Jordan – travel to another planet

Jordan is the perfect country for a week trip. Thousand-year-old Amman, the mysterious ancient city of Petra, the red desert of Wadi Rum – the scenery of almost all films about Mars, delicious and unusual cuisine, touching the culture of the Bedouins who still live among the sands – such a concentration of impressions is dizzying!

Duke’s Diwan is a true architectural legacy of old Amman. The building was built in 1924 and until the end of the 40s was used as a post office building. Then the Haifa Hotel was located here for almost half a century. In 2001, the building was rented for double the price to save it from demolition. Mamduh Bisharat, also known as the Duke of Muheihe.

Duke’s Diwan is named after the Duke himself – “Duke”, and “Diwan” is an Arabic word that refers to a room in the house that is always open to guests. In the photo – the Duke himself)

Now Duke’s Diwan in Amman is a meeting place for artists, poets, writers and musicians. Various concerts and events are constantly held here, this place is a real center of attraction for all people of art. Much of the original 1920s decor has been restored throughout the residence, including the vintage radio, original stove, and period chairs. The walls are adorned with framed memorabilia from the glory days of the Haifa Hotel.

Petra is the ancient capital of the Nabateans, which 2000 years ago was the richest city, located at the intersection of the main trade routes of the area, and had a complex system of plumbing, water purification and even the removal of possible floods due to heavy winter rains. According to recent discoveries, there were even swimming pools here! Living right in the middle of the desert, the inhabitants of this city have never needed water. Now this is a huge territory open to tourists, with many ruins of ancient buildings, crypts carved into the rock and built from blocks of sandstone, and a real find for archaeologists who have explored only a small part of this ancient heritage.

The entrance to Petra passes through the bottom of the Siq Canyon, along a path winding between high multi-colored sandstone rocks of all shades of pink, red, yellow and orange. Previously, this gorge served as the main entrance to the ancient city and was used by royal caravans. Now it is the main entrance for tourists)

Al-Khazneh is the most impressive building of Petra, completely carved into the rock, the first to meet travelers at the exit of the Siq canyon leading to the city. Magnificent and extraordinary building!

A local souvenir – a bottle of colored sand, we bought it in Petra. They say that only natural sand is used here, unlike other places in the country.

In a small tent, not far from Al-Khazneh, Murad settled down, busy creating more and more new bottles with sand drawings. Usually these are images of camels against the backdrop of the desert, or miniature Al-Khazneh. Murad is 37 years old, and the sale of these bottles feeds his entire large family. Together with him was his son, who also makes these souvenirs, but so far he lacks experience and perseverance. Inside the bottle, they can also write your name or some short word, but, unfortunately, they write with ordinary ink, not sand)

Looking at the Martian landscapes of the Wadi Rum desert, it always seemed to me that a spaceship was about to fly overhead, and around the corner from behind another rock a man in a spacesuit would come out and be glad that he had finally met other people here) Landscapes with high red- brown rocks and fine red sand really seem to transfer to another planet, and the feeling of being there for the first time, and from the sight of these landscapes, is difficult to convey in words. I even wanted to stay here and live for some time among these sand dunes in order to really feel this harsh, but such an attractive world of the red desert.

The Bedouins love music and sing, accompanying themselves on their national instruments. A ribaba is like a violin, but with one string, which is made from horse hair. The instrument itself is covered in leather. At a short stop in a Bedouin camp in the middle of the desert, over a cup of mint tea, we listened for a long time to the monotonous, but melodious singing, to the sounds of this strange, but so suitable instrument for these reddish sands.