is a National Park, which is a natural monument included in the list of UNESCO’s World Inheritance objects.

Although it seems to be a waste, actually Wadi Rum has all kinds of ecosystems. During the period of rare winter rains, Wadi Rum gets covered with a carpet of the hundreds of kinds of flowers and wild herbs, and the medicinal plants that grow in the desert are still used by the Bedouins until this day. Camelthorns, scattered fig trees, few shrubs and herbaceous plants give food and saving shade to small mammals, birds, and reptiles. Olive woods and orange orchards, groves of date palms and vegetable gardens spread out around the Bedouin villages in the desert – the soil here is fertile and it only needs to be watered.

For the major part of the year, high daytime temperatures and lack of water force mammals to get out only at night time. If you are fortunate enough, here you can see hedgehogs, rabbits, and hyraxes (small furry stinking animals that are kindred to elephants), and in some distant regions you can see jackals, wolves, and caracal lynxes.

The desert’s vast expanse is a sweet home for some large birds – falcons, eagle owls, and kestrels. The shyest dwellers of Wadi Rum that you can only see with a good amount of luck are scorpions, snakes, and camel spiders.

The area, where Wadi Rum is now lying, was inhabited from the pre-historic times. The petroglyphs and burial mounds discovered on its territory prove the importance of Wadi Rum as a place of hunting and human habitation in the earliest periods of history. Ancient authorities wrote about the grapes, olive trees and pine trees growing here (some of them still remain on the peaks of the mountains).

Some Muslim scientists are persuaded that it is here where the ‘Adid people lived – an ancient Arab tribe mentioned in the Quran.

On the sandstone rocks of Wadi Rum about thirty thousand engravings has been discovered. They were cut by the tribes from South Arabia, and later – by the Nabataeans, who settled down in Wadi Rum around the 4th century BCE.

Two civilizations were peacefully co-existing together side by side, worshipping the same deities – goddess Al-lāt and god Dushara.

WadiRumDesert became world-wide famous because of Lawrence of Arabia². Lawrence of Arabia (T. E. Lawrence) called this desert “vast, echoing, and god-like.” He visited it in 1917, during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire led by the king Hussein bin Ali. The royal forces on camelbacks and horsebacks crossed Wadi Rum on the way to Aqaba. One part of the king’s army, where Lawrence was, for some time remained at a temporary camp in the desert, after which it marched in the direction of Damascus.

The discovery of a Nabataean temple in 1933 revived public interest for Wadi Rum. The French team of archaeologists finished excavating it in 1997.

Rock engravings (petroglyphs) are also of great interest; many of them have not been thoroughly studied yet.

Our acquaintance with Wadi Rum started from… a railway station. In the midst of sands and rocks the railway is laid. As it turned out, it is one of the branches of the famous Hejaz Railway that connects Damascus to Medina and which more than a century ago became one of the front lines where the Arab tribes were fighting during the Great Arab Revolt – the liberation campaign of 1916-1918 against the Turks. Now there is no passenger traffic on this railway; only the freight trains loaded with phosphates shuttle there.

As we departed from the railway station, we came to the site where a Jeep was waiting for us. The Jeep’s driver who was also our guide in the desert, asked us to take our seats in a specially fitted out trailer and prepare for the most interesting ride in the most beautiful desert of the world. Having sat down comfortably and having armed ourselves with the cameras, we set out on our safari.

As soon as we drove into Wadi Rum, the scenery of amazing beauty opened before our eyes: the vast expanses of sand were painted in intense orange, milky-white, terracotta, pink, and purple colours. This entire colourful palette was framed by the ancient rocks. Depending on the light, the rocks and the sand changed their hues. The desert in one instant would become alive, turning into an unfinished impressionist painting, and then in the twinkling of an eye it would transform into a fantastic Martian landscape, and when the enchanting display of light and shade would reach its apex, the desert would look like a landscape of the Renaissance period. An amazing spectacle! And so much air and space is there! From a distance the rocks do not seem to be that big, but when you approach them, they shoot upwards, growing into some inaccessible extraterrestrial giants. Every rock is a masterpiece of architecture with an individual and sometimes fantastic design. In some places, the rocks’ outward appearance looks like an egg shell, in other places – like honey combs, somewhere else – like melted wax on a candle. Every rock has its own identity; it has its own face. Some rocks are so realistic that they look like some frozen aliens and mythical creatures, waiting for the moment when they would become alive again.

