After the ancient stones of Petra and the sands of Wadi Rum, Aqaba arrives like a breath of blue: Jordan's only stretch of sea, a strip of coast on the Red Sea where the desert meets coral reefs teeming with life. Here travellers swap their hiking boots for fins and a snorkel, and discover that just a few metres from the shore, beneath warm, clear water, lies an underwater world of corals, colourful fish, turtles and even sunken wrecks, one of the best diving destinations in the whole Middle East.
But Aqaba is much more than a beach. It's a city with a very long history —a port and crossroads since Antiquity, the scene of the famous capture of Aqaba during Lawrence's Arab Revolt— and an astonishing geographical position: from its coast you can see, almost within arm's reach, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, four countries looking out over the same gulf. Free zone, busy port, winter sun refuge and base for Wadi Rum and Petra, Aqaba combines the laid-back feel of a seaside destination with the intensity of a border steeped in history.
This guide helps you make the most of Aqaba: where and how to dive or snorkel and how much it costs, what to see in the city (the Mamluk fort, the souk, the seafront promenade), how to use it as a base for the desert and the ruins, when to go (it's a paradise in winter) and how to get around this unique corner of the world. Whether you want to dive into the Red Sea reefs or simply rest by the sea after an intense trip through Jordan, Aqaba is the perfect finishing touch, with its mild climate, relaxed atmosphere and that horizon where four countries meet.
Aqaba occupies a site that has been inhabited for thousands of years, at the head of the gulf that bears its name, a strategic point where the routes between Africa, Asia and Arabia cross. In Antiquity the biblical Ezion-Geber, King Solomon's port, lay nearby, and later Ayla, a Nabataean and Roman city and then one of the first Islamic settlements, an important stop on the trade and pilgrimage routes to Mecca. Crusaders and Mamluks fought over the area: the fort that still stands dates from the Mamluk period. In July 1917, during the Great Arab Revolt, Arab forces led alongside T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia') took Aqaba from the Ottomans by surprise, attacking it from the desert interior, in a decisive and legendary action. In the 20th century, after the creation of the kingdom, Aqaba became Jordan's only port and its window onto the Red Sea, developing as a commercial port and, later, as a tourist destination and special economic zone. Its full history is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The monumental south: Nabataean Petra carved into the rock, the Wadi Rum desert, the country's only port at Aqaba and the castles of the old King's Highway.
Read the history of The south: Petra, Wadi Rum and the King's Highway →If you book from here we earn a commission and you pay no more. Prices and availability come from Civitatis.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The head of the Gulf of Aqaba, where the desert meets the Red Sea, has been a strategic and much-coveted spot for thousands of years. The natural routes between Africa, Asia and Arabia cross here, and whoever controlled this small stretch of coast controlled sea access for the whole interior. No wonder the area has been inhabited and fought over since ancient times: remains of settlements and metalworking (copper smelting) dating back to the Bronze Age have been found here.
Biblical tradition places Ezion-Geber somewhere nearby, the port from which, according to the story, King Solomon sent his ships in search of the gold of Ophir, and through which the Queen of Sheba arrived. Whatever the exact historical truth of these stories, they show how important the place was long ago as a port and a window to the sea. Over time, the area passed through the hands of the Edomites, the Nabataeans (the people of Petra, who ruled the whole south) and the Romans, who made it part of their province of Arabia and built a road, the Via Nova Traiana, that ran all the way here from Syria.
With the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, the city, then called Ayla, took on new importance. It was one of the first planned Islamic settlements in the region, a walled city that served as a key stop on the trade routes and, above all, on the Muslim pilgrimage route to Mecca. The ruins of that early Islamic Ayla can still be seen next to modern Aqaba. For centuries the port thrived as a transit point for goods and pilgrims, at the crossroads between the Mediterranean, Egypt and Arabia.
Aqaba's strategic importance made it a prize worth fighting over in the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, the Crusaders, who controlled much of the Holy Land, reached the area and built fortifications to control access to the Red Sea and harass Muslim routes. One of these stood on little Pharaoh's Island (Île de Graye), just off the coast. The aim was to cut communications between Egypt and Arabia, which deeply worried the Muslim powers.
