Day 13 - Tuesday, March 21, 2023 - Wadi Rum and travel to Dead Sea

March 22, 2023

A damp, drizzly, foggy and chilly morning as we left Petra for Wadi rum. On my previous trip, we stopped at an overlook where there was a great view looking down at Petra and the mountains. This morning the visibility was about 100' so there was no point in stopping. The dense fog went on for about an hour which made it very difficult for the driver - our guide said we had to stop at a rest area so the driver could rest and get a coffee.

On the bus, Zuhair gave us more of the complicated history of Jordan involving the Ottomans, British, French, and Arabs. Lawrence of Arabia, a British soldier, engaged the Arabs in the fight against the Ottomans but when the war was over, the British didn't give the territory to the Arabs as had been promised. The Hashemites had historically been in the regions corresponding to Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan but when everything was divided up by the British and French, the Hashemites only got what is now Jordan. Palestine was also a British protectorate which had the Arabs who originally lived there and the growing Jewish population.

It only got more complicated after the 1948 war when Jordan "occupied" or "liberated" the West Bank of Palestine. After the 1967 war, Israel "liberated" or "occupied" the West Bank. Palestinians who fled to Jordan, the East Bank, were given Jordanian citizenship. This lasted until 1973 when the PLO led by Yassar Arafat attempted to assassinate King Hussain which made the Palestinians less popular in Jordan. After that, the Palestinians who came to Jordan were not given citizenship and are basically stateless.

Once it cleared up, the landscape was very barren with almost no vegetation. Large areas were absolutely flat and then others had sandstone mountains rising up sharply. Large areas were dug up for mining - Zuhair said it was for silica.

Many of the houses we saw were enclosed in high walled compounds, I assume for wealthier families. They are like the pictures of Osama Bin Laden's compound when he was killed / captured.

Wadi Rum is a huge desert area filled with many steep-sided mountains. It has been the setting for many movies that need a Martian or other-planetary background, like the movie "The Martian" with Matt Damon, "Star Wars" and other movies.

It has become popular for "glamping", luxury tents or domes in the desert with fine finishings, running water, showers. They are also very expensive, running around $1,000/night. We saw many of these as we drove around the desert, generally at the base of mountains. They have water tanks a little way up on the mountain and solar panels for electricity.

I don't know how our bus found the camp where we stopped to get the 4WD trucks - it was about a 15 minute drive through the desert and it wasn't really obvious that there was a track, certainly no road, just sand as we went around many small mountains. We all climbed onto benches in the back of Toyota or Mitsubishi 4WD pickup trucks that looked rather "tired". We were taken to some good spots for scenery and then a Bedouin camp for tea and a chance to buy souvenirs. Then to rocks which had petroglyphs from 800BCE - it is hard to imagine how they could have survived the wind and sand in the desert.

Then back to the camp where we had a delicious lunch in a huge tent. There were dozens of salads, vegetables, olives, meat dishes and many desserts. This camp also has cabins that are geodesic domes.

The drive back was over 4 hours with a rest stop about half way.

We saw many herds of sheep with a shepherd along the side of the road where there were a few tufts of vegetation for them to eat. It is hard to imagine sitting in the desert all day long under the sun. No tent or other shelter.

On the way back, Zuhair gave a rather lengthy description of the 5 pillars of Islam and the distinction between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam. He is a follower of the Sunni branch which is a direct descendent from Mohammed. He said that "true" Islam is very peaceful and tolerant of other religions. They must believe in 27 prophets which include many of the old testament prophets like Abraham, Moses and Isaiah as well as John the Baptist and Jesus. He explained that the extremist Shia were not true followers of Islam. I'm sure the Shia feel exactly the same about the Sunni which is why we have such problems.

On the way down to the Dead Sea we stopped at the marker for sea level and then to the hotel, the Movenpick Dead Sea, a luxurious hotel with very nice rooms, gardens, pools and paths down to the Sea. There is a jacuzzi fed by a rock fountain just a few feet from our room.