Jordan

King Hussain Mosque photo courtesy of Jordan Tourist BoardJordan is a land rich in history. Since the dawn of civilization, it has played an important role in trade between east and west because of its geographic location at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. Jordan played a vital role in Roman, Biblical, early Islamic and Crusader periods. All around are the remnants of civilizations long since relegated to the history books, yet they still remain, eched into the soul of the people who reside there.Through the words of the prohets Abraham, Job and Moses, the Bible’s Old Testament records that God first manifested Himself to man in what is today the land of Jordan. Biblical interpretations have located the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden to an area along the north-west bank of the River Jordan known as Beysan. It is also suggested that when Cain killed his brother Abel and was banished, he went to one of the three sites east of the River Jordan that would later be known as the “Cities of Refuge”. The land witnessed the missions of the prophets from the historic journey of Moses and the Isrealites to the meteoric rise of the Christian faith heraled in the New Testament by John the Baptist and the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The spritual area known in the Old Testament as the “Plains of Moab” and in the New Testament as “Peraea” covers the lands to the east of Jordan’s famous river of baptism and along the Dead SEa in the western part. Jesus travelled, taught and healed the sick throughout Transjordan, in the regions of Decapolis and Peraea. Some of the world’s earlies churches have been found in Jordan, including the 2nd or 3rd century “prayer hall” at Bethany, the 4th century church at Umm Qays and the remains of what is believed to be the oldest purpose-built church in the world at Aqaba.

Peek at Petra courtesy of Jordan Tourist BoardThe Kingdom of Jordan was founded by King Abdullah I after World War I. It was ruled by his grandson, the late King Hussein, for 46 years until his death in 1999, when his son King Abdullah II assumed the throne. Jordan has grown into a modern nation which has enjoyed a remarkable measure of peace, stability and economic growth in recent decades.

Jordan is in the heart of the Middle East, Northwest of Saudi Arabia, South of Syria, Southwest of Iraq, and East of Israel and the Occupied West Bank. With a combination of Mediterranean and arid desert climates, Jordan has has warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. This is the country of Petra, 2,000-year-old pink and salmon colored rock-carved city capital of the Nabataean Arabs, the Dead Sea and the Wadi Rum desert, where you can trace the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia. Here you can visit 10,000 years old villages where humankind first began experimenting with village life as well as drive down to the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley, and bask in the sun at the lowest spot on earth, or visit several of the mysterious 8th Century AD Islamic desert castles, some of which were so large they were never completed, or even go back further in time, to the Greco-Roman world of Jerash and the Cities of the Decapolis with their theaters, colonnaded streets, baths and temples.

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