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Jordan Events
Culture
and History
Local Health Conditions
Visas Overview
Geography
Jordan Transport
Events Overview
Not surprisingly, Jordanian holidays and festivals
are mostly Islamic. The big one is Ramadan, a month
where everyone fasts between sunup and sunset to
conform to the fourth pillar of Islam. If you're in
Jordan at this time, be sensitive to the fact that
most of the people around you are fasting. Ramadan
ends with a huge feast, Eid al-Fitr, where everyone
prays together, visits friends, gives presents and
lives it up. Eid al-Adah, held around February
(though the month changes almost every year), is the
other big feast of the year, and marks the time when
Muslims should make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Non-religious holidays include Independence Day on
25 May.
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Culture
and History
Overview
Despite the region's rich tradition of music,
literature and arts, the comparatively modern nation
of Jordan could not boast much in the way of a
distinctive arts and literature until the 1980s.
Jordan's emergence as a centre of contemporary arts
was recognised by UNESCO, which chose Amman as its
Arab Cultural Capital for 2002.
Pre 20th Century History
 Until
the early 20th century, Jordan was part of
Palestine, most of which is now the State of Israel.
The area is home to one of the oldest civilisations
in the world - archaelogical finds from the west
bank of the Jordan River have been dated at around
9000 BC. From 3000 BC the area was inhabited by the
Canaanites and Amorites, and after them the armies
of Sargon, king of Sumer and Akkad. Around 1800 BC
Abraham led a group of nomads from Mesopotamia and
settled in the mountains of Canaan (which roughly
corresponds to present-day Israel). By 1023 BC the
Israelites had formed a kingdom, led by Saul and
then David, who captured Jerusalem and made it his
capital. The unstoppable Roman Empire took Israel in
63 BC and placed it under the control of a series of
consuls, including Herod the Great and Pontius
Pilate. It was at this time that Jesus was believed
to have lived and preached in the area. The
increasing insanity of the Empire under Caligula
prompted a series of Jewish uprisings, which lasted
for years but were finally crushed when Jerusalem
was razed and the province of Palestine decreed.
This defeat marked the end of the Jewish state and
the beginning of the Diaspora, the scattering of the
Jewish people.
In 331 AD Emperor Constantine became a Christian and
gave his official stamp of approval to the
previously illegal religion. Suddenly everyone
wanted to know about the Holy Land, and a rash of
buildings, including the churches of the Holy
Sepulchre and the Nativity, sprang up all over
Palestine to mark sites of religious importance. But
Christianity's hold over the country was not to last
long - in 638 AD Jerusalem fell to Caliph Omar and
was declared a Holy City of Islam, on the grounds
that the Prophet Mohammed had ascended to heaven
from atop the Temple Mount. Christians around the
world raised their hackles at this desecration, and
by 1099 they'd scrounged together a crusading army
and occupied Jerusalem, murdering everyone they
could get their hands on and beginning nearly 100
years of Christian rule. But by 1187 the Muslims
again had the upper hand - after decades of
Christian/Muslim scuffling, the Islamic Mamluks
knocked over the last Crusader stronghold in 1291.
The next 500 years were some of the quietest
Palestine has seen. Empires rose and fell, and
control of the country changed hands with monotonous
regularity, eventually coming to rest in the hands
of the Ottoman Empire. Much of desert Jordan
sidestepped all this change and remained a Bedouin
stronghold.
Modern History
 When
the Ottoman Empire collapsed after WWI, Britain took
control of Palestine and created the state of
Transjordan, under the rule of King Abdullah.
In 1948 Israeli Arabs and Jews went to war with one
another. While everyone was distracted, Transjordan
snapped up the West Bank and part of Jerusalem, then
renamed itself Jordan. In 1953 King Hussein took the
throne and Jordan entered a boom period, with a rise
in tourism and plenty of aid flowing in from the
USA. The Six Day War of 1967 put paid to Jordan's
burgeoning tourist industry when Israel retook the
West Bank and half of that huge drawcard, Jerusalem.
