History & geopolitics & religion

History

Though the region around Amman is one of the longest continuously inhabited places in the world with evidence of inhabitation since the Paleolithic, Jordan itself is a very young country which formally gained independence in 1946. 

In its rich history it was occupied by the Edomites, Ammonites as well as Israelites during the Iron age. Later it was Greek, then broken down into small kingdoms such as the Nabateans in Petra and eventually it was a Roman territory. Later the Muslim empires took over with the Umayyads, Mamluks and then the Ottomans taking over all the way until around the Great War. After that it eventually became a British protectorate until 1946 when it regained independence. Following the war of 1967 it lost the West Bank territories and eventually defined its current borders.  Check out the official history webpage of the Kingdom of Jordan

http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/history.html

Climate

It’s probably gonna be hot! Isn’t it?

Well, not necessarily and you should know it! Though most of the country is in effect an arid desert, the temperature variations in the main cities are not very high and average winter in Amman does not go above 13 Celsius!

That being said, throughout most of the year the temperatures are quite stable and pleasant between mid 20 to mid 30 Celsius. For beachgoers, Aqaba in the South has even higher temperatures closer to 40 Celsius during the summer.

We were there in May and temperatures were in the mid ’30s and though sometimes it was a bit too hot, air conditioning was available everywhere (well except the desert Bedouin camp) and things were quite pleasant. Check out this cool page for detailed info: https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/jordan

Geography, demographics & politics

Stuck in between countries at conflict, Jordan seems to be the chill neighbour of the middle east bordering Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel & the Palestinian West bank. 

Despite being mostly a desert nation with very limited resources it is curiously also among the top refugee destinations worldwide and is the second when comparing refugees to the national population. Though the official numbers from UNHCR claim there are about 750.000 refugees in the country, the numbers vary wildly from close to around 2,8 million according to big brother to over to 3,5 million according to Wikipedia. Considering the country officially has around 10 million inhabitants, this is a true testament to the hospitality of these people.

Though it can boast of a wide variety of religions, Jordan is mostly a Sunni Muslim country with 92% of the people professing this faith. About 6% of the population is Christian, most of which are Greek Orthodox and the remaining 2% are mostly Shia, Bahá’í and Druze. 

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a parliamentary monarchy whereby the King is the executive leader of his cabinet. The cabinet is led by an elected prime minister following free elections, a novelty introduced in 2011 following protests in the “Arabian spring”.

Both the King and the royal family appear to be widely beloved as their pictures are proudly displayed throughout the country in shops, taxis and private property both in the widest variety of civil and military settings. That is just as well since criticizing the king is actually illegal…

Ramadan in Jordan

Having the tickets in hand and hardly being able to contain our excitement we surprisingly discovered we are going there in the period of Ramadan. Having limited knowledge about the culture we were going to experience, questions began to raise. What is different during Ramadan? Are we going to be hungry for the whole day not being able to eat? Are we allowed to drink water? Are the clothing and social rules more strict during Ramadan? We read a lot about how to behave like a tourist during Ramadan but still stayed very careful at the beginning to check what is acceptable and what is not as we really didn’t want to offend the religious feelings of locals. Ramadan for Muslims is a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community determined as a ninth month of the Islamic calendar, meaning that it can happen at different months of the year. During this period people fast from sunrise till sunset, pray and organize help for those in need. What we’ve heard was that anyone coming into the shop or restaurant asking for help will always receive it. The rules for tourists are not so strict but it is expected not to drink and eat in front of fasting people. This means that you are allowed to eat and drink in your room or in your car (during ride provided other people can’t see you) and even in some restaurants that are open during the day. If you are in the touristic area people will even cook for you and prepare everything so that you can feel comfortable while they will hold back from having anything drinkable or edible to touch their lips. Even though in such situations we were encouraged to eat and drink, we were still trying to not show it to the Muslims around us we couldn’t even imagine how hard it must be for them to not drink for 15 hours straight. Just for the purpose of visualization – during our 4 hours hour jeep tour on the desert we have drunk 4 litres of water while our guide didn’t even have a sip. 

On the streets during sun hours you surely shouldn’t drink, eat or even chew gum. It is also advised to get yourself a bit more covered during those days. Tourist should hold back from kissing or even holding hands or showing any affection in most public places as this is against local tradition. In the more modern areas, you may see a more chill approach to this rule but it will happen rather rarely and it will be the act of holding hands at most. 

In the evening when the sun goes down there is a huge fiesta on the streets. Locals tend to celebrate with their families, bring a lot of home-cooked food to public places or simply meet in large groups at restaurants. Shops and markets open when the sun goes down and do not close until sunrise. People spend whole nights on the streets celebrating and enjoying life, including even school-age kids.  

Summarizing, even though we were at first a bit scared of what Ramadan is going to be like in Jordan, we can definitely recommend this time to visit it. Ramadan occurred to be the perfect time to experience people and culture of Jordan. There were far fewer tourists than normally and living the experience of celebrating Iftar with locals was just priceless!