Beaten by the passage of nomadic Bedouin tribes over millennia, Jordan’s walking paths are now being discovered by a new generation of travellers. In 2015, its network of hiking routes was ambitiously redesigned into the 420-mile Jordan Trail, which winds through the entire length of the country from its bucolic north to the drier, starker south.
Photo story: hiking the Jordan Trail to the ancient city of Petra
The 50-mile, multi-day hike from the hamlet of Dana to the ancient ‘Rose City’ of Petra is one of the most epic stretches of the Jordan Trail, weaving together dramatic ravines, remote campsites and ancient trading routes across the desert.
Story and photographs byFrancesco Lastrucci
February 8, 2023
•7 min read
This article was adapted from National Geographic Traveller (UK)
Arguably its most scenic leg, the hike between the small settlement of Dana and the rock-hewn city of Petra covers varied terrain, cutting across Jordan’s full spectrum of landscapes.
The otherworldly Araba Desert, a scorching expanse of wadis (dry river valleys) engraved with petroglyphs.
Along the itinerary, nights are often spent camping under the stars.
It’s this proximity with nature that’s made the four-day route a favourite among adventurous hikers.
Born into a family of outdoor-lovers, local guide Zaid Kalbouneh founded the non-profit Walking Jordan in 2005 with the aim of encouraging Jordanians to discover their land. He started to arrange outings with a growing number of local enthusiasts, until his hobby turned into a business. Zaid, his brother Fouad and cousin Hareth eventually launched Treks, a company that organises more structured hikes along the Jordan Trail and around the wider country.
The golden glow of the sunset lights up the Urn, one of Petra’s Royal Tombs. Carved from a sandstone massif, these caves served as the resting place of wealthy Nabateans, the ancient Arab people thought to have settled here in the fourth century BC.
Sitting on a trading crossroad, Petra prospered into the Nabatean capital, and today, its ruins are one of the world’s major archeological sites — the crown jewel of a land inhabited since prehistoric times.
Beyond Petra’s most visited sights, there are days’ worth of exploration in the nearby mountains, furrowed by passages and ravines that guard the area’s secrets.
Today, the Greek-style facade of The Treasury is one of Petra’s most recognisable monuments, but only a few decades ago, the abandoned city was still being used as a shelter by nomadic Bedouin. They were dispersed from the caves in 1985, when the site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and now live, scattered, in the wider region.
Among the ancient desert lore and know-how they carry, harvesting and channelling water comes in handy in the desert. While the Jordan Trail is famed for its far-flung, edge-of-civilisation vistas, it’s not uncommon to encounter semi-nomadic or seasonal Bedouin camps near a natural spring, hidden within the vegetation at the bottom of a wadi.
Shepherds can often be seen nearby, sitting under of acacia trees, sipping tea while watching over their herd.
A cluster of stone cottages dangling on a clifftop, 15th-century Dana is one of Jordan’s most picturesque hamlets. As residents started leaving in the middle of the last century, it fell into disrepair, but a restoration project is now breathing new life into the settlement — an effort centred around the area’s growing network of trails and nature activities. After all, Dana sits at the edge of the largest biosphere reserve in the country, encompassing 80,000 acres around the Wadi Dana. A world of adventures lies between this pocket of wilderness and the end of the trail in Petra.
Here, amid the ancient ruins, the air is heavy with the incense of Arabic gum, made from the same acacia trees that have sheltered wandering travellers in these parts for centuries.
