Its major tourist attractions include visiting historical sites, like the worldwide famous Petra (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, and one of New Seven Wonders of the World), the Jordan River, Mount Nebo, Madaba, numerous medieval mosques and churches, and unspoiled natural locations (as Wadi Rum and Jordan’s northern mountainous region in general), as well as observing cultural and religious sites and traditions.

Jordan also offers health tourism, which is focused in the Dead Sea area, education tourism, hiking, snorkeling and scuba diving in Aqaba’s coral reefs, pop-culture tourism and shopping tourism in Jordan’s cities. More than half of the approximate 4.8 million Arab tourists in 2009, mainly from the GCC, said they plan to spend their holidays in Jordan.

kind of tourism in Jordan

A – Tourism of Antiquities
B – Religious tourism
C – Medical Tourism
D – Recreational tourism

the Petra

The city of Petra is located in the southern part of the Kingdom of Jordan within the Ma’an Governorate of the Wadi Musa Brigade

Pliny the Elder and other writers identify Petra as the capital of the Tadeanos and the center of their caravan trade.

Enclosed by towering rocks and watered by a perennial stream, Petra not only possessed the advantages of a fortress, but controlled the main commercial routes which passed through it to Gaza in the west, to Bosra and Damascus in the north, to Aqaba and Leuce Come on the Red Sea, and across the desert to the Persian Gulf.

Excavations have demonstrated that it was the ability of the Nabataeans to control the water supply that led to the rise of the desert city, creating an artificial oasis.

The area is visited by flash floods, and archaeological evidence demonstrates the Nabataeans controlled these floods by the use of dams, cisterns and water conduits.

These innovations stored water for prolonged periods of drought and enabled the city to prosper from its sale.

In ancient times, Petra might have been approached from the south on a track leading across the plain of Petra, around Jabal Haroun (“Aaron’s Mountain”), the location of the Tomb of Aaron, said to be the burial-place of Aaron, brother of Moses.

Another approach was possibly from the high plateau to the north.

Today, most modern visitors approach the site from the east.

The impressive eastern entrance leads steeply down through a dark, narrow gorge (in places only 3–4 m (9.8–13.1 ft) wide) called the Siq (“the shaft”), a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks and serving as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa.

At the end of the narrow gorge stands Petra’s most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh (popularly known as and meaning “the Treasury”), hewn into the sandstone cliff.

While remaining in remarkably preserved condition, the face of the structure is marked by hundreds of bullet holes made by the local Bedouin tribes that hoped to dislodge riches that were once rumored to be hidden within it.

Umm Qais

Umm Qais or Qays (Arabic: أم قيس‎, lit. “Mother of Qais”) is a town in northern Jordan principally known for its proximity to the ruins of the ancient Gadara, also a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see.

It lies in the Bani Kinanah Department and Irbid Governorate in the extreme northwest of the country, near Jordan’s borders with Israel and Syria.

It is perched on a hilltop 378 metres (1,240 ft) above sea level overlooking the Sea of Tiberias, the Golan Heights, and the Yarmouk River gorge.

Gadara (Hebrew: גדרה‎, Gadʾara, or גדר, Gader; Greek: Γάδαρα Gádara) was situated in a defensible position on a ridge accessible to the east but protected by steep falls on the other three sides.[citation needed] It was well-watered, with access to the Ain Qais spring and cisterns.

A member of the Decapolis,] Gadara was a center of Greek culture in the region, considered one of its most Hellenized and enjoying special political and religious status. By the third century BC the town was of some cultural importance.

The Greek historian Polybius describes Gadara as being in 218 BC the “strongest of all places in the region”.

Nevertheless, it capitulated shortly afterwards when besieged by the Seleucid king Antiochus III of Syria.

Under the Seleucids, it was also known as Antiochia (Ancient Greek: Αντιόχεια) or Antiochia Semiramis (Ancient Greek: Ἀντιόχεια Σεμίραμις, Antiókheia Semíramis) and as Seleucia (Ancient Greek: Σελεύκεια).

The region passed in and out of the control of the Seleucid kings of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt. Gadara was captured and damaged by Alexander Jannaeus.

In the early first century BC Gadara gave birth to its most famous son, Meleager.

He was one of the most admired Hellenistic Greek poets, not only for his own works but also for his anthology of other poets, which formed the basis of the large collection known as the Greek Anthology.

