JORDAN || Petra - travel vlog (plus Wadi Rum, King's Highway) 15 Degrees North

15° North are travelling again! This time we are in Jordan, visiting the remarkable wonder of the world, Petra, as well as the stunning desert Wadi Rum and road trip the famous King’s Highway, visiting the Dead Sea, Mount Nebo and Kerak Castle.
Jérémy and Ben here again! We love to travel and to satisfy our wanderlust, we are on a European roadtrip exploring the best places for a city break on the continent. We love to escape Britain to experience the best culture, cuisine and attractions that Europe has to offer. If you’re a tourist like us and just need a good itinerary for what to do and how to do it when you’re in Jordan, we will show you the best things to put on your itinerary.
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Jordan is a country in the Middle East in the north-western corner of the Arabian peninsula. We flew into Amman, its capital, but headed straight down the shore of The Dead Sea, which makes up its border with Israel. The country’s name comes from the River Jordan, the Biblical river that links the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Jordan sits on the East Bank, while the West Bank is Israel - or the Palestinian Territory within Israel.
Suitably, our first stop is Mount Nebo, the mountain on which Moses is reported to have first seen “The Promised Land”; the “Land of Milk and Honey” promised to him by God. The view is indeed remarkable and the spot has been marked by a church since the Byzantine era. And its mosaics still survive today.
Heading south, we travel the renowned King’s Highway, which is considered one of the most spectacular road trips in the world. In Medieval Times, it was considered by Christians the frontier between The Holy Land and the Muslim World. Subsequently, during the Crusades, European armies constructed a series of castles along this route. Kerak Castle was the largest of these.
On our second day, we arrive at one of Jordan’s most beautiful sites. Wadi Rum is a stunning desert, littered with sandstone and granite mountains with sheer cliffs looming high above the sand. Its name translates as Valley of the Moon and the region is a National Park, which you have to pay an entrance fee to access. There are no roads that cross it, but you can explore by hopping in the back of a 4x4 and you can pick up quite some speed when zooming across the sand, even if it’s quite the bumpy ride.
The desert is still populated today by Bedouins, living in tents and crossing the dunes on their camels.However, today there are many Bedouin camps nestled in the midst of the dunes especially for tourists, where you can sleep in tents beneath the desert sky bright with stars. We were a little bit blown away by our camp, especially when it was time to take to our camels for the sunset.
The Nabotaeans were the most successful civilisation to live in the region, who were a group of traders who dominated the Arabian peninsula from the fourth century BCE until the fifth CE.
The next morning, the sunrise across the dunes was absolutely glorious, with the pink light perfectly picking up the rosy hues of the dunes. Just like the Nabotaeans before us, we headed north, tracing in the hoofprints of the millions of caravans before us. Except we were on a jeep.
Heading into the rocky ravines and canyons of the Arabah valley, we are heading to the Nabotaeans greatest achievement. Because with all that wealth they accumulated from trade, they built something truly remarkable that was lost to the sands of time millennia. Hidden in the depths of this rocky landscape is their ancient capital, Raqmu. Although we know it by its Greek name: Petra.
Hewn from the very rock of the valley itself, the first building you discover is its most famous. Known as ‘The Treasury’, it was actually a mausoleum. You may recognise it as the location of The Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but it is now known as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and, unsurprisingly, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A vast and sprawling city, all of the sections carved into the cliffs still remain today. The city was abandoned following an earthquake in the fourth century and this booming metropolis was completely forgotten for fifteen hundred years, only to be rediscovered by a Swiss explorer in 1812.
On the far side of the city is Petra’s other treasure, The Monastery. To get there is quite the walk, so we suggest you do like we did and hop on the back of some mules!