Jordan Off The Beaten Path Tips by barryg23

Wadi Mujib

Of the many spectacular sights along the King's Highway, perhaps the Wadi Mujib canyon is the most impressive. This huge canyon winds its way from the mountains down to the Dead Sea, dropping from a height of 1200 metres to the lowest point on Earth, 400 metres below sea level.

The canyon is situated between Madaba and Karak, and the best way to access it is along the King's Highway, a long, winding route through the hills which stretches all the way from Madaba to below Petra. There is a viewpoint on the King's Highway above Wadi Mujib from where there are excellent views of the canyon. This is a very windswept place but worth stopping for the superb scenery.

Pella

The ruins of Pella pale in comparison to those in Jerash or Umm Qais, but the location in the hills east of the River Jordan Valley is stunning and it's a very peaceful and scenic place with good hiking opportunities.

Pella's ruins consist of three Byzantine churches spread out over a wide area. The site is free to visit but there's no information available on site about what you are seeing.

Above the ruins lies the Resthouse, a restaurant run by a friendly local man, Hussein, who also operates the Countryside Hotel, the only hotel in the area. See my accommodation tip on the Countryside Hotel for more about this - most people visit Pella on a day trip from Jordan taking in Jerash and Umm Qais, but it's much nicer to stay in the area if you can.

To get to Pella you turn off the River Jordan Highway at Msharea, until after about two kilometres you'll see signs for Pella.

Yarmuck Gorge

Most visitors to Umm Qais take the road from Irbid, but there is a more scenic route along the Yarmuck Gorge road, which takes you from the River Jordan Highway up into the hills via a spectacular winding route with switchbacks.

The views of the Jordan Valley and the Yarmuck Gorge are spectacular while you can also catch an occasional glimpse of the Golan Heights to the north. The drive starts from the village of Shuneh in the River Jordan Valley.

The turn off is signposted only in Arabic, so it's very easy to miss. We drove through the village and ended up at near Baquora, an area close tot he Israeli border patrolled by the Jordanian army. The army guy spoke no English but he pointed us back to Shuneh. Once back in Shuneh we finally worked out the way to the Yarmuck Gorge road by comparing the Arabic writing on the signposts with what was in our guidebook!

It took about 30 minutes to reach Umm Qais along this road, but we did stop a number of times to take pictures and to admire the view. We also caught a glimpse of the huge Wihdeh Dam, a joint engineering project between Jordan and Syria.

This whole area is very close to the border so we also had to stop at a couple of checkpoints. But despite the security presence it's a wonderful drive and a good alternative route to Umm Qais.

Mukawir

The small village of Mukawir is reached by a 20 km detour off the King's Highway, and is worth a visit for the chance to see the ruined Palace of Machaerus, which stands on a hill beyond the village, and which is best known as the place where Salome danced for King Herod and where John the Baptist was beheaded.

Not much remains of the palace nowadays, but the view is still superb, with excellent panoramas in all directions, especially down to the Dead Sea and across into Israel. There is a car park opposite the hillside, from where it's a 10 minute hike to the top.

Jebel Sartaba

After staying overnight in the Pella Countryside Hotel, we hiked to the summit of Jebel Sartaba (309m) the following morning. This is a fairly straightforward hike though finding the summit took us longer than I would have thought.

The hike starts from the Pella resthouse, and descends to the Pella ruins (40 metres below sea-level), before climbing steeply to Sartaba. This hike is especially nice in spring when flowers cover the hillside. It took us just under two hours for the whole hike - ie to the summit and back to the Resthouse. The mountain was deserted other than for a couple of shepherds and their sheep and goats.

From the summit there are excellent views down to the River Jordan Valley and across into Palestine. Also on the summit are the ruins of a Hellenistic fortress. We learned about this hike from the useful trekking book "Jordan: Walks, Treks, Caves and Canyons" by Di Taylor and Tony Howard.