Jordan Highlights

This extensively updated new edition of Jordan Highlights condenses the very best of Jordan into a compact, eminently portable and user-friendly guide. It whets your appetite for some of the world's most remarkable experiences. Jordan boasts an array of captivating landscapes, a rich history, and warm, welcoming people. It is also eminently accessible (partly thanks to budget airlines), politically stable and provides a relatively tranquil tourist experience. Best known for the rock-cut city of Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world, and for its service as locations in films such as Lawrence of Arabia, Dune, Star Wars and Aladdin, this fascinating and enchanting country boasts numerous top-drawer visitor attractions. Visit the ancient city of Jerash and the lively markets of Amman. Delve into the depths of the Gulf of Aqaba, bob like a cork in the turquoise waters of the Dead Sea (where the altitude is 416 metres lower than Buckingham Palace) and float over the stunning scenery of Wadi Rum in a hot-air balloon. Walk in the footsteps of Popes Benedict and John Paul at Mount Nebo, where this guidebook reveals the spot where Moses is believed to have seen the promised land. Journey to the sacred baptism site, Bethany Beyond the Jordan, where the Bible records that John baptised Jesus. And admire the 6th-century Madaba Map, an intriguing depiction of the Holy Land from the Byzantine era. Complementing this succinct guide's compelling descriptions of such fabulous sites are a raft of indispensable information on getting to and around Jordan, easy-to-follow maps for key locations and up-to-date listings of where to eat, sleep and relax. New or expanded elements in this second edition include the Abdali leisure area and souqs of Amman, Jerash, Aqaba, the Dead Sea Valley, the historic Hijaz Rail and improved insights into Lawrence of Arabia plus a section on geology and nature. Insightful coverage in an easy-to-carry format renders Bradt Highlights Jordan your essential travel companion.

Freelance photographer and travel writer Paul Doyle (pauljdoyle.com) has been a frequent visitor to the Middle East since the mid-1990s, when he travelled to the Lebanese capital of Beirut to document the city's reconstruction following the 1975-90 civil war. From this trip, his interest in the region and Arab world burgeoned with numerous visits to Egypt, Israel, Libya, Syria and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan all serving to deepen his knowledge, passion and understanding of the culture, history and politics of the region - and resulted in him writing Bradt's travel guidebook to Lebanon. As a photographer, Doyle's images have appeared widely in the UK and overseas in newspapers, magazines and travel guides.