For most of the drive from the Dead Sea to Aqaba, we were but a hop, skip and jump away from Israel. In fact the whole drive was spotted with border sentry points like you see in this picture. These were, at times, half a mile away (at best). Beyond that was Israel (and of course, Israel’s checkpoints).

You can literally walk over to Israel if you could negotiate the two checkpoints, that is.

Prior to the 1994 peace treaty, there used to be a lot of checkpoints on this road itself. After the treaty (where both parties agreed that a third country cannot use their land to attack the other country), all those checkpoints were removed.

Curiosity led me to read what happened after the 1994 treaty. Just search for Israel Jordan Peace Treaty in Wikipedia. Couldn’t help being impressed by King Hussein’s commitment to peace in the area.