Mount Nebo is where Moses is said to have seen the promised land, with views over Israel and the Dead Sea. On the top of the mount is the Moses memorial church built on 4th century foundations in 597. It houses some of the best preserved mosaics in Jordan and was visited by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

St George’s church is in Madaba six miles from Mount Nebo. Although a small Greek Orthodox Church, during its construction the builders discovered the ruins of a Byzantine church with a highly significant mosaic – the oldest map of Palestine. Completed in 560 it depicts all the major biblical sites of the Middle East.

Jerash is known as the “Pompeii of Asia” because it is so well preserved owing to the desert air. The site existed from Neolithic times and was settled in the reign of Alexander the Great; however it is largely a Roman creation being one of the Decapolis. The 13m arch into the city was built to mark the visit of Emperor Hadrian. At its peak it has a population of approximately 20,000 but was destroyed by an earthquake in 747. It remained virtually uninhabited until the arrival of Circassians from Russia in 1878, when its importance was quickly recognised.

Only about 30% has been excavated to date and part lies under the current new town. Special rules are in place for development in the modern town to maximise preservation. Our guide was a former Jordanian CID officer who spoke good English, having spent time at a language school in Oxford in the 1970s, meeting his English wife while there.

After a long day on the road and enduring the Thursday night Amman traffic, we had our best meal to date in Amman at an Armenian restaurant. At the table next to us was a large Armenian family group, including five Armenian priests of whom two were bishops.

We visited three castles in Jordan, two built by the Crusaders and the other by one of Saladin’s generals. Karak and Shobak, the Crusaders’ castles, fell to Saladin in 1188 and 1189; the former following the Battle of Hittin, which was a crushing defeat for the Crusaders and resulted in the decapitation of Reynald of Chatillion by Saladin.

The third, Shobak, built by the Muslims is not the best preserved, but given its location and the fact that we arrived just before sunset with only one other couple there, made it the most spectacular.

Two of the local beers are named after Karak (Carakale) and Petra in a similar manner to the most popular Turkish beer being Efes.

Romans set up The Decapolis, ten cities (but possibly more), in what is now Jordan, Syria, Israel and Palestine to unite their possessions and support trade and commerce. They were built on existing sites but much enhanced. Amman was one, known by the Romans as Philadelphia. We visited another at Umm Qais, known as Gedara. It is located in the north-west corner of Jordan overlooking the Gollan Heights and Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) with views into both Israel and Syria.

Excavation began in the early 1980 and is ongoing but slow due to limited funding. Due to the location it is very low key in terms of visitor numbers with no coach parties.

Jordan is a relatively new country, founded after the First World War and gaining full independence from the UK in 1946. It is a kingdom, with the current ruler, King Abdullah, coming to the throne in 1999 following the death of his legendary father King Hussein. Jordan has no oil and very little water. The main drivers of the economy are potash, agriculture, tourism and a growing technology industry; it is heavily investing in education. It has 10 million people, with 40% in the capital, Amman. With limited natural resources and becoming the home for refugees – most recently over 1.3m Syrians on top of 700,000 Palestinians, together with over 1m Palestinians who are now citizens – the economy of Jordan has come under great strain.

Amman is where we started our tour. We were met at the airport by Ahmad who was to be our driver for two weeks. He also taught us a bit of Arabic, some of which was familiar as Arabic is one of the foundations of Turkish.

Most of Amman has been built since 1946, however it also has significant historic sites, notably the Roman Citadel and Theatre. We were grateful for some sustenance at the best known falafel stall in the souk before we visited the King Abdullah mosque.