In 63 BC, when the Roman general Pompey placed the region under Roman control, he rebuilt Gadara and made it one of the semi-autonomous cities of the Roman Decapolis, and a bulwark against Nabataean expansion. But in 30 BC Augustus placed it under the control of the Jewish king Herod.

The historian Josephus relates that after King Herod’s death in 4 BC Gadara was made part of the Roman province of Syria.

JERASH

Jerash Arabic: جرش‎, Ancient Greek: Γέρασα) is the capital and the largest city of Jerash Governorate, Jordan, with a population of 50,745 as of 2015.

It is located 48 kilometres (30 mi) north of the capital of Jordan, Amman.

The history of the city is a blend of the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean Basin and the ancient traditions of the Arab Orient.

The name of the city reflects this interaction. The earliest Arab/Semitic inhabitants, who lived in the area during the pre-classical period of the 1st millennium BCE, named their village Garshu.

The Romans later Hellenized the former name of Garshu into Gerasa. Later, the name transformed into the Arabic Jerash.

The city flourished until the mid-eighth century CE, when the 749 Galilee earthquake destroyed large parts of it, while subsequent earthquakes (847 Damascus earthquake) contributed to additional destruction. However, In the early 12th century, by the year 1120, Zahir ad-Din Toghtekin, atabeg of Damascus ordered a garrison of forty men stationed in Jerash to convert the Temple of Artemis into a fortress.

It was captured in 1121 by Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, and utterly destroyed. Then, the Crusaders immediately abandoned Jerash and withdrew to Sakib (Seecip); the eastern border of the settlement.

Ajlon

There is a theory that the town’s name is connected with the Moabite King Eglon mentioned in the Bible, though the precise derivation is obscure.

Countryside of Ajlon
Ajlun Castle is located on the site of an old monastery.

It was renovated as a fort in 1184 by Izz al-Din Usama, a general in the army of Saladin. The castle controlled traffic along the road connecting Damascus and Egypt.

The fortress marks the furthest limit of Frankish incursions during the Crusades. The Mamluks added a prominent tower to the castle.

It was captured by the Mongols in 1260 and was partially destroyed in the process. Great damage was done by the Galilee earthquake of 1837 and the 1927 Jericho earthquake.

Located in the center of Ajloun is the Great Ajlun Mosque.

This mosque is one of the oldest extant in Jordan and dates back around 800 years. This edifice was previously a Byzantine Christian church; there have been reports of Greek writing in the oldest sections.

The prayer tower is called “the filter” by some locals (referring to a cigarette filter, because half of the tower was built over a square tower, most likely a Church bell tower).

In 2007 work began on improving the mosque to allow tourists to visit it.

There are also reports that when the west wall fell apart in the heavy rains and snow in January 2013 a Bible and crosses were found in the old section.

Al-Karak

Al-Karak (Arabic: الكرك‎), also known as just Karak or Kerak, is a city in Jordan known for its Crusader castle, the Kerak Castle.

The castle is one of the three largest castles in the region, the other two being in Syria.

Al-Karak is the capital city of the Karak Governorate.

Al-Karak lies 140 kilometres (87 mi) to the south of Amman on the ancient King’s Highway.

It is situated on a hilltop about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level and is surrounded on three sides by a valley.

Al-Karak has a view of the Dead Sea. A city of about 32,216 people (2005) has been built up around the castle and it has buildings from the 19th-century Ottoman period.

The town is built on a triangular plateau, with the castle at its narrow southern tip.

Qasr Amra

Qasr Amra (قصر عمرة / ALA-LC: Qaṣr ‘Amrah), also transcribed as Quseir Amra or Qusayr Amra, is the best-known of the desert castles located in present-day eastern Jordan.

It was built early in the 8th century, some time between 723 and 743, by Walid Ibn Yazid, the future Umayyad caliph Walid II, whose dominance of the region was rising at the time.

It is considered one of the most important examples of early Islamic art and architecture. The discovery of an inscription during work in 2012 has allowed for more accurate dating of the structure.

The building is actually the remnant of a larger complex that included an actual castle, of which only the foundation remains.

What stands today is a small country cabin, meant as a royal retreat, without any military function.

It is most notable for the frescoes that remain on the ceilings inside, which depict, among others, a group of rulers, hunting, naked women and, above one bath chamber, an accurate representation of the zodiac.

These have led to its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of five in the country.

That status, and its location along Jordan’s major east–west highway, relatively close to Amman, have made it a frequent tourist destination.

