Jordan is a surreal place. You’ll be driving along and the driver says, oh look, Jericho, 11,000 years old and the place where Moses took the Israelites.

Or, walk down that crevice and you’ll find Petra. 2,000 years old, just a couple of giant tombs carved out with bare hands.

Or, check out that rock, it’s Lot’s wife (see Genesis 19), turned to a pillar of salt when she ignored God and looked back to Sodom.

Or, have a glass of holy water from the river Jordan on the spot where John

baptized Jesus. As you do.

Combined with the spectacle of the Dead Sea (whatever you do, don’t get your eyes wet), and you’re left with a feeling of epic history. No matter how many buildings and fortunes are built in the rest of the world, there is no way we can catch up with the history of the Middle East.

PS: According to the Jordanians I met, the Syrian war ain’t ending anytime soon. 27 months in, and no end in sight.