So if Iran, or at least its big cities could be Europe, then there’s no mistaking Jordan for anything other than the “Middle East”! Mind you, that wasn’t the first impression. The drive from Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport to our hotel could have been in Europe or the US - as we pass not one, but two McDonalds, a Burger King, Starbucks, Safeway and even IKEA! Our hotel is located in what’s called the “new” section of Amman, by Roundabout #5, the interesting way this particular neighbourhood is divided up. 

The sprawling city of Amman is built on a series of hills: rocky, barren and for the most part devoid of any vegetation. The same can’t be said of the new section of the city where our hotel is located, which is in effect the diplomatic quarter and has grown up over the past couple of decades since the construction in the area of a new US embassy (a large, massively fortified structure with tanks parked at either end of the street frontage). This district of Amman is all neat paved streets, Beverly Hills sized mansions and expensive cars, Jordanian millionaires, embassies and ambassadorial residences

How different though is the rest of Amman and indeed as far as we saw, the rest of the country. Although there is archeological evidence of habitation in what is now Amman going back millennia (known during Roman times at least as Philadelphia), the current version of Amman dates back only to 1946 when the city was chosen to be the capital of the newly independent (=artificially created) nation of Jordan. I doubt if there was much competition! Modern-day Amman sprawls over 22 brown and barren hillsides and the city’s predominant architecture appears to be concrete blocks which on closer inspection are houses or more likely apartments. At least a third of Jordan’s population of 10 million (excluding 2 million plus Syrian refugees) live in Amman which is now spreading out into nearby valleys and hillsides.

Jordan is the second-most water-poor country on earth (Uganda being the first according to our guide, but I question the accuracy of that statement!) and that is more than abundantly clear, if not before then as soon as you leave downtown Amman. I have never seen such a brown, rocky, dry and barren landscape as we see in Jordan - even in the northern half of the country which is described as more Mediterranean than desert. Cultivated land is minimal and finding anything to graze on must be a real challenge for the numerous small flocks of sheep and goats that we see. All that really seems to flourish are plastic bags! Fields, some even ploughed where crops should or will grow are strewn with plastic bags; roadsides, gutters, any empty areas of land - all literally a sea of plastic bags. Jordan has a really serious trash problem and as far as we are able to tell, nobody cares.....

Better than Rome

Petra might be Jordan’s star turn but when it comes to the “wow” factor, the ancient Graeco-Roman city of Jerash, a little to the north of Amman isn’t far behind. Lost and forgotten for centuries, hidden under sand and rubble, Jerash was one of the the great commercial cities of the “Decapolis” a group of ten (or perhaps more) cities stretching from Damascus through what are now, Syria, Jordan and Israel. This incredibly well preserved example of a Roman city dating from around the beginning of the Common Era has only been excavated and restored over the past 70 years. In fact the floor of the Oval Plaza, the main square of the city was only discovered by accident during the 1967 war between Israel and its neighbours, when the Jordanian army were “digging in” with the intention of turning the area into a defensive encampment!

So if you think you’ve seen Ancient Rome in Rome, just come an take a look at Jerash....