Imagine you're watching like three couples arguing as you sip your tea
Eventually, protective services takes away their children
You're like the only person that signed up for foster care
So the authorities dropped off like 8 kids at your doorstep
Oh and you're kind of like on welfare, even though you're a doctor.
Yeah, that's basically Jordan
It's time to learn Geography NOW!!!
Hey everybody, I'm your host Barbs
Welcome to the referee of the Middle East. Jordan is interesting because it operates
very differently from all the other Middle-Eastern countries in so many ways
Oh is that like - might, cute to make a pun. Uhhh
Let's, Jor...begin, this episode
Ihhh
Political Geography
Ok, so I have to be honest. Before writing the script of this episode,
All I really know about Jordan was Petra and Fattet
That stuff Ismail made me tried when I visited Saudi Arabia
But after talking to you Jordanian Geograpeeps
I have to say, I'm pretty excited to make this episode. First of all, Jordan is
located in the Middle East bordered by 4 other countries. Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
Syria and Israel, as well as the Palestinian West Bank
areas along the Jordan river. And they have a small coast along the
Gulf of Aqaba
named after the town that borders it. Right across the narrow coast of Israel's Eilat
The country is divided into 12 Governorates split into North, Central and South regions
And the capital and largest city is Amman located in the centre
Which by the way was the same place as the ancient city of Philadelphia
When the Greeks ruled over it, making it
one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The largest cities
after Amman are Zarqa and Irbid
With the busiest airports being the two international ones:
Amman Queen Alia International and Aqaba King Hussein International
With Amman Civil Airport taking in third place
Most of Jordan's current borders were pretty much the by-product
of European colonialism back when it was under the British as the
Emirate of Transjordan. The only difference is that now the border
extends with the Israeli controlled disputed Golan Heights area
With the Yarmouk river as well with Syria
And Iraq took a small chunk of the Eastern border and built the Ruwaished Airbase
Which is now abandoned and being reclaimed by the desert once again
Hey, there's a challenge for you extreme globe trotters
See if you can find a way to track out to this place. Even though Jordan and Saudi Arabia have an Open Border Policy
Back in the 60s, they did a little bit of land swapping
And the border is totally demarcated with bold trenches
Literally cutting through rock canyons and dry desert valleys
With Syria, it's a litte complicated. In the populated areas, the borders are bold
They even have a Free Joint Industrial Zone shared between the two
But the further east you go into the Syrian Desert, the border just kind of
disappears and it's left for anyone crazy enough to wander into the desolate
No-man's land too. I guess cross if they want to?
But yeah, you gotta be crazy to do that. The vast majority of people in the Northwest
Due to its more suitable climate and arable land
Otherwise, the cool thing is that Jordan actually has a ton of historical background
Lots of places being preserved in places of interest. Such as:
Jerash, Ajloun, Montreal, the Kerak Castle
The Roman Amphitheater, Amman Citadel, Ad Deir
The Ma'in Hot Springs, The Madaba Map Church
Qasr Amra, Umm ar-Rasas Umayyad Palace,
The Siq Rock Walls, the Nymphaeum, the Temples of Hercules and Dushares
The Arch of Hadrian, Mount Nebo,
Where Moses is supposedly buried. And the crowning landmark,
Petra, which is one of the seven wonders of the Modern world
Now from that list, you could probably tell that Jordan has quite a unique backstory
It just gets more and more interesting as you move along. Speaking of moving along...
Physical Geography
Now here's where things get a little difficult. Although beautiful sites abound,
In terms of resources, Jordan
kind of doesn't have much going for them. First of all,
Jordan lies at the crossroads between 3 continents in the Eastern most parts of the region
Known as the Levant.
Or the areas closest to the Mediterranean in the Middle East
The country is basically divided into 3 main regions, North, South and West
The majority of the land lies on a plateau
Within the Syrian and Arabian Deserts
Flanking the East and South loaded with dry
basins and riverbeds
That collect water and seasonal winter rains which evaporate shortly after
Like seriously, if you look at the satellite images of Jordan, the entire
desert is like scribbled with infinite amounts of
dried up drainage networks estuaries indicating that at one point Jordan had
a lot of water. Otherwise, in the West you have the Jordanian Highlands
where you can find the highest peak Jabal Umm ad Dami,
located in Jordan's top natural landmark
the famous World Heritage site Wadi Rum
which is basically ''Mars on Earth''.