Umm ar-Rasas

Umm ar-Rasas (Arabic: أم الرّصاص‎) (Kastrom Mefa’a, Kastron Mefa’a) is located 30 km southeast of Madaba, which is the capital city of the Madaba Governorate in central Jordan. It was once accessible by branches of the King’s Highway, and is situated in the semi-arid steppe region of the Jordanian Desert. The site has been allied to the biblical settlement of Mephaat mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.

The Roman military utilized the site as a strategic garrison, but it was later converted and inhabited by Christian and Islamic communities.

In 2004, the site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. and is valued by archaeologists for its extensive ruins dating to the Roman, Byzantine, and early Muslim periods.

Studium Biblicum Franciscanum[carried out excavations at the north end of the site in 1986, but much of the area remains buried under debris.

kind of tourism in Jordan

A – Tourism of Antiquities
B – Religious tourism
C – Medical Tourism

Machaerus (Μαχαιροῦς, from Ancient Greek: μάχαιρα, lit.

‘Makhaira’ (a sword); Arabic: ِقلعة مكاور‎ Qal’atu Mkawer) is a fortified hilltop palace located in Jordan 25 km (16 mi) southeast of the mouth of the Jordan river on the eastern side of the Dead Sea.

According to Flavius Josephus, it is the location of the imprisonment and execution of John the Baptist.

According to the chronology of the Bible (Mark 6:24; Matthew 14:8), this infamous execution took place in 32 AD shortly before the Passover, following an imprisonment of two years.

The site also provides the setting for four additional New Testament characters: Herod the Great; his son, Tetrarch Herod Antipas; his second wife, Princess Herodias, and her daughter, Princes

Jordan River

he Jordan River or River Jordan (Hebrew: נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, Nahar ha-Yarden; Classical Syriac: ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ‎, Arabic: نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ‎, Nahr al-Urdunn; Ancient Greek: Ιορδάνης, Iordànes) is a 251-kilometre-long (156 mi) river in the Middle East that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee (Hebrew: כנרת Kinneret, Arabic: Bohayrat Tabaraya, meaning Lake of Tiberias) and on to the Dead Sea.

Jordan and the Golan Heights border the river to the east, while the West Bank and Israel lie to its west.

Both Jordan and the West Bank take their names from the river.

Madaba

Madaba (Arabic: مادبا‎; Biblical Hebrew: מֵידְבָא Medvah; Ancient Greek: Μήδαβα[2]) is the capital city of Madaba Governorate in central Jordan, with a population of about 60,000.

It is best known for its Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics, especially a large Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land.

Madaba is located 30 kilometres (19 miles) south-west of the capital Amman.

Mount Nebo

Mount Nebo (Arabic: جبل نيبو‎ Jabal Nībū; Hebrew: הַר נְבוֹ Har Nevo) is an elevated ridge in Jordan, approximately 710 metres (2,330 ft) above sea level, mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land.

The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan.

The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day.

kind of tourism in Jordan

A – Tourism of Antiquities
B – Religious tourism
C – Medical Tourism

Medical Tourism

There is no doubt that Jordan has become a destination for medical tourism in the region and one of the world’s largest destinations for travelers seeking tourism, recreation and physiotherapy at the same time.  

God has loved Jordan in a number of natural sites from which the therapeutic water flows.

The Jordanian citizen contributed to the development of the medical sector with a number of modern hospitals, which today have a good Arab reputation and are intended for treatment.

The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is the most famous natural tourist place in Jordan.

Its dry, warm and watery climate is characterized by large proportions of salts and minerals because it is the lowest point in the earth.

It is popular among tourists for the possibility of floating in its waters. 

Located in Madaba Governorate

Located in Madaba Governorate, south of Jordan, 60 km from Amman, Maeen is a one-day tour with a well-developed tourist resort, thanks to the services provided by natural clinics, benefiting from its mineral water Therapeutic properties.

Spa Afra

Spa Afra is a natural tourist resort near the city of Tafila in the south of Jordan about 25 km, characterized by its hot springs with therapeutic properties in addition to the temperate climate and natural beauty of the area, you can find there accommodation facilities and treatment necessary to ensure you a comfortable stay.

Hamma of Jordan

In Jordan, a small village located in the Bani Kenana district of Irbid, lies between the green nature and the beautiful weather, under which the therapeutic mineral water, then hot and rich mineral salts, Jordan invested in this natural resource and made it a tourist resort intended for visitors to treat various diseases.

Worked by :Fatima Bent Al Yaman

High School-Teacher: Aisha Ghraibeh

Student:Nagham Jaradat