a wildlife reserve and Jordan’s answer to the Grand Canyon. There are many ways to experience Jordan’s fragile, unspoiled desert retreats. Serious trekkers will be drawn to Wadi Rum, with challenging climbs some 1,750 meters high, while casual hikers can also enjoy an easy course through the colorful hills and canyons. Tourists with a high sense of adventure will want to try hot air ballooning over Rum. Those of a calm disposition will probably prefer a camel ride or a night under the stars in a BEDOUIN TENT. Relatively few of Jordan’s Bedouin still follow the ways of their ancestors. Most have settled in cities and towns and are found in every walk of life. Yet low-slung black tents and pack camels have not vanished from the landscape, and many travellers find a shared meal or coffee with traditional desert Bedouin to be their most memorable experience. Naturalists will be drawn to the desert in springtime, when rains bring the greening of the hills and an explosion of 2,000 species of wildflower. Red anemones, poppies and the striking black Iris, Jordan’s national flower, grow at will by the roadside and in more quiet reaches.

DANA, this enchanting small village nestles at the foot of a cliff overlooking a magnificent view of a Wadi (dry river valley). The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature is setting up a nature reserve in Dana to study local flora and fauna. Field guides are availabel. Hiking trails are open, and field guides will lead tours in the early morning and in the evening. Recent surveys of the Dana area have produced some very exciting results. Nearly 600 species of plants, 200 reptiles and mammals, and more than 150 species of bird have been identified – some of them never before recorded in Jordan. O the species found, some 45 are considered to be in serious global decline or threatened with extinction. This alone confirms the reserve’s importance in helping conserve the world’s dwindling wildlife populations. Among the most interesting animals the surveys have uncovered is Blandford’s fox, a tiny and beautiful creature hitherto unknown in Jordan. Many rare birds have been record, including the magnificent black Verreux’s Eagle, normally found only in Africa; and the Syrian Serrin, a finch native to the Middle East. Dana is thought to have more than 90 percent of the known breeding population of Serrin.