After this successful expedition, the Ottomans were cut off the Red Sea and Te Lawrence became an advisor of Prince Faisal in the Arab revolt against the Ottomans.The troops of Ottoman Empire had a way better army and technology than Faisal’s forces led by Lawrence and many other, but it was hard for Ottomans to take offensive action as the movement of the supplies was very difficult. To my surprise, there were no signs to it, or no plates to tell what it is.

Between both gulfs, lies the Peninsula of Sinai, the region which had to be crossed by TE Lawrence on a camel, in order to reach Cairo and inform his superiors of a successful capture of the Aqaba City.To me Aqaba was a city of unexpected surprises, without any research it just looks like a random city near any given sea. A simple cheap naval mine could sink an expensive British naval ship and it is very hard for smaller vessels to do a scouting mission defusing the mines in this heavily guarded area from the land.

Feisal and Lawrence agreed on a desert attack plan. Located at the end of the Gulf of Aqaba, it connects Jordan to the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea. Later on, in 1965, King Hussein traded 6000 sq.

A victory would allow the British to ship supplies to the Arab forces and put added pressure on their joint enemy in the region during World War I: the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Some accounts claim that Lawrence brought a bold plan to those meetings: He proposed that a troop of Arabs make their way across the desert and attack Akaba — a port on a gulf of the Red Sea, now part of Jordan — from the land side, not the heavily fortified sea side. In the beginning, Lawrence started the raid with forty men of Prince Faisal, the troops were increased to over a few thousand with some local tribesmen joining the cause, most notoriously forces of Arab irregulars led by Auda Abu Tayi.

Captain Thomas Edward Lawrence of the British Military Intelligence Department brought an unusual background to his meetings with Prince Feisal in Arabia: He was an Oxford-trained archeologist who had lived and worked in Arab lands and spoke some Arabic. Probably, the greatest days of this place lies somewhere ahead in the future.Due to it’s geographical location, visiting Aqaba is pleasant throughout the year. Aqaba is the biggest city in the region and it is relatively easy to enjoy compared to Northern parts. Km of Jordanian desert to 12km of Saudi Arabia coastline south of Aqaba, where all of the snorkeling and diving takes place today. Of course, it does feel like you are visiting a country populated purely by man and my impressions would be worse if I was a lonely woman traveler, but most of the people we met showed respect to my female friends. The day was even hotter than usual. Approaching Akaba after almost eight weeks in the desert, the band — riding dozens of horses and hundreds of camels — was now more than 500 strong.“For months Akaba had been the horizon of our minds, the goal.” The crucial battle was fought on July 2 against a couple of hundred outnumbered and terrified Turkish soldiers at an outpost outside of Akaba, Aba el Lissan.

In the charge down the hills, Lawrence felt himself being thrown from the saddle. Together with Wadi Rum and Petra, the City of Aqaba forms a golden triangle for the tourists in the Kingdom of Jordan. On May 9, 1917, a small band of 50 Arabs left Feisal’s headquarters in Wejh on the Arabian Peninsula.

With thousands of mouths to feed and no food, Lawrence realized that he had to move swiftly. The problem is that this town stands at the end of a narrow Red Sea which is surrounded by mountains which were heavily defended. And to do so was a risky business. Securing the oil reserves slowly became a National security question.As the only port in Jordan, Aqaba holds a very important strategic value to the whole country and is the most important city in the Southern side of the country.

To this day there is the Hashemite Coat of Arms above the entrance to celebrate the victory of the battle of Aqaba and the beginning of successful maneuvres of the Arab Revolt.One way or another, most people are coming to Aqaba not for its ancient origins, but for beaches, snorkeling, and diving in the Red Sea.