Aqaba, Jordan

            Wednesday, 5 Apr 2017 – Today, instead of taking the 10-hour tour to Petra, we boarded a bus by 10:00 AM for a 2.25-hour “Panoramic Aqaba” tour.  Although Aqaba is a small port city containing little of interest, our guide, Nadine did the best she could in telling us about it.  Since the city originally had no port on the Red Sea, Jordan traded resources with some of its neighbors in the 1960’s in order to obtain some shoreline.  Now, four countries share this small harbor and, on this particular day, two other passenger ships were also in port.  However, because of the sea traffic of large ships, fisherman must go further away to find fish.

Aqaba Main Port

According to our guide, since Jordan is a small, poor country (with no oil), they “have to be nice” to their neighbors; indeed, since Jordan cannot afford to be in a war, they tend to profit from their neighbors’ wars!  After driving along the beach, at one point our bus turned around to go back the way we had come; we were then 10 kilometers from Saudi Arabia.  Aqaba has hotels for tourists, and many Asians now visit, including more Chinese in recent years.  Many workers are here from Egypt and Iraq and now also Syrians.  Abdullah II rules Jordan.

Although we obtained a glimpse of Aqaba fort, which the Crusaders originally built in the 12th century, we were unable to see it well.  This fort has been rebuilt numerous times, usually following the style of the newest conquerors.

We also passed the remains of what archeologists believe to be the world’s oldest church, a structure dating from the late third century B.C.  (This would precede any Christian church; some research would be required to determine what sort of church this was.)  Looking down into a large hole, foundation stones can be seen that appear to be dividing rooms.

The city itself is more ancient, having been settled about 4,000 BC.  Tradition says that some important Biblical events took place in Jordan, such as Moses and the Burning Bush.

While the bus stopped for the last half hour so that people could shop, we stayed on the air-conditioned bus and chatted with a man that lives in Culver City, CA (but is originally from Chicago).