From the Red City to the Dead Sea with a Johnny Depp lookalike Bedouin in Jordan

PUBLISHED: 06:24 EST, 24 January 2013 | UPDATED: 06:39 EST, 24 January 2013

Of all the marvels told about the red-rose city half as old as time two points remain largely neglected.

One is just how enormous this ancient site is: covering 60-square-miles, it is the same size as the country Liechtenstein, and 60-times the size of Hyde Park.

The second is that the Bedouins - who today hold the reins of the ruined city walk, talk and look uncannily similar to Johnny Depp in his Jack Sparrow guise.

Pirates of Jordan: Some of the Bedouins bore a very strange likeness to hearthrob Johnny Depp

Built three millennia ago by a nomadic Arabian tribe called the Nabateans, Petra was originally a tax collection point. Its giant rock-cut monuments were built with taxpayers money and given their size and quantity, the taxes cant have been very low.

It then passed from the Romans, who conquered the city at the turn of the second century (the Latin petrae means rock), to the Byzantines, who took control in the fourth century.

Subsequent changes to trade routes, and a severe earthquake in 551 AD, resulted in the majestic city falling out of favour.

No longer the focal point of any civilization, it was not until 200 years ago - in 1812 - that the ancient ruins were rediscovered by Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss explorer only 27 years of age.

Cobbled together: The city was built using taxes from merchants passing through

As I make my way through the Siq (or canyon) and look up, awe-struck by the vast Treasury, it strikes me as unbelievable that such a city could have been forgotten.

However, its loss and rediscovery only applies to Western eyes. Burckhardt heard tales of Petra and hoodwinked its most recent inhabitants, the Bdoul Bedouins, into showing him where it lay.

About thirty of us still live in caves here, Mahmoud, a Bdoul who makes a living selling genuine Roman coins and guiding tourists around the ruins, tells me.

Until the 1980s, around one thousand Bdouls inhabited the red-faced sandstone caves, but now the majority live in the village of Umm Sayhoun, overlooking the ruins.

Bringing Petra back into the eyes and minds of the outside world was Burckhardts real achievement; and his legacy is the citys current status as a UNESCO-World Heritage Site, and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Camel in front of royal tomb

Beduoin on the edge

Local showmen: Bedouins working at the site are experts in camel riding and appear to have no fear of heights

Emerging from the Siq, I pass the enormous royal tombs, admire the amphitheatre carved out of the rockface, and walk down a marble colonnaded street before finally reaching the processional steps that lead to the Monastery.

Entertainment is provided en-route courtesy of young Bdouls who offer rides on their donkey shaped Ferraris.

You dropped something, says a boy of no more than ten. Your smile!

In Europe it's ladies first, in Petra its donkey's first, says another, rus! hing past! with his mule.

If climbing the 800 steps just seems too much in the heat, it is possible to stick to four-legged transport all the way: the first section can be done on horseback, the middle on camel, and the stairs by donkey.

Gabriel O'Rorke at driver Omar's house inTybeh

At home with the locals: Gabriel takes in the view from her driver Omar's house

Whether on two feet or four, arriving at the Monastery is a once in a lifetime experience. Built in the 1st Century BC, it stretches 80-meters high and looks as though it were built for giants.

Splashing around: People swimming in the Dead Sea often cover themselves in nutrient-rich mud

I go weak at the knees as I look up at the turrets and see one Johnny Depp doing a headstand on the very top, and a second doing death-defying jumps from one turret to the next.

The setting sun casts a magical light across the city, and the monuments glow a warm red-orange as I retrace my steps, reaching the hotel at dusk.

Positioned right at the city gate, the Mvenpick Hotel is a fitting place to stay, not just because it shares Burckhardts nationality, but for its unrivalled position.

The next day I am keen to explore that other Jordanian rite of passage, dipping a toe in the Dead Sea.

Emad, my driver takes me to the mineral-rich waters with a short detour to visit his family home for a glimpse of real life if Jordan and a chance to sip tea with his older brother and four-year-old niece.

After our break, we continue along a road flanked by desert, jagged mountains and Bedouin camps, and my ears start popping as we descend 400m below sea level.

Wading into the ! mineral-r! ich waters of the Dead Sea, I lie back and enjoy the powerless feeling as my legs float to the surface of their own accord. Heads, shoulders and knees bob above the water around me, some slathered with mud from large clay pots lining the pebbled beach.

Some people come to Jordan for spa packages, enjoying endless salt scrubs and mud wraps, as well as Cleopatras legendary milk baths. But I find you float even lighter, and the benefits of the Dead Sea are all the better, if you start out by exploring the red city first.

Travel Facts

Mvenpick (00 41 44 828 40 00 www.moevenpick-hotels.com) has several hotels in Jordan. Doubles at the Mvenpick Resort Petra start from 88 and doubles at the Mvenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea start from 105, including breakfast.

Royal Jordanian(08719 112 112www.rj.com) flies daily from London Heathrow to Amman. Returns from 562.