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"Jordan Jubilee"
See also
Excursions from Petra
Early views of Petra : the drawings of Laborde, Linant and of David Roberts
David Roberts in the Holy Land GENERAL INFORMATION
Weather in Jordan
GENERAL INFORMATION
JORDAN OUT OF DOORS
Trekking in Jordan Two Bedouin friends and their camels
HISTORY OF JORDAN MEETING THE PEOPLE
THE MIDDLE EAST AROUND
THE WEBSITE FUN
STUFF The Gates of Damascus More Jordan links
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Towns and Tourist Sites in
Jordan
ALL THE PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE CAN BE ENLARGED Close to Petra you have the beautiful semi-desert area of "Baïda" ("the white") - see also the Photo Gallery page on Baida. To get there you pass through the "Bedouin Village of Um Sayhoun where the members of the Bdool tribe, formerly living in the caves in Petra, where they were installed by the government. The houses in the village and the land they occupy were given to the Bedouin in perpetuity in exchange for "liberating" Petra. They were also granted the absolute right to pitch their tents in the area known as "Baida" with the exception of the land nearest to the main road, which is owned by the villagers of Wadi Mousa, who use it mainly for growing wheat and barley (see photos in the Photo Gallery page). Beyond a certain distance from the road, this is "Bedouin territory" and no permanent buildings are allowed anywhere in Baida.
The principal tourist attraction here is "Little Petra". There is usually a shuttle bus leaving fromthe bus station in the village of Wadi Mousa. Little Petra, which I like to think of as a sort of suburb of Petra itself, is something that everybody enjoys, especially as the 10 mile or so drive to get there goes through spectacular country. While you are there, be sure to have a look at the Nabatean cisterns, which now store up the winter rains for the use of the Bedouin during the summer. It is most impressive to think that they are still being put to use. Nearby is also the Neolithic village, which is supposed to be the oldest site discovered where men actually cultivated the soil. It has been dated from 7000BC, and flagons of "Nabatean wine" have been found in tombs in Egypt. A bit further away from the main road is a stone winepress! This shows just how fertile this region must have been two thousand years ago. By no means all of the drivers know of this winepress, and it is a fair way "in" from the main road anyway. You can read more about both Little Petra and the Neolithic village in the Photo Gallery page on Baida. Not far from "Little Petra" you will find the Amarin Bedouin Camp, which is set up to receive tourists. The Amarin are the Bedouin tribe who live in this area. While their cousins, the Bdool, usually make good money working in Petra, this camp is almost the only tourist activity of the Amarin, and if you would like to spend the night in the Baida desert this is a good place to do it. Their website is at www.bedouincamp.net. The two disadvantages of staying here are that it is fairly expensive and that unless you have your own transport you are some distance from the site of Petra. This is a favourite picnicking spot for the villagers of Wadi Mousa who often come out here with their families to cook lunch on a day off. You might well be invited to a "private party" here - women should not accept such invitations before being certain that it won't be TOO private! If you are sure that there are several people there and preferably several tourists, then accept the invitation in the spirit it was probably meant and pass a memorable evening.
It is a wonderful area for hiking and if you can find somebody who knows this area well, you are in luck. If not, and if you have the time (and the money!) it would be well worth employing a guide for the day to take you around here. It is not as spectacularly beautiful as Wadi Rum - at least not until you get to the edge of Wadi Araba, and can look down into the Rift Valley - but that still leaves plenty of scope for it to be beautiful anyway. Dedicated hikers would be in heaven here. There are many trails, all of them completely unmapped - and all of them unsignposted! The price of an official guide for a day's hiking is 80JD but this can often be "negotiated" according to the season. Obviously, you would want to gather as large a group as you can, but PLEASE do not try to go off exploring without somebody who knows the area! Some excellent and highly experienced guides for Petra, not just for hiking, are : Mohammed Hasanat (email explorerone69@yahoo.com, cell phone 0795.603.114 or +962.795.603.114 from outside Jordan). Mohammed can also arrange horse trekking in the area from one day to a week or more. Sufian Amarat 0795.588.114 See note above about the possibility of a Bedouin guide. If you are interested, you might like to look at the page on "Trekking in Jordan" in the "Jordan out of doors" section. There is also a page on "Hiking in the Petra area" There are also a few people who, while not official guides and not qualified to accompany hikers, are nevertheless accustomed to taking tourists into the "wild places", such as Baïda, Wadi Araba or Dana and to organising overnight bivouacs. Try looking for Ahmed Shaban, 0777.728.767. email ahmed_rum86@yahoo.com,Ibrahim Asri Hamadeen at 0795.411.546, or Rebhi Hassanat at 0795.663.410. While here again their charges should be negotiated, they would ask for less than would an official guide.
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