Aqaba, Jordan

We arrived in Aqaba, Jordan, at 7 a.m. this morning, Tuesday, April 17, for a 1-day visit.  The major attraction of this stop was, of course, the amazing city of Petra, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a place created around 300 BCE by the Nabateans and one not to be missed if the opportunity to see it presents itself.  But Janis and I spent a full day there six years ago and for that reason decided to spare ourselves the long ride and extreme heat and, instead, explore Aqaba itself.

Aqaba, Jordan's second largest city, is located at the country's southwesternmost point on a very small piece of Red Sea shoreline at the crossroads of Africa and Asia.  It is Jordan's only coastal city and port.  In 1917, T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) led troops in the Battle of Aqaba here helping the Arabs run the Turks from the city's fortress during a camel charge.  Aqaba has a population of about 150,000.

A little background on Jordan itself.   An Arab country, it is bordered on the west by Israel, on the north by Syria, on the northeast by Iraq, on the south by Saudi Arabia and on the extreme southwest by just a few miles of shoreline on the Red Sea.  The Dead Sea lies along its western boundary with Israel.  The territory it occupies has a long history dating back thousands of years, but exploring that history is beyond the scope of this travel blog.  In terms of its more modern history, in 1922 Jordan was recognized by the League of Nations as the state of Transjordan under the British Mandate for Palestine.  It gained its independence from Britain in 1946 and was known then as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.  It was renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1949 after it captured what is now known as the West Bank during the 1948 Arab-Israel War.  It annexed the West Bank in 1949 but lost it to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and renounced its claim to it in 1968.  It entered into a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

Most of us have known only two rulers of Jordan:  King Hussein, who succeeded to the throne in 1953 at the age of 17 when his father abdicated, and his son, King Abdullah II, who assumed power when his father died in 1999.  Jordan is a constitutional monarchy but the king holds wide executive and legislative power.  The current population of Jordan is about 11 million.  That number includes some 600,000 Syrian refugees as well as Palestinian, Iraqi, Yemeni and other refugees.

Our ship docked at a cruise terminal on Jordan's southwestern shore just a few miles from downtown Aqaba in one direction and the Saudi border in the other.

 Our stateroom is on the port side of the ship.  From our veranda, if we looked hard right we could see downtown Aqaba (as depicted in these photos):

  
                                  

If we faced straight ahead, or slightly to the right, we looked at the coastline of Eilat, Israel (as depicted in these photos; the 1st photo is of that part of Eilat closest to Aqaba and each following photo moves further to the left and away from Aqaba):

                                       

                                        (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

And then, as if the neighborhood as described so far isn't cozy enough, immediately bordering Eilat on its west side is the Sinai, meaning Egypt.  I remember that when we stood on our hotel room balcony in Eilat six years ago facing the Red Sea we could see the flags of Saudi Arabia and Jordan on our left and of Egypt on our right.  Today we saw all this from yet another visual perspective and what stood out is that, despite the very close proximity of all of these countries to each other and their historically challenging relationships, there wasn't a piece of military hardware in view or any other indication of a military presence.

Shortly before we left our cabin to join our scheduled excursion group I noticed that there was already considerable recreational activity going on just below us.

  

This German cruise ship was also coming in to dock alongside us.  We saw this same ship in Muscat, Oman, when we were there a week ago.

When our bus exited the excursion port, it turned right and followed the coast for what seemed like three or four miles.  What became evident is that Aqaba has two other ports besides the cruise port:  a  commercial port

 and a container port.  Not a surprise given that Aqaba is Jordan's only opening to the sea.

      

We also saw that Aqaba has beautiful sandy beaches along this same shoreline.

                                   

We passed some very attractive new housing.

  
 
The bus turned around at a point that I suspect was not far from the Saudi border and headed back toward and past the cruise port and into downtown.  Our first stop was at a ruin pretty much in the middle of downtown.  It reflects excavation work conducted between 1983 and 1993 at the direction of a University of Chicago archeologist, Donald Whitcomb, that uncovered the remains of the Islamic city of Ayla which was a flourishing port in the period 65-1100 ACE.

  

Fencing outside the ruin looks like this and reminded us of the Star of David, but our guide told us it was an Arab symbol.  On closer examination, it was apparent that it has eight points instead of six.

Our next stop was at the site of the former home of Sharif Hussein bin Ali who was emir of Mecca and king of Hijaz.  He launched the Great Arab Revolt in June 1916 with the objective of establishing an independent and unified Arab state.  Instead, the dismembered Ottoman lands were carved into several mandates and protectorates.  The Great Arab Revolt, however, did secure Arab rule over most of the Arabian Peninsula, Syria and all of modern Jordan, which was founded by Sharif Hussein's son, King Abdullah I, the current king's great grandfather.

                                               

From there we toured the grounds of an old adjacent fort.  (See cover photo at the beginning of this blog post.)  And then we rode around town a little before stopping at a store for those who like to shop.  On that ride we passed these ever-present symbols wherever we go of our country's fast-food cuisine.

      

Aqaba is quite small and it doesn't take long to cover the downtown area.  Here are random photos that will give the viewer some idea of what it looks like in the center of town.  As you will see, there is a small marina right in the middle of downtown.

                     

It appears as though there are major upscale condo projects underway.  Again, the new housing we saw in the downtown area looked very nice.

                                      

There are several 5-star hotels in Aqaba and a number of upscale resort hotels in the beach area.

This was our last stop before returning to the ship.

We are now cruising our way to Safaga, Egypt, the access point for our 10-hour excursion tomorrow to Luxor where we will visit the temple complex of Karnak.