Trip of the week: a journey into Jordan’s ancient past

For the most remarkable sights, drive south from Amman to Aqaba on the Red Sea

Petra
The spectacular ancient city of Petra
(Image credit: Punnawit Suwuttananun/Getty Images)

Running through Syria and Jordan to the Red Sea, the King’s Highway is one of the world’s oldest and most “romantic” thoroughfares – “as legendary and evocative as the Silk Road”, says Stanley Stewart in the FT. Used since prehistoric times, it has carried monarchs, saints and heroes, from the Queen of Sheba and John the Baptist to Richard the Lionheart and Lawrence of Arabia.

And its geography is as astounding as its history. The road runs on a plateau to the east of the Great Rift Valley, where the earth splits dramatically to create a “gothic” landscape of escarpments and precipices, “convoluted” canyons and “dizzy” heights where eagles soar.

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