Umm Qais

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Panoramic, Historic, Reflective

Perched high above the Jordan Valley with sweeping views across three countries, Umm Qais offers a setting that feels expansive, reflective, and steeped in layered history. Once the Greco-Roman city of Gadara, Umm Qais is known for its dramatic black basalt ruins, hillside terraces, and literary legacy — it was home to poets, philosophers, and statesmen in antiquity. Today, it offers event organisers a deeply evocative venue for intimate, cross-cultural, and contemplative gatherings.

The site itself — the Umm Qais Archaeological Park — features a stunning theatre built from dark volcanic stone, colonnaded streets, and ancient church ruins, all set against a backdrop of the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights, and the Yarmouk River Gorge. For planners seeking dramatic yet quiet settings, it’s an extraordinary place to host storytelling evenings, heritage performances, or sunset contemplative gatherings. The on-site museum and panoramic gardens also make for excellent spots to anchor cultural or creative sessions.

Just outside the ruins, the Beit Al Baraka guesthouse and affiliated Baraka Destinations projects have transformed this rural village into one of Jordan’s most innovative community tourism models. Through these partnerships, organisers can host multi-day retreats, writing workshops, or creative residencies that blend comfort with deep cultural integration. Guests can dine on home-cooked meals in family homes, explore herbal medicine trails with local guides, or learn traditional weaving and bread-making in welcoming spaces run by the village’s residents.

Umm Qais is especially suited for heritage-themed gatherings, community and culture-focused events, creative residencies, and faith-based programmes. The area’s biblical associations — it’s said to be the site of the miracle of the Gadarene swine — offer an additional layer of meaning for groups exploring interfaith themes, spiritual inquiry, or historical pilgrimages.

While it may be off the typical tourist trail, Umm Qais is well worth the journey. It lies around 2.5 hours from Amman, but many event itineraries combine it with Ajloun or Jerash, creating a rich cultural circuit through the green highlands. The road trip itself adds to the experience — winding through olive groves, hillside villages, and quiet valleys before reaching this high point on the Jordanian map.

There are a growing number of local experiences that can be incorporated into event programmes, including guided hikes along old Ottoman railways, foraging excursions with local farmers, and shared dinners that feature stories passed down through generations. Most events here are small and highly curated — tailored to reflection, exploration, and deep conversation rather than spectacle or scale.

The infrastructure is modest but meaningful. Beit Al Baraka accommodates small groups in comfort, and nearby villages offer expansion options for larger bookings. Electricity, Wi-Fi, and transport are all available, but events here are best when they lean into the low-tech, high-impact model — where place and people are the main features, not screens or stages.

Umm Qais is, in many ways, Jordan’s northern mirror to Petra — ancient, layered, and profound, but quieter and more introspective. It’s a place where planners can slow down, look out across borders, and create events that honour both the past and the people who continue to shape this remarkable landscape.