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Title: Blue Guide Jordan, Third Edition (Blue Guides) by Sue Rollin, Jane Streetly ISBN: 0-393-32250-5 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Don't Leave for Jordan Without It
Comment: Jordan is a country that is known to most Westerners mainly for its front-line role in the Arab-Israeli conflict; for the spectacular Nabataean temples carved into cliff-faces at Petra; and as the scene of Lawrence of Arabia's adventures during the First World War. Now that it has a formal peace treaty with Israel, more westerners are making their way to Jordan. Those who do will find the Blue Guide to Jordan an invaluable companion. I also recommend it highly to armchair travelers who just want to learn more about this little-known but intriguing country.
As a series, the Blue Guides have long been famous among discriminating travelers for their astonishingly comprehensive coverage of history, archaeology, architecture, and art. At the same time, the series was known for its refusal to make any concessions to the mass market: Blue Guides typically had no information on hotels and restaurants, and while they always offered superb plans of archaeological sites and museums, they had no photographs or other illustrations, and their covers appeared never to have been run past a graphics designer. Moreover, while written in clear and impeccable English, the understated texts rarely offered much in the way of color or afforded any glimpse of the personality of their author or authors.
All that began to change around fifteen years ago, and the Blue Guide to Jordan is a wonderful example of new model Blue Guides. The series has hung on to all that was good in its original approach while adding drawings, photographs, practical information, and a more engaging and colorful text.
The Blue Guide to Jordan provides unexcelled coverage of Jordan's best-known sites - Petra and its environs are treated in no less than 45 pages, while 14 pages are devoted to the Roman ruins at Jerash (Gerasa). But the real riches of this guide lie in its coverage of lesser-known sites - the Omayyad palaces strung like pearls across the desert between Jordan's international airport and the oasis at Azraq; the black basalt Byzantine ghost town of Umm al-Jimal; the Crusader cave stronghold of al-Habis Jaldak; the enigmatic Chalcolithic site of Jawa, dating to 3000 B.C., its massive walls looming over the "Black Desert"; or the mysterious and tragic mountain refuge of Sela.
The Blue Guide to Jordan will also teach you that the legendary biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are to be identified with the Bronze Age tells of Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira in the Dead Sea valley, both of which were destroyed by fire around 2350 B.C. The authors note that "The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah may preserve the memory of an earthquake, a not uncommon event in the Rift Valley, perhaps causing some of the bitumen there to ignite. As for Lot's wife, most travelers have managed to identify her somewhere among the strange crystalline salt formations."
Another highlight is the Guide's meticulous coverage of the 5000-year-old King's Highway through the mountains of Moab on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, with such points of interest as Mount Nebo, the eminence from whence tradition says that Moses glimpsed the Promised Land and was buried; Madaba, with its famous 6th-century mosaic map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land; the deep gorge of Wadi Mujib; and the imposing Crusader-Ayyubid-Mameluke fortress of Karak.
Still, it is clear that the two doughty British authors, Sue Rollin and Jane Streetly, are particularly intrigued by Jordan's surviving legacy of Roman fortifications. This was the wild eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, and chains of robust quadrangular forts rose in the desert to protect commerce along highways like the Via Nova Traiana or the Strata Diocletiana. Rollin & Streetly have apparently never encountered a Roman ruin they didn't like, or were unwilling to try and reach, no matter how many miles of 4-wheel-drive exploring were required. Somewhat touchingly, Rollin & Streetly seem to assume that everyone else will share their passion for exploring these sites. Thus, you encounter descriptions such as the following: "Just before a small tyre shop on the northern outskirts of Qatrana, turn right onto a paved road and head west, crossing two sets of pylons. At 4km, the road, now unmetalled, swings north up and along a ridge. Look out for red-painted stones marking the way. Turn west at c. 7km and descend the slope. Bear right at 2 km at a fork and continue for 2.5 km. The impressive remains of the fort should be in view before then." I suspect most travelers will content themselves with seeking out the more accessible Roman fortress sites like Lejjun, but be warned: Rollin & Streetly's enthusiasm for archaeological exploration - which recalls that of such doughty distaff English predecessors as Freya Stark and Gertrude Bell - may prove infectious.
This volume is well illustrated with dozens of excellent site plans, drawings, etchings taken from earlier travelers' accounts, and an insert of color photographs. There are also recommendations on hotels and restaurants. In short, you would miss a great deal if you went to Jordan without this guidebook.
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Title: The Rough Guide to Jordan by Matthew Teller ISBN: 1858287405 Publisher: Rough Guides Pub. Date: 28 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Insight Guide Jordan (5th Ed) by Michael Ellis, Insight Guides ISBN: 0887291821 Publisher: Insight Guides Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Discoveries Petra: Lost City of the Ancient World by Christian Auge, Jean-Marie Dentzer, Laurel Hirsch ISBN: 0810928965 Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Pub. Date: 01 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans by Jane Taylor ISBN: 0674008499 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Lonely Planet Jordan (Jordan, 5th Ed) by Anthony Ham, Paul Greenway ISBN: 1740591658 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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