The landscapes of Jordan hold the echoes of an ancient journey—one of endurance, exile, and the pursuit of something just beyond reach. Here, amid the red deserts, high plateaus, and shifting wadis, Moses’ long path through the wilderness took its final turn. To follow his footsteps is to step into the last stretch of an exodus, where the journey itself takes precedence over the destination.
Akaba: the arrival from the sea
Akaba (Aqaba), Jordan’s southernmost city, is where land and water meet. Facing the Red Sea, it has long been a crossroads of trade and movement, and a threshold between the known and the unknown. For Moses and his followers, it would have marked the first step into a new land after their escape from Egypt.
The Red Sea crossing, often remembered as a moment of triumph, gave way to a harsher reality at Akaba’s shores. Looking inland, the vast emptiness of Wadi Araba stretched ahead, an arid expanse that made survival an immediate concern. The exodus did not end here; it only changed form, shifting from flight to endurance, from escape to the long challenge of the wilderness.
Through the Wadi and the wind
From Akaba, the journey pressed northward into Wadi Araba, a landscape of extremes. Flanked by the mountains of Edom and the Jordan Rift, the valley is shaped by time, wind, and the slow movement of those who have passed through. It is a place where survival is dictated by the land itself, guiding travelers to hidden springs, narrow ravines, and high plateaus that shift between golden light and deep shadow.
This is a geography of exile, where movement is both a necessity and an uncertainty. In ancient times, the territories of Moab and Edom, now part of Jordan, were both barriers and waypoints, determining the path forward. The exodus, in this setting, was not a single route but a series of adaptations, shaped by the forces of nature and the presence of others who had long called this land home. Walking here today, one feels the slow rhythm of passage—a pilgrimage defined not by destinations, but by the landscape itself.
Mount Nebo: The end of the journey
Rising above the Jordanian plateau, Mount Nebo is where Moses’ journey reached its end. Not as a place of arrival, but as a threshold never crossed.
From its summit, the view stretches far beyond the land Moses is said to have glimpsed—a vast sweep of valleys and ridges that blur into the horizon. Yet Mount Nebo is not about possession; it is about the final pause before the unknown. Unlike sites of conquest or settlement, it is a place of conclusion, where movement stops, and recollection begins.
For travelers today, the ascent to Nebo carries the weight of all long journeys. It is a place not of beginnings, but of endings—where one stands at the edge of movement and looks back, not to what lies ahead, but to the road left behind.
An exodus without end
To follow Moses’ footsteps in Jordan is to trace an exodus that does not offer certainty, only passage. Akaba is the threshold, where the sea gives way to land. Wadi Araba is the journey, where movement becomes survival. Mount Nebo is the ending, not of movement itself, but of a particular road.
The wind still moves through these landscapes, shaping the ridges and wadis, carrying with it the echoes of those who walked this path before. The exodus is never truly over. It simply shifts, waiting for the next traveler to take the first step.
