Ma'an Governorate (283)

Ma'an Governorate, in southern Jordan, is the kingdom's largest by area, covering approximately 32,800 km², or 37% of the national territory, with a population approaching 195,000 — the country's lowest density, owing to its vast desert landscapes. It encompasses some of Jordan's most iconic sites, including Petra and the Wadi Rum desert, both inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The town of Ma'an, the governorate's capital, lies on the ancient King's Highway and was once a stop on the Hejaz railway linking Amman to Medina. A land of Bedouin tribes and Nabataean remains, this mountainous, desert territory rises to 1,854 meters at Jabal Umm ad-Dami, the country's highest point. 

Madaba (8)

Madaba, a city of approximately 86,000 inhabitants located 30 kilometers southwest of Amman on the ancient King's Highway, is renowned for its Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics. Mentioned in the Bible, the city was successively Moabite, Nabataean, Roman and then Byzantine, a period during which it reached its artistic peak. Its most famous treasure, the Madaba Map, is a floor mosaic in Saint George's Church created around 560 CE and composed of approximately 2.3 million tesserae: it is the oldest known cartographic representation of the Holy Land, centered on Jerusalem. Largely destroyed by an earthquake in 746, the city declined before the mosaic was rediscovered in 1894 during construction work. 

Wadi Rum (22)

Wadi Rum, nicknamed the "Valley of the Moon," is a desert of sandstone and granite located in Ma'an Governorate, southern Jordan, covering a protected area of approximately 74,000 hectares. Inhabited for more than 12,000 years, it preserves over 25,000 rock carvings and 20,000 inscriptions tracing the evolution of writing in the region, as well as Nabataean remains. The site is home to Jabal Umm ad-Dami, Jordan's highest point, and remains inhabited by Bedouin tribes, notably the Zalabieh, who live between settled and nomadic ways of life. Made famous by the film Lawrence of Arabia, shot at the very site of the 1917-1918 Arab Revolt, Wadi Rum has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2011 as a mixed natural and cultural site.