If you can time your arrival in Jordan with a visit to Petra when it is illuminated by candelight, you will think that this moment is going to be hard to beat. But Jordan’s diverse, dramatic landscapes and cultural influences that have been shaped over thousands of years are both soothing and illuminating. And the welcome you receive is forever warming.

Jordan is physically warming too, of course, given that 80 per cent of it is desert, with the rest made up of the Eastern Plateau and the Jordan Valley. The former rises steeply to more than 1,000m, forming a series of rugged mountains scarred with deep narrow canyons or wadis. And the latter is part of the Great Rift Valley, with flat fertile land in the north, sinking down to the Dead Sea in the centre and then a hot dry plain, Wadi Araba, that ends on the shores of the Red Sea. Where, with its coral reef and myriad marine life, that soothing and illuminating factor kicks in all over again. Find out more in our Jordan travel guide.