Built between 723 and 743 CE in the Eastern Desert by an Umayyad caliph, Qusayr Amra has the most complete surviving early-Islamic frescoes — the Six Kings, hunting scenes, the bathing-women panel, and a hemispheric zodiac dome with 35 identifiable constellations.
Inscribed by UNESCO in 2015 as the eastern-bank baptism site of Jesus, Al-Maghtas now contains five excavated churches, hermit caves, and a Roman-era pilgrimage path — on the Jordan side of a much-shrunken river.
Inscribed in 2021 as Al-Salt, The Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality — yellow limestone houses with arched windows and frescoed ceilings, a 19th-century merchant city that worked because Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived on the same street.
An opinionated guide to choosing a Bedouin camp, the 24-hour rhythm of the desert, and the 'Mars on Earth' claim, fact-checked.
An opinionated, partner-co-signed walking plan for Jordan's UNESCO-listed Nabataean capital — what to see, when to start, and what to skip.