I wandered the streets after the dives and lunch (taken around 3pm). I still walked a lot in the city, trying to get out of areas full of tourists. I was surprised by the number of mosques. At night, some are lit with green spotlights, this gives a magnificent look to the minarets. The call to prayer in the morning, at 5am, is a little disconcerting but you get used to it very quickly.
I reviewed what is also done in Tunisia, with for example, the street of merchants of blankets, car accessories. If you need something, you don't need, like in France, to run to different places. Everything is comparable in a few steps.

Jordan is also a disconcerting country. In the street, you can come across Jordanian women dressed like a European without a chador, others wear the chador (some are even feminine with make-up, heels, etc.), and finally some wear the burka, the full veil. On the beaches, all these women rub shoulders and that surprises many. Similarly, some men wear the "qami" as well as the "keffiyeh" (headdress).

The beaches along the Red Sea after the port of Aqaba are well laid out with arbours, some even have tables for eating, or even a barbecue area. On Fridays and Saturdays, the beaches are crowded, until late in the evening. As a reminder, weekend days are Friday and Saturday.

In the end, I really enjoyed this city. The people there are very friendly. I talked a lot with the waiters of my favorite restaurant, some of whom came from Egypt. I tried to understand their currency as well but it remained incomprehensible to me when it came to paying... Thank you Farid (my diving DM) for showing me the oriental pastry shop, far from the tourist area. A very nice evening with a few extra pounds at the exit...

Aqaba or Akaba occupies a strategic position for Jordan as it is the country's only port. Aqaba is the site of a settlement inhabited since 4000 BC. BC, in particular because of its strategic position at the crossroads of trade routes between Asia, Africa and Europe. Under the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Greeks called the city Berenice, then the Romans Aila and Aelena. Under the Romans, the Via Nova Traiana that ran from Damascus to Amman extended to Aqaba, where it joined the road that ran from Egypt to Palestine. In the 12th century, the Crusaders occupied the city and built the fortress of Helim. The Mamluks took the city in 1250. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Mamluk dynasty and the region were under Ottoman influence. Under the Ottomans, the importance of the city declines: Aqaba becomes a simple fishing village. During World War I, Ottoman forces were forced to withdraw from the city in 1917 after a raid by Lawrence of Arabia and Hussein bin Ali's Arab forces.
In 1965, King Hussein of Jordan expanded the territory around Aqaba. In exchange for 6,000km2 (2316sq mi) in central Jordan, Saudi Arabia gives 12km (7.45mi) of coastline south of Aqaba. In addition to allowing the expansion of the port, this exchange also gives Jordan access to the magnificent coral of Yamanieh.

Nowadays, the city is a seaside resort and a diving center. In September 2017, the Sahara Forest Project was launched, near Aqaba, which aims to transform desert land into arable land. The project aims to produce 130 tons of organic vegetables per year, 10,000 liters of drinking water from seawater, and will use photovoltaic panels for the production of solar energy. A desalination station and a pond for the production of salt will be built. The project, costing 750 million euros ($849 million), is supported by Norway and the European Union.