No seriously, they even filmed ''The Martian'' in this desert, which by the way, have you guys noticed
Matt Damon always makes movie posters with text over his face, like,
what's up with that dude, can you, like, maybe establish more of a context or setting?
Sorry, off topic, moving on! The Highlands go all the way on to the largest lake,
the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, up to 9 times saltier than
any ocean, shared with Israel, which is fed in to the longest
river, the Jordan River, which completes the rest of the
western border. The only lush and arable
land that they have is in the Northwest just along
the tripoint of Israel and the
Israeli controlled disputed Golan Heights area and Syria.
This is the only area where you can find forests, grasses, farms
and sufficient precipitation in the form of both rain and
yes, even snow. Now here is the unfortunate aspect: Jordan is
one of the 3 least-oil producing countries in the Middle East,
the other two being Israel and Lebanon. Technically you could also include
Afghanistan and Cyprus to this list if you consider them ''Middle East'' but
eh, up to you. Anyway, although oil shale deposits do exist
in certain spots across the desert, it is far from being
anything from a signifant economic
commodity that they can depend on. And to this day most of the oil is
imported from their neighbours. And on top of that
the fact that Jordan is consistenly ranked as one of the driest countries
in the planet with only about a 145 cubic meters of
water per capita annually. It's so dry that most of the
wild mammals have become locally extinct
or are reduced to remnant population including the national animal
the Arabian Oryx which had to be re-introduced
through a breeding program. Otherwise birds an reptiles are
the only main wild life species you'll probably see,
including the national bird, the
Sinai Rosefinch. Only about 7% of the land is
arable on 20% of the land that receives
more than 200ml of rain a year,
the bare minimum required for rain-fed agriculture
Remember that guys, the 200 ml rule! If you weren't paying attention,
too late, you missed it, haha. With whatever little farm land they
do have, they grow everything possible from olives to wheats
citrus, melons, tomatoes which they use it in their food
Most Jordanian food follows the typical pan-Arab format. However,
Some unique Jordanian
Specialties might include things like: Maqloobeh
Freekeh, The Bedouin Style Zarb
Although, it's more of a Palestinian thing. Kanefeh is popular
And it's seroiusly like the most amazing dessert I ever got to taste when I was in the Emirates
Thanks, Basil for opening my eyes to the glory!
And the national dish, Mansaf, which can sometimes cost so much when people try to order it from parties and weddings
that people actually have been known to take out more tidges just to pay for it
Also, alcohol is totally legal in Jordan. So, yeah. Just the heads up.
Putting all that into perspective, you can probably understand
why Jordanians typically said that tourism is their oil
They are kind of dependent on outside sources or resources
And especially since an influx of visitors have been putting a pressure
in demand for more food
And changing the game up for the past-half century
Who am I refering to? We'll find out in about
3, 2, 1
Demographics
Have you ever had like a hang out spot
in your neighbourhood that everybody just kind of goes to because they know it's kind of like
a place of solace. Yeah, that's kind of basically what Jordan is
to the Middle East. First of all, Jordan has about 10 million people and was ranked the
top refugee country by Amnesty Int. . The Country
is mostly made of Arabs at 98%, However among these
Arabs, is estimated that about third are non-citizen
refugees, with illegal status. However, some say that it
could be up to 60% (65%). However, it's hard to tell because no
specific data reports exist. And lots of inter-marrying happens. Anyway!