It was the great Saladin who, during his offensive against the Crusaders in the late 12th century, won the area back for Islam. In the following centuries, under the Mamluks of Egypt, Aqaba kept its role as a port and a stop on the pilgrimage route to Mecca. The fort, or castle, of Aqaba that still stands by the sea in the centre of town dates from the Mamluk period and its later rebuilding under the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century: a square fortress with towers and inscriptions, built to protect pilgrims and the port.
During the long centuries of Ottoman rule, however, Aqaba gradually lost importance and shrank to a modest fishing village with a garrison, just another stop on the road to Mecca, far from the splendour of earlier times. That is how it entered the 20th century, when the First World War and the fight to end Ottoman rule would suddenly put this small port town back at the centre of history.
In July 1917, in the middle of the First World War, Aqaba became the setting for one of the most famous episodes of the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. The town, held by the Turks, was heavily defended on the sea side, with guns aimed at the gulf in case of a British naval attack. Its weak spot was the rear: on the inland desert side, which was considered impassable, it was barely protected.
That is exactly where the attack came from. The British officer T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia'), together with the Arab leader Auda abu Tayi of the Howeitat tribe and the forces of Prince Faisal, came up with a daring plan: instead of attacking Aqaba from the sea, they would cross hundreds of kilometres of unforgiving desert, including the dreaded Nefud, and fall on the town from inland, where nobody expected them. After a gruelling journey, the Arab forces attacked and took Aqaba on 6 July 1917, almost entirely by surprise and with few casualties, capturing the Ottoman garrison.
The fall of Aqaba was a hugely important strategic victory: it gave the Arab and British forces a Red Sea port through which to receive supplies and reinforcements, and it opened the way north, towards Palestine and, eventually, Damascus. It also cemented the fame of Lawrence and the Arab Revolt, and it went down in memory as one of the great feats of that campaign, immortalised decades later on the big screen. Aqaba's fort and the huge Arab Revolt flag that flies over the city today recall that decisive episode.
After the First World War and the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, the region came under British mandate, and in 1921 the Emirate of Transjordan was created. In 1946 it became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In this new country, almost entirely desert and with no coastline other than this small stretch of the Red Sea, Aqaba became priceless: it was, and still is, Jordan's only seaport, its only window to the sea and a vital artery for its trade.
Aqaba's exact border was adjusted during the 20th century, in a complex regional context shaped by the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the Arab-Israeli conflicts that followed. Just across the gulf, a few kilometres away, the Israeli city of Eilat grew up, so the two port cities, belonging to two countries in conflict for decades, ended up facing each other, almost touching. In 1965, Jordan and Saudi Arabia agreed on a land swap that extended Jordan's coastline at Aqaba, giving it more shore to develop its port and, later, its tourism.
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the Jordanian government invested in turning Aqaba into a modern commercial and industrial port, essential for exporting phosphates (one of the country's main resources) and importing goods. The town grew from a modest fishing village into a busy port and an expanding city. But its potential went beyond trade: those warm, clear waters, with their coral reefs, held another calling, tourism, which would transform the city's fortunes once again.
Today's Aqaba is a city unlike any other in Jordan: relaxed, cosmopolitan and focused on the sea. In 2001 the government created the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZA), a free-zone regime with lower taxes and incentives for investment, designed to boost the region's economic and tourism development. As a result, some goods are cheaper here than in the rest of the country, and the city has seen major growth in infrastructure, hotels, resorts and projects such as the Ayla district, with its marina and golf course.
Tourism has become one of Aqaba's mainstays, and its big draw is the coral reefs of the gulf, protected within the Aqaba Marine Park. The city has established itself as one of the best and most accessible diving and snorkelling destinations on the Red Sea, with plenty of dive centres, deliberately sunk wrecks (such as the cargo ship Cedar Pride) and even an underwater military museum. It also has the advantage of warm, sunny weather just when the rest of the region is in winter. Aqaba is also the natural base for exploring Wadi Rum and Petra, in the south of the country.
On top of all this comes its fascinating location: in the corner where four countries meet (Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia), with the lights of neighbouring Eilat switching on every night across the gulf. Being so close to its neighbours, in one of the most contested regions in the world, gives Aqaba a special character, peaceful and yet full of meaning. From King Solomon's port to Lawrence's great feat, and from humble fishing village to modern tourist city and Jordan's only outlet to the sea, Aqaba packs thousands of years of history and the calm charm of the Red Sea into its small bay.
