a Geographer's Place

After our final resort-and-explore day, we headed back to Amman via Mukawir and Madaba. As I mentioned in the previous blog, geomorphology in Jordan is fantastic. Folds, faults, hot springs, grabens, lava flows...the region is filled with textbook examples. The drive from the Dead Sea highway to Madaba via Mukawir (Highway 817) is quite the road. Go here , and look at the road just below the Balqua-Madaba Governates line (it should be the center of the map). That’s the road we drove—a zig-zagging road with a handful of 8% grades, but also a couple 15% grades. No typo. Fifteen-percent grades (I almost titled this entry “15%”). As we were driving up one of the steeper grades, my father-in-law said, “I can see why the King likes to ride motorcycles…this would be fun!” Indeed. It would be a great place to have a bike. We passed four or five cars on the entire road to Mukawir. A lonely, deserted, but well-maintained road. And in the center of it all, Ma’in hot springs resort with a hot, ...

One of the many ventifacts along the Dead See Highway. They are everywhere. Just take a look below at the short video clip... After a relaxing breakfast, we headed for the Dead Sea via the Wadi Araba. This route follows the “Dead Sea Highway”, which stretches from Aqaba in the south to almost the northern tip of Jordan. It also nearly-parallels the Jordanian-Israeli border. Heading out from Aqaba, the highway is pretty desolate for the first 150km or so. But, as a Geographer, there’s still much to see! Guard towers follow the route, Bedouin herders wander alongside the road with their animals, and the dark-colored desert pavement gives way here and there to deflation hollows and the occasional small erg (dune field). All the while, large alluvial fans and mountains of Jordan tower on your right side and the plains and hills of Israel & Palestine sit to your left. We spent some time looking for Jebel Haroun (Aaron’s tomb—of Old Testament fame) and scoured the desert pavement f...