The remainder is mostly a small minority
of Chechens, Circassians and Armenians. They also
use the Jordanian Dinar as their currency, they use the type C, D
F, G and J plug outlets. Yeah I have been to the Middle East
It's a weird system. And they drive on the right side of the road
Back to the refugee thing. Basically, since the 6 day
war thing that we already discussed in the Israel episode, Palestinians
mostly fled to Jordan as well as the few other places
in the Arab countries like Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq
The numbers are hard to estimate but somewhere around 3 million Palestinians are
estimate to reside in Jordan with about 2.1 million registered
And on top of that, about another 1.4 million
or so Syrians that have just entered into Jordan
after all the recent conflicts involving Bashar Al Assad
And ISIS. This means that Jordan which is already a
water and resource scarce country, has to provide a lot
for people that they did not see coming
Keep in mind though, Not all Jordanians are Arab
Like mentioned before, there are some noticeable
Armenian, Chechens and Circassians communities that live relativelty
peacefully amongst them. Most of you probably already know what an Armenian is
but however for
those of you that don't know, Chechens and Circassians are 2 different people
groups that originate in areas of what is now
Southern Russia, located just
above the Caucasus countries like Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Chechens
are predominantly Muslim
Whereas Circassians are kind of like a mix between Christians and Muslims
At about 5% of the
Population in the majority of Christians in Jordan are
Eastern Orthodox and churches can be found in large cities. Christians even make
up 9 Seats in their Parliament and
some hold high positions in other public sectors jobs like in the
military and ambassadors. Speaking of which, in the quickest way I can summarize
the history of Jordan, Bronze age kingdoms of Ammon, Moab and Edom
Nabataeans, Babylonians, Alexander The Great
The Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates, Ottoman Empire
Great Arab Revolt, end of Turkish control, Beginning of British control
Borders re-drawn, Hashemites take over, welcome Abdullah I
Independence in 1946
1948 war and annexation of the West Bank
(1950) Influx of Palestinian refugees
Assassination of King Abdullah I (1951), Failed Jordan-Iraq Union in 1958
PLO forms in Jordan
Civil War and Black September in 1970, PLO leaves Jordan
Jordan-Israel peace treaty signed in 1994
Arab Spring protests in 2011-2013
And here we are today! Make if it what you will, Jordan
is often touted by both neighbours
and abroad for being one of the safest countries to visit in the Middle East
This is partially not only because of their historical tourism but also
medical tourism industry. The world bank consistently ranks Jordan in the
Top 5 Medical tourism destination in the Middle East and
North Africa, which alone makes about 1 billion
dollars in annual revenue. The sad thing though is that after the
Arab Spring and destabilization
around their neighbours, tourism has dropped about 70%
between 2010 and 2015
Recently though, things have been kind of slowly picking back up
Otherwise, some famous people of Jordanian descent might include:
Omar Al Abdallat, Queen Raina of Jordan, Ammer Deeb
Moath Al Kasasbeh, Diana Corazon, Zade Dirani
Mustafa Wahbi Al-Tal, Jameel Al As
Haider Mahmoud, Ma Is Hamadaan, Soheer Al-Oda
Ali Bin Hussein, and of course the royal
family is actually a huge hit. Most people actually like King Abdullah II
He actually served in the British army, Jordanians special forces and has
a coper helicopter pilot. His wife Queen Rania is super popular too
And she has done a lot of advocacy work in the fields of education and
health. Also you know, he and his family claimed to be 41st generation direct
descendants of the prophet Muhammad. So, yeah. They got that going for them
Well, as you can probably see by now, Jordan has a lot of people that they kind of have to deal with internally
But they also do a lot of international outreach as well
Which means we gotta finish this video with one more segment, The...
Friendzone
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And they are always glad
you came. You want to go where you can see. Troubles are all the same
You want to go where everybody knows your name
And to the Arab world, that's Jordan. First of all,
The US and UK still have close ties. The biggest US embassy in the Middle East
is in *Baghdad, Iraq*. And they are the second largest receiver of aid
after Israel. King Abdullah II's mother was
British. And many of the royal family has study abroad in the UK
As a founding member of the Arab League, they of course no shocker
get along with most of their fellow Arabs
Egypt is a close friend. The majority of foreign workers come from there
And Iraq supplies Jordan with most of their fuel needs.
Saudi Arabia treats Jordan kind of like a
sidekick, knowing that they will always trust them and know that they can be moil
Whereas the UAE is like Saudi Arabia's
hot-rich sister that Jordan totally has a crush on
So he hopes to get close to her by befriending Saudi Arabia
However, their best friend would probably be, Palestine
Jordan is pretty much the only country in the Middle East
In which Palestinian refugees
have a real chance at integrating and becoming Jordanian citizens
Which unfortunately isn't really the case with other countries
with Palestinian refugees. Jordan wants to go for the
West Bank until the
6 Day War and since then, Palestinians have been supported
and inter-marrying Jordanians for decades. Like the Queen
In conclusion, if the Middle East was a body, Jordan would kind of
be like the liver, acting as like a safety-net filtration
system, surrounded by drama on every side
And it's their job to kind of process and re-organize everything
with whatever little resources they have left.
Stay tuned: Kazakhstan is coming up next!