An apocryphal story holds that the lumpy eastern border was created by Winston Churchill after a very liquid lunch. The pine forests of the north give way to the cultivated slopes of the Jordan Valley, covered in cedar, olive and eucalypt. Further south, towards the Dead Sea, vegetation can't survive and the landscape is dominated by mud and salt flats. Jordan is particularly noted for its aquatic life, and the Gulf of Aqaba has a huge variety of tropical fish and coral. The country's biggest sanctuary is the Shaumari Wildlife Reserve in the east, where gazelle and oryx, once common throughout Jordan, have been reintroduced.
Climate varies dramatically from one end of the country to the other.
The Plateau area is usually warm and dry, fluctuating between the low 20s and high 30s, while the desert suffers extremes of temperature - baking dry heat interspersed with freezing winds from Central Asia. When to Go The best time to visit Jordan is in spring or autumn, when you can dodge the baking sun of summer and the freezing winds of winter. Although winter can be bitterly cold in most of the country, the Red Sea area and Aqaba are still very pleasant. If you're planning to travel through the rest of the Middle East, try heading north into Turkey around spring, or south into Egypt by autumn. All foreigners need a visa to enter Jordan.