Jordan possesses the most spectacular archaeological site of the Middle East – Petra, ‘rose-red city, half as old as time’, that easterly fascinating, westerly Baroque, altogether extraordinary city of the desert.

Hidden in a canyon at the confluence of several caravan routes, much of its finest architecture was hewn out of the living rock, brilliantly coloured sandstone striated with pinks, ochres and blue-greys. Its builders, the Nabateans, rummaged among the gamut of Mediterranean and oriental styles to create a novel synthesis reminiscent of the more ebullient examples of Imperial Roman architecture. Egyptian, Assyrian and Hellenistic influences are also evident.

The Nabateans were an Arabian people who were first recorded in the fourth century bc and grew rich by controlling the trade routes across an empire which stretched from Saudi Arabia to Syria. With Petra their capital, nomadic desert traders became administrators and sybaritic city-dwellers. They eventually submitted to incorporation in the Roman Empire. Decline, however, soon set in, and it seems that by the eighth century ad Petra had virtually become uninhabited.

Jordan is also rich in remains of many other civilizations. It lay within the wealthy Roman provinces of Syria and Arabia; Jerash is one of the best preserved and most beautiful of Roman cities. The remains of many Byzantine churches and some very fine floor mosaics are scattered through the hills and valleys which were the setting of many events recorded in the Old Testament. The art of Islam is represented by the forts and hunting lodges and desert retreats of the sophisticated and pleasure-loving Umayyad dynasty of the eighth century. The castles of the Crusaders and their Arab opponents are among the most impressive examples of military architecture anywhere.

As a constant backdrop, the natural scene is of awesome beauty, with mountains, gorges and deserts.

The current Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan started life after the First World War as a sherd of the Ottoman Empire, its borders an almost arbitrary outcome of the Franco-British re-ordering of the Levant. Grindingly poor then, and constantly buffeted since by the disputatiousness of larger neighbours, Jordan has against the odds succeeded in steering a precarious course to survival, stability and modest prosperity.

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