In six days Jordan lost its money spinner and its
agricultural land, and replaced them with a few
thousand refugees as Palestinians streamed in from
the Occupied Territories. By the 1970s, the PLO
component of the refugee population was threatening
King Hussein's power, and a bloody internal war
began, ending when most of the radicals moved to
Lebanon.
In 1994 Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty,
agreeing to drop economic barriers and cooperate on
security and water. This raised concerns among
Palestinians that they would be eased out of the
region, as Israel and Jordan divided the spoils
between themselves. At the same time, Jordan was
increasing its links with Yasser Arafat's Palestine
National Authority and working toward agreements
with them. In recent years Jordan has also restored
relations - cut during the 1991 Gulf War - with
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. King Hussein had begun
moving the country towards democracy; the Islamic
Action Front (with its links to the Muslim
Brotherhood and fairly fundamentalist policies) has
been the most successful party so far, but his death
in February 1999 has left the future uncertain. King
Hussein had named his eldest son, King Abdullah II,
successor to the throne just weeks before dying,
although the Constitution stipulates that both
parents of the king must be Arab and Muslim by birth
(Abdullah's mother was a British citizen who
embraced Islam prior to marrying King Hussein).
Recent History
 King
Abdullah, the sort of monarch who enjoys dressing up
as a taxi driver and talking with his subjects
incognito, has the growing support of the
international community as well as most Jordanians,
including the large and influential Palestinian
community. Under his reign, Jordan has moved closer
to Israel with a 2002 deal to pipe water from the
Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea at a cost of
800000000, and a 2004 deal to develop a desert
science centre on their mutual border. At the same
time, ties with Egypt and Syria have been
strengthened.
The first independent elections in 2003 saw a
majority of seats go to independent royalist
candidates. There were signs, however, that Jordan's
'each-way bet' foreign policy was under pressure. In
October 2002 a senior US diplomat was assassinated
in Amman, and the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad was
bombed in August 2003, killing 11 people. This was
followed by the worst attack in Jordan's recent
history - a triple bomb blast that killed 60 people
in Amman. Despite these pressures to succumb to
violence, Jordan continues to act in a moderating
role between its troubled neighbours, particularly
Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Responding to
the threat of terror on its own soil, Jordanian
officials claim to have provided information to the
United States that led to the June 2006
assassination of Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi.
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Local Health Conditions
Hepatitis
 Several
different viruses cause hepatitis; they differ in
the way that they are transmitted. The symptoms in
all forms of the illness include fever, chills,
headache, fatigue, feelings of weakness and aches
and pains, followed by loss of appetite, nausea,
vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, light-coloured
faeces, jaundiced (yellow) skin and yellowing of the
whites of the eyes. Hepatitis A is transmitted by
contaminated food and drinking water. Seek medical
advice, but there is not much you can do apart from
resting, drinking lots of fluids, eating lightly and
avoiding fatty foods. Hepatitis E is transmitted in
the same way as hepatitis A; it can be particularly
serious in pregnant women.
Hepatitis B is the most common hepatitis in Jordan
and is spread through contact with infected blood,
blood products or body fluids, for example through
sexual contact, unsterilised needles (and shaving
equipment) and blood transfusions, or contact with
blood via small breaks in the skin. The symptoms of
hepatitis B may be more severe than type A and the
disease can lead to long-term problems such as
chronic liver damage, liver cancer or a long-term
carrier state. Hepatitis C and D are spread in the
same way as hepatitis B and can also lead to
long-term complications.
There are vaccines against hepatitis A and B, but
there are currently no vaccines against the other
types. Following the basic rules about food and
water (hepatitis A and E) and avoiding risk
situations (hepatitis B, C and D) are important
preventative measures.
Typhoid
Vaccination against typhoid is recommended if you're
travelling for more than a couple of weeks in
Jordan.