In many places in Wadi Rum you can see rock engravings (petroglyphs). Some of the drawings depict hunting scenes and camels. These may be the pictures of ancient caravans. There is an assertion, according to which the ancient people in this way marked out the places, where their caravans could stop for rest.

In the modern desert, the places for rest and night lodgings are scattered here and there. As a rule, these places are owned by the people of the desert – the Bedouin. At any time, these mysterious desert people can treat you to their rich and sweet herb tea or desert coffee; you can warm yourselves up and rest at a bonfire.

Our last site in Wadi Rum was a gorge named after Lawrence of Arabia. Some people say that during the Arab Revolt he stayed at this gorge.

Two and a half hours passed unnoticed. Having received a great deal of impressions and having been filled with the good vibes we had to go back to continue our journey. Having thanked our driver and guide in Wadi Rum for the interesting tour and having said our goodbyes, we got into our car and headed for the city of Petra, where we had planned our supper and a tour of night Petra and the Siq Gorge.

¹Hashemites. Unlike the Alids (who are also the Hashemites, but in the lineage that began from Ali, cousin of the prophet Muhammad) the Hashemites trace their lineage to their common great grandfather Hashim ibn Abd Manaf. The tendency, the purpose of which was to prove one’s kindred connection to Muhammad through his ancestors, became prevailing particularly under the Abbasids who contended with the Alids. The Abbasids were spreading a legend according to which the caliphate necessarily had to go back to the Quraysh, that is, to the descendants of Muhammad’s father. This legend was also supposed to give the ground for the legal overthrow of the Umayyad family that belonged to another lineage.

The Hashemite family was part of the Quraysh tribe (also known as Coreish) (from the Mudhar group), which politically and economically dominated Mecca in the time of Muhammad. Living in the direct proximity to the ancient pagan sanctuary Kaaba, the Quraysh tribe controlled the pilgrims, which guaranteed its noble men large income. The participation of Mecca in the domestic Arabian trade, and contacts with other regions of the Middle East led to the accumulation of considerable wealth. There were very rich families among the Quraysh tribe that engaged in commerce and usury. At the same time, there were also poor families, engaged in small trade and raising cattle. Such was the family of the Hashemites (Banu Hashim clan), to which prophet Muhammad belonged. Hashim was Muhammad’s great grandfather, and a great grandson of Qusai ibn Kilab, who established himself in Mecca at some point, pushing out the tribe of Jurhum from this city.

Concerning Muhammad’s ancestors – his grandfather Abdul-Muttalib, and his father Abdullah there is only some almost entirely legendary information. His father was a modest merchant, who left for his widowed wife the patrimony that consisted of five camels, a herd of ship, and one female slave.

After Muhammad started preaching monotheism, the tribal leaders feared they would lose their profits from the pilgrimage, so they conspired against Muhammad. When Muhammad learned about the conspiracy, he escaped to Medina (Hijra).

According to the Muslim genealogy, both Muhammad and his cousin Ali belong to Banu Hashim clan, but after Muhammad’s death, Ali’s descendants were called the Alids, and their opponents, in order to support their claim for power in the caliphate, called themselves the Hashemites.

The modern Hashemites are the descendants of the sharif – the ruler and the keeper of the holy sites of Islam in Mecca. They ruled Mecca between 960 and 1924. One of them, Hussein ibn Ali (1856-1931), was the sharif (ruler) of Mecca from 1908 until 1916. Then, with the support of the people who were not happy with the Turkish rule, he initiated the Arab Revolt of 1916 in Hejaz against Turkey. The Revolt was successful. With the support of Great Britain Hussein was proclaimed the King of Hejaz, but the annexation of Hejaz by the wahhabi Ibn Saud in 1924 put an end to this monarchy.

His son Faisal founded a Royal dynasty in Iraq in 1921, which existed until 1958. As a result of the coup d’état carried out by the military top ranks under the brigade general Abd al-Karim Qasim, King Faisal II, and his uncle Crown Prince Abd al-Illah were murdered.

Another son of Hussein – Abdullah (years of reign 1946-1951) founded the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan. Here the Hashemites are still in power until this day. The current king Abdullah II succeeded to the throne after the death of his father king Hussein bin Talal (1935-1999).

(Olga Bibikova. Encyclopaedia Krugosvet)

²Lawrence of Arabia (Thomas Edward Lawrence) — is a British officer and traveller, who played a significant role in the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918. He authored the famous book of memoirs “Seven Pillars of Wisdom.” Lawrence is acknowledged as a war hero both in Great Britain and in a number of Arab countries in the Middle East. One of the most famous biographical movies in the history of cinema is dedicated to him.