Meknes, one of Morocco’s four imperial cities, is a historic jewel known for its blend of grandeur and tradition. Once the capital under Sultan Moulay Ismail in the 17th century, the city was envisioned as the “Versailles of Morocco,” filled with monumental gates, sprawling walls, and lavish palaces.
Ballachulish is a small village in the Scottish Highlands, set at the mouth of the River Laroch beside the narrow waters of Loch Leven. The surrounding landscape includes steep mountains, wooded slopes, rocky shorelines, and the broad valley of nearby Glencoe. The village is divided into several settlements, including North Ballachulish, South Ballachulish, and Ballachulish itself, giving the area a distinctive layout shaped by the loch.
Lake Powell, stretching across the Utah-Arizona border, is one of the largest manmade reservoirs in the United States. Formed by the flooding of Glen Canyon after the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, it covers over 180 miles in length and contains nearly 2,000 miles of shoreline, more than the entire West Coast of the U.S. Despite its modern origins, the area has long been home to the Ancestral Puebloans and later Navajo communities.
Ampefy is a highland town in central Madagascar, situated in the Itasy region west of Antananarivo. The area is known for its volcanic landscape, with Lake Itasy forming the center of a region shaped by ancient eruptions. Rolling hills, fertile farmland, volcanic cones, and streams surround the lake, creating a landscape that differs from Madagascar’s drier western and southern regions.
Senja is Norway’s second-largest island, located well above the Arctic Circle and often described as a condensed version of the country’s most dramatic landscapes.
Photo Credit: Photo by Hisham Zayadneh on Unsplash
Photo Credit: Photo by Eyad SR7AN on Unsplash
Photo Credit: Photo by Hisham Zayadneh on Unsplash
Photo Credit: Photo by Matt Jones on Unsplash
Photo Credit: Photo by Hisham Zayadneh on Unsplash
Photo Credit: Photo by Hisham Zayadneh on Unsplash
Jerash is reached by a short drive (29 miles, 47km) north of Amman and is an ancient Graeco-Roman city, once known as Gerasa. It has been dubbed the 'Pompeii of the East', because of its extraordinary state of preservation. Jerash is a vast city, which flourished in the centuries immediately preceding and following the Christian era.
At the approach to the city, the visitor is greeted by the imposing triple-arched gateway, built to honour the Emperor Hadrian when he arrived there in 129A.D.
Jerash formed part of the Decapolis, a league of ten cities built by the Romans and dating from the first century B.C. Today, visitors may wander among the original temples, theatres, plazas, public baths and colonnaded streets complete with sculptures and fountains, all enclosed within the still-remaining city walls.
The great oval forum, once the centre of social activity within the city, is impressively well-preserved and is approached by means of the Street of Columns. The city's 14 churches with their beautiful mosaic decoration all date from the Byzantine era.
The annual Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts is held for two weeks
every summer and is an important cultural event, featuring performing artists from all over the world. This event has international
recognition and is a source of great pride to the culturally-minded
people of Jordan. There is also a daily sound and light show in English French, German and Arabic.
Other Popular Destinations in Jordan
Amman
Situated near the Dead Sea, Amman is the capital of Jordan and a cultural and historical hub in the Middle East. Explore this sprawling city, replete with historic landmarks, museums, and mosques, and you’ll soon be enraptured by its blend of metropolitan and ancient beauty.
Petra
Tucked between Jordan's sandstone cliffs in the southwestern desert, Petra was carved directly into rose-colored rock more than 2,000 years ago. Visitors approaching through the narrow gorge known as the Siq are rewarded with their first glimpse of Al-Khazneh, the Treasury, a towering facade that seems to appear from another world.