Also known as enteric fever, Typhoid is transmitted
via food and water, and symptomless carriers,
especially when they're working as food handlers,
are an important source of infection. Typhoid is
caused by a type of salmonella bacteria, Salmonella
typhi. Paratyphoid is a similar but milder disease.
The symptoms are variable, but you almost always get
a fever and headache to start with, which initially
feels very similar to flu, with aches and pains,
loss of appetite and general malaise. Typhoid may be
confused with malaria. The fever gradually rises
during a week. Characteristically your pulse is
relatively slow for someone with a fever. Other
symptoms you may have are constipation or diarrhoea
and stomach pains. You may feel worse in the second
week, with a constant fever and sometimes a red skin
rash. Other symptoms you may have are severe
headache, sore throat and jaundice. Serious
complications occur in about one in 10 cases,
including, most commonly, damage to the gut wall
with subsequent leakage of the gut contents into the
abdominal cavity. Seek medical C and higher) that
does not improve after 48 hours.°help for any fever
(38 Typhoid is a serious disease and is not
something you should consider self-treating.
Re-hydration therapy is important if diarrhoea has
been a feature of the illness, but antibiotics are
the mainstay of treatment.
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Visas Overview
All foreigners need a visa to enter
Jordan. You can get a single-entry visa at the
airport or at most border crossings when you arrive,
or from consulates in your country. Visas are valid
for three months from the date you enter the country
but you must register at a police station within one
month of arrival. Don't forget to register or you'll
be liable to pay a fine of JD2 for every
unregistered day. Avoid registering at Wadi Musa,
which is notorious for its red tape. Note that visas
of any sort are not available at King Hussein
(Allenby) Bridge, so
 don't
come this way unless you already have a visa.
Multiple-entry visas are not issued on arrival
anywhere, and must be obtained in advance. One quirk
in the system is that if you arrive in Jordan on a
single-entry visa via any border except King Hussein
(Allenby) Bridge, you can then cross into Israel and
the Palestinian Territories via the King Hussein
Bridge crossing and then return to Jordan the same
way without needing a multiple-entry visa or another
single-entry visa. The cost for all nationalities is
JD10 (single entry visa). Keep your passport on you
whenever you're near the Israeli border, as there
are lots of military checkpoints. Visitors arriving
from Aquaba can request a free visa (Aquaba is a
special economic zone). The ASEZ visa is valid for
one month and there is no need to register with the
police. ASEZ visa holders staying longer than one
month can only extend the visa in Aquaba. If that
sounds like too much of a hassle, you can always get
a normal visa in Aquaba for the regular cost. ASEZ
visa holders do not pay departure tax.
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Geography
Jordan is bounded to
the north by Syria, to the northeast by Iraq, to the
east and south by Saudi Arabia and to the west by
Israel. It has three distinct geographic zones: the
fertile Jordan Valley, which runs down the western
side of the country; the East Bank plateau, where
most of the main towns are; and the East Bank, a
desert which stretches east into Syria, Iraq and
Saudi Arabia. Jordan is a smallish country shaped
like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. An apocryphal story
holds that the lumpy eastern border was created by
Winston Churchill after a very liquid lunch.
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Jordan Transport
Overview
Amman has an international airport, with flights
from Beirut, Cairo, Damascus and further afield.
Departure tax is 5.00 for foreign travellers
departing by land, air or sea. Buses travel between
Amman and Damascus (about four hours unless there is
considerable delay at the border), Baghdad (14
hours), Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh (about 24 hours).
There are indirect buses to Jerusalem; for Eilat
you'll need to hire a taxi from Aquaba (5.00). You
can also catch service taxis from Jordan to Syria
and Iraq, or a train from Amman to Damascus (Monday
and Thursday). A ferry/bus service runs from Amman
to Cairo, or you can get a fast boat between Aqaba
and Nuweiba in Sinai
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