Geography
Jordan is located in southwest Asia. It borders with the states of Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the east, with Palestine and Israel in the west and with Syria in the north. In the south, the country is washed by the Gulf of Aqaba. See Jordan abbreviations.
More than 90% of the country’s territory is made up of desert plateaus. Mountains and hills meet in the western part of Jordan. The highest point in the country is Mount Jabal Ram (in the south of the country) with a height of 1,734 meters, and the lowest point is the Dead Sea: -486 meters at its deepest point.
In the west of the country, along the border with Palestine and Israel, a deep valley stretches, which includes the Dead Sea, as well as the Wadi al-Arab depression and the Jordan River.
The Jordan River, which flows along the border between Jordan and Israel, stretches for 160 kilometers from its source in the mountains to the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is the largest lake in the country. Its length is 80 kilometers, and the maximum width is 10 kilometers.
South of the Dead Sea along the Wadi al-Arab depression, the height of the terrain gradually rises and, reaching a mark of 300 meters above sea level, begins to drop down to the port city of Abaqa. This city is the country’s only outlet to the sea.
Not far from the Dead Sea is the world’s deepest land cavity – Ghor, 405 meters deep.
Climate
According to 800zipcodes, the climate in Jordan is warm, Mediterranean. Thanks to this, it is comfortable to rest in the country all year round. There is practically no rain in May-October, in other months they are also quite rare.
Temperature fluctuations during the year are insignificant, they usually stay at around +23 °C.
Despite the fact that the holiday season in Jordan lasts all year, the most comfortable in the country is in the spring months.
August and July are the driest and hottest months, but the heat in Jordan is fairly bearable. In addition, even in summer, in the scorching heat, the evenings in Jordan are cool.
The Jordan Valley and Akai are home to some of the best winter resorts. From December to April, the thermometer rarely drops below +16 °C, and sometimes the air temperature even reaches +22 °C. In these areas, excellent conditions for recreation are preserved all year round – the humidity of the air is quite low, and there is almost no rain even in winter.
Capital of the country: Amman.
Major cities: Aqaba, Jerash, Madaba, Gadara, Ajlun, Karak.
Jordanian cuisine
The national Jordanian cuisine is based on Arabic culinary traditions and is similar to the cuisines of other Middle Eastern countries: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates and others.
Common products of Jordanian cuisine: potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, onions, peppers are popular among vegetables ; from meat veal, lamb and chicken; from grain rice, lentils, peas; from fruits oranges, bananas, figs, melons, watermelons and exotic cactus fruits.
People in Jordan don’t eat pork.
Spices and seasonings are used to prepare many traditional dishes: mint, herbs, a variety of greens, including onions and garlic, peppers, nuts, lemon juice.
Typical Jordanian dishes:
- Common to the traditional cuisine of Jordan and other Arab countries is shawarma – a dish of minced fried meat (lamb, chicken), lettuce, vegetables and spices, placed on a special flatbread.
- A popular Jordanian dish is mansaf – made from lamb boiled in sour cream (“laban”), with rice. Lamb is cut and placed on a layer of rice, sprinkled with roasted nuts on top. Mansaf is usually prepared for special occasions.
- Other meat dishes are often prepared shish kabab – meat fried on coals and mashavi – cold cuts.
- Adas is an almost daily dish, a lentil stew with chicken, onions and lemon juice. Adas is usually eaten in winter.
- A dish called makluba is made from potatoes, eggplant, meat (beef or lamb), fried rice and spices. When ready, the dish looks like a casserole, served with sour cream on a large platter.
- One of the famous Jordanian dishes is mloukhia, a soup made from different types of meat, including chicken or rabbit, with rice, lemon juice, garlic and herb leaves.
- Lahmajun – flatbread with minced meat, tomatoes, bell pepper, black pepper, onion, garlic and herbs.
- An inexpensive dish is considered to be Jordanian yellow pea cutlets, which are eaten along with the seasoning of peas and sesame oil.
- Also in the country they eat vegetable salads, eat black and green olives marinated in lemon juice, mashed peas and greens dishes – hummus and falafel, mutabbal eggplant paste.
- From bread products they eat flat cakes kmazh, ragyf and other types of lavash.
Tourists really like the Jordanian sweets kanaf from sweet vermicelli with cheese, baklava – baklava from pistachios and honey, sesame cookies (sim-sim), muhalabiya – sweet milk mousse, candied fruits and much more.
Of the soft drinks in Jordan, they love wasat coffee – lightly roasted coffee beans with cardamom. Black coffee is called qahwa arabia, brown coffee is called wasat. Quality coffee is quite expensive. Jordanians love to add mint to their tea. Irk Assus and Tamr Hindi are known from soft drinks.
From alcoholic drinks, arak is used – aniseed vodka. Served with cold water or ice. Local wines and beers are also on sale.
The dishes of Jordanian cuisine are usually large, it is advantageous to order them for 2-3 people at once.
