Jordan's jewel. |
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First broadcast date
2006
Abstract
The program shows the opening of the Royal Automobile Museum, in King Hussein Park, under the patronage of his Highness Prince Faical Bin Al Hussein. All the cars that once belonged to his Majesty, the late King Hussein Bin Talal, were displayed. There were delegations of foreigners who expressed their admiration. On the second day, the display was held in the Roman city of Jerach between the columns, including a dinner with his Highness Prince Faical Bin Al Hussein. From there, the exhibition moved to the city of Al Aqaba where the same items were displayed. Both the cars displayed and the places visited by the delegations shed light on different periods in the life of Jordan, with their historical and political dimensions.
Production companies
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Television - Own production
Broadcaster
JRTV - Jordan Television
Audiovisual form
Documentary
Secondary themes
- Economy / Roads and transports
Map locations
- Jordan - Transjordan Plateau - Amman
Additional information
The Royal automobile museum - vestiges of Jerash by nights - Aqaba city and its airport - horses
Context
The Jewel that is Jordan
Norig Neveu
“The Jewel That Is Jordan” was the brain-child of entrepreneur Jonathon Lyons, a vintage car enthusiast. In 2003 car-buffs from all over the world came together and drove around Jordan in the vintage-cars usually exhibited in Amman's Royal Automobile Club museum. The museum was built by King Abdullah II to tell the history of Jordan through the cars of successive monarchs. Many of these cars belonged to King Hussein, including the Lincoln Capri which he used during his coronation in 1953.
Since 2003 there have been several editions of the rally, this documentary focuses on the second one, in 2005, under the patronage of Prince Faisal ibn Hussein and Lord Montague. Some 120 people came to Jordan to criss-cross the country in 56 cars. The film shows a number of tourist sites visited by the participants of this rally.
The route chosen by the event's organizers is an example of Jordan's official history and the heritage sites associated with it. Indeed, the route takes the cars to all the oldest sites, those linked to Nabataean or Roman history: Petra, Jerash and Umm Qais. Visits to Mount Nebo, the Holy Land mosaic in Madaba and the site of the Baptism of Christ, included in the itinerary, show the importance of the Christian heritage in Jordan. This heritage, mainly from the Byzantine era, is central to the development of religious tourism, especially since the papal pilgrimages of John Paul II (2000) and Benedict (2009). These pilgrimages ratified these sites as officially part of the Christian Holy Land.
The route of the first edition of this rally was based on TE Lawrence's campaign during the Arab Revolt (1916-1918). This second edition was based on the same idea. The car enthusiasts stopped at Aqaba, a town whose capture by the armies of the Arab Revolt in 1917 played a central role in the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. A visit to Wadi Rum was also part of the circuit. This desert was the back-drop for the famous film about TE Lawrence, “Lawrence of Arabia”, shot between 1961 and 1962.
This part of Jordan is considered an “open air museum”, with much emphasis on the tradition of hospitality, reviving the Bedouin aspect of Jordanian identity, inherited from the British mandate. In addition, the route of the rally is important in that it illustrates Jordan's heritage: directly descended from Orientalist and then colonial influences, themselves linked back to ancient history and Byzantine Christianity
Bibliography
Riccardo Bocco et Géraldine Chatelard, Jordanie : le royaume frontière, Paris, Autrement, 2001.
Kimberly Katz, «Legitimizing Jordan as the Holy Land : Papal Pilgrimages-1964-2000», in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 23:1 et 2, 2003, pp. 181-189.
Irene Maffi, Politiques du patrimoine et politiques de la mémoire en Jordanie, entre histoire dynastique et récits communautaires, Dijon-Quetriny, Edition Payot Lausanne, 2004..
