Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EASTERN DESERT HIGHWAY
To the east of the town of Mafraq in northern Jordan, the scattered fields and settlements of
Druze communities gradually peter out, replaced by a stony, black basalt desert that
stretches intermittently to Syria in the north and Iraq in the East. The desolate region has
long been criss-crossed by pilgrimage and trade routes to Mecca and Baghdad and its posi-
tion as a 'strategic corridor' continues today as the location of the Trans-Arabia Pipeline.
The region is best defined, however, by Hwy 10, otherwise known as the Eastern Desert
Highway, which rolls in an interminable straight line all the way to the frontier with Iraq.
Traversing the corridor between eccentric borders - known as 'Winston's Hiccup' - it thun-
ders day and night with high-sided trucks, many of which travel in convoy for safety's
sake. The highway is only occasionally punctuated by a town, developed to service the
passing traffic. These sparse and gritty settlements are pretty much the only manmade fea-
tures of a desert otherwise left to the Bedouin and their goats.
Jordan's harsh deserts make up 80% of the country's land, yet support only 5% of its
population. The day trip along the formidable Eastern Desert Highway is almost worth the
tedium of the journey to be reminded of that fact. Throw in a couple of atmospheric desert
castles, and a fascinating detour through the borderlands with Syria, and the excursion to
this little-visited corner of Jordan may well prove to be a highlight of your trip.
There is no accommodation along Hwy 10 and a 4WD is needed if you intend to reach
Burqu, in the middle of the desert at the eastern reach of the highway. The journey from
Mafraq to the Iraqi border takes a good four hours as the single-carriage road is not able to
support high speeds. With your own vehicle, a two-day round trip from Amman or Irbid
can be made via the town of Sefawi at the junction with Hwy 5, with a night's stopover at
Azraq. With public transport, you can just about reach Umm Jimmal as a day trip from the
nearest place to stay, but forget trying to get from here to anywhere else along the Hwy 10
corridor. Buses to the Iraqi border are best boarded in Amman or Irbid.
WINSTON'S HICCUP
When Winston Churchill was serving as British Colonial Secretary in the early 1920s, he once boasted that he had
'created Trans-Jordan with the stroke of a pen on a Sunday afternoon in Cairo'. As Churchill had something of a
reputation for enjoying 'liquid lunches', a rumour started to fly that he had hiccuped while attempting to draw the
border, and stubbornly refused to allow it to be redefined. The resulting zigzag in Jordan's eastern border subse-
quently became known as
Winston's Hiccup
.
