2 Day Bedouin Culture

Tour: Option # 2

Dana Nature Reserve – Gragreh – Wadi Feinan – Edomite Kingdom – Siq Al Barid (Little Petra) 

Day 1

Queen Alia International Airport or Borders- Dana Nature Reserve

Welcome to Jordan!

You will be assisted upon arrival at the airport or the borders then transfer to Dana Nature Reserve, for dinner and stay overnight.

Day 2

Dana Nature Reserve – Gragreh – Wadi Feinan – Edomite Kingdom – Siq Al Barid (Little Petra) – Queen Alia International Airport or Borders or Wadi Rum

After breakfast at the hotel, we will spend a full day hiking from the hotel all the way to Gragreh passing Wadi Feinan at the end of Dana Valley.

 We will have the opportunity to meet with local Bedouin families and talk with them about their life and customs.

Then we will go to Wadi Feinan to visit the copper mines of the Ancient Edomite Kingdom.

The Edomite Kingdom consisted of a Semitic speaking tribal group inhabiting the Negev Desert and the Wadi Araba Valley of what is now southern Dead Sea and surrounding Jordan.

Archaeological excavations in southern Jordan have uncovered dozens of sites dated to the 7th and 6th centuries BC and attributed to the Edomites.

Modern Buseirah is generally identified with biblical Bozrah, the Edomite capital. However, most of the Edomite Kingdom sites are small villages, farms, or semi nomadic sites.

Some of these still have remains that were used for mining copper during the Roman Empire.

The main stretch of villages that they traveled is from the Dana Nature Reserve to Petra.

This is a great hiking route for adventure seekers with spectacular landscapes. 

Edomites are usually associated with their unique pottery, that was traditionally carried down through the Nabataean Empire, a ware found and manufactured both in southern Jordan and the Negev Desert.

Then we will visit the gardens, where the Bedouin work, and cultivate different kinds of fruits and vegetables; after that will visit families in their houses to learn from them and their culture.

Then we will ask questions about the changes of their life and how they adjust to being more modern than before. We will have some Bedouin Tea during the visit.

Near the end of the day, there will be a bus to transfer us to Siq Al Barid (Little Petra) , a suburb of the main ancient city which provides an atmospheric summary of Nabataean architecture.

This is where we will camp in this area at night with dinner cooked in a traditional Bedouin style and they will show you the way of making the (Gures), on old typical meal made of bread over the fire.

The area was once a caravanserai stop for the capital and comes complete with its own mini-Siq, a 350 meter fissure in the rock crammed with tombs, triclinums, water channels, and cisterns.

It is still easy to imagine the sounds and smells of the old days when traders, caravan masters and drovers lived and traded here. We drive a short distance on to Al Beidha, or 'the white one' on account of the color of its rock.

Al Beidha contains the remains of a Neolithic site, dating back to 7,500 BC which makes it one of the earliest known co-operative villages on earth. Mediterranean trees such as Oak, Juniper, Carob, and Pistachio thrive in this small sandy valley.

Then we will enjoy Al Beidha where we arrange the traditional, freshly prepared, Jordanian dinner provided by our genial Bedouin hosts and spending a very nice night there.

 Local Bedouin tribes have now inhabited this area for a number of generations.

Then you are invited to share mint tea or cardamon coffee sitting by the fire under a starry desert sky, will have an experience not to be forgotten.

After this great experience in Petra your group will go to Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) or borders with a farewell for your departure.

Otherwise we will take you to the bus station for your transfer to Wadi Rum for the rest of the tour of Jordan.