Destination: Jordan

21 Attractions Short Listed for New Seven Wonders of the World*

A panel led by Former Director-General of UNESCO Federico Mayor Zaragoza recently announced its nominees to be considered for the New 7 Wonders. Travelers around the world will have the opportunity to vote throughout 2006, and the winners will be announced on January 1, 2007.

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What Do Jordan’s Ain Ghazal Statues and the Islands of Tuvalu Have in Common?

Michael Shapiro answers the question in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, offering an interesting list of threatened attractions around the world—places that, if you’re so inclined, should be seen sooner rather than later. “From the historically and biologically irreplaceable to the poignantly frivolous, we’re living at a time when the planet’s heritage is under ever greater threat from war, neglect, climate change, overpopulation and unmanaged tourism,” he writes. Among the places making Shapiro’s list: the islands of Tuvalu, threatened by rising waters, and eroding Quetzalcoatl Temple in Mexico City. Shapiro also points readers to the World Monuments Fund’s new 2004 list of 100 threatened sites.


Abandoning Petra

For hundreds of years, Petra was virtually off limits to non-Arab travelers. Then, after Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994, the fabled red sandstone ruins became a mandatory stop for backpackers and tour-bus travelers from all corners of the globe. Now, because of events in the Middle East and elsewhere, Petra is a ghost town. In a recent piece for The New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar traces the history of tourism at Jordan’s best-known attraction and takes a look at the repercussions of area strife. “In the years right after the peace treaty, 500 Israelis a day on average entered Petra,” he writes. “There have been just 15 in the last five months, according to Suleiman Farajat, the director of the recently created Petra Archaeological Park. The men working amid the ruins prefer it that way.”


Islam’s Bloody Celebration

At the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice in Jordan, Rolf Potts unearths the quirky, intimate face of an Islamic world you won't find on the news

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