The Prophet's Trail

The Ajloun Highlands are refreshingly cool (well, everything is relative) compared to furnaces of Petra and Wadi Rum. The Ajloun Woodland Reserve was set up in 1988 to protect some fine forests, and is also a reserve for roe dear, wild boar, jackals, hyenas and wolves. 

The Prophets Trail is a gem of a walk, scoring high on the Delightful Experience Index. Starting at the reserves visitor centre, it drops through olive and vine groves, then apple orchards, into a fine forest of deciduous and evergreen oak, beautiful-barked strawberry trees, with glades of local sage and wild roses (when we were there in mid May), emerging into the groves and fields of the Melina Valley. Turning left (good rest-spot on a shady bank with views back up the valley), follow another lovely wooded valley up to a slightly disappointing section of road.

You then circle round above a ravine, through fine open woodland with views of the hillock that is Mar Elias (a major hill from the Jordan valley side), to your destination, where Elijah was said to have been born and where the ruins of two Byzantine churches have been excavated. It is a delight to sit under the deep shade and contemplate the vast view across the Jordan Valley towards the West Bank and Israel.

This is an 8 km walk, which takes approaching 4 leisurely hours (including stops and discussions with your guide (ours, was very nice, in his mid 20s). A guide is compulsory and helpful, as the trail frequently veers off onto the faintest of animal tracks.