Aleppo all the way to Aqaba in 40 days, any suggestions?

Totally feasible. Route is fine. Two weeks each in Syria/Leb/Jordan (or, if you're including Israel/Palestine, 10 days in each) will give you an excellent feel for the region - you'll absolutely love it. This amount of time will also let you get off the beaten track a bit, and really get under the skin of the places you're in. Give several days to each of the big cities (Aleppo, Damascus, Beirut, Amman, Jerusalem) to let you compare & contrast, and hit the big sights with a couple of days each (Palmyra, Baalbek, Petra etc), but the thing that will swing this trip into something special will be giving yourself a good amount of time to get out into the countryside, the small villages, the minor sights. THAT's where you'll best be able to get a handle on the people and what moves them. Investing in renting a car to cover the backcountry will repay in getting you (quickly) to places you'd never see otherwise - and letting you stop on the way to sniff the air and see the fields.

Get a mix of books (LP is good on Syria, Rough Guide is best on Jordan) and read the small print - it's the places in between the headline attractions that make things special. By allowing 40 days you've given yourself a real chance to explore more widely than most. Take it!

Gems of Syria - Jordan (from North to South):
St. Simeon and the dead cities, Aleppo, Apamea, Hama, Krak des Chevaliers, Palmyra, Ma'aloula, Damascus, Hauran (above all Bosra), Pella, Um Qais, Djerash, Madaba, Kerak, Petra, Wadi Rum, Aqaba.
Lebanon: Baalbek, Byblos, Beirut, Beit-ed-Din, Saida, Tyr
Syria/Lebanon: museums closed on Tuesdays, bazars and Islamic buildings closed on Fridays

So nice to find somebody asking this question and not "can I make it in 8 days?"

Just thinking the same thing! 40 days, what bliss...

One of my biggest regrets for Syria is that when someone invited me to stay with her, I didn't have the time. I was on a daytrip from Hama with my hotel manager and a couple other guests, and the guest who'd been learning Arabic already knew the host in the village we'd stopped in. The host intrigued me as she was relatively old to be unmarried, blatantly uninterested in marriage, but stuck caring for her brother's 6 or 10 kids, I dunno, there were lots. But the night the other guest would be spending out in this village was 3 or 4 days later, when I'd already be in Aleppo. I hope the next time I go I'll get another invite, somewhere in Syria.

Other than the places listed, I also really liked Deir Mar Musa. Oh, and the hammam in Amman, while much pricier than any in Syria, is a really great experience.

I just did it the other way in just about 2 1/2 weeks, excluding Israel, so you will have plenty of time to rest and enjoy!! Petra and Aleppo were the two highlights for me. Wadi Rum was pretty good too.

40 days!?!? LOL: I guess it would depend on how you travel and how fast (i.e., what you like to do when you get somewhere). I was in the region last April/May and in the course of 3 weeks did Syria and Jordan and had plenty of time. (I travelled by rental car).

I spent 3 weeks as well, and nearly every day I look back and wish I'd had more. 2 weeks for Jordan, a month at least for Syria. But I was on a frequent-flier miles ticket, and I wanted to push my return flight from Istanbul out by a month and the only choices for limited FF seats was 2 months or nothing. OP is very, very lucky!

OP is indeed very lucky. I've tried to do something like this before, but open-jaw flights in the Middle East always seem to be ferociously expensive compared to return flights. And 40 days... what a luxury!

Apart from the places already suggested, I'd also recommend:

Homs (Syria). There are very little in the way of traditional tourist sites in Homs, but Homsis are incredibly friendly and hospitable, even by Syrian standards. The food I've had there is easily some of the best I've had in Syria, and the Christian quarter is great fun and easily rivals Bab Touma for liveliness. It's also quite modern and liberal, being a university town - in many ways it feels much more like a Lebanese city than a Syrian one. Syrians seem to think it very strange that anyone would actually want to visit Homs, but I actually much prefer it to Hama.

Bcharre/The Cedars (Lebanon). The mountains in northern Lebanon are breathtakingly beautiful, even in summer, and there's plenty of good hiking to be had.

Zahle (Lebanon). Worth it even if it's just for a day trip: Zahle is renowned for its food, and you won't be disappointed by a meal there.

King's Highway (Jordan). One of the most beautiful drives you'll ever have!

Dana Valley (Jordan). Absolutely fantastic hiking through a valley inhabited by friendly Bedouin.

If you're travelling north to south, and plan to visit Lebanon, it would make sense to enter Lebanon via one of the two nothern border crossings from Tartous (also another fun city to visit) or Homs, but exit via the Beirut-Damascus highway.

Enjoy your trip - I truly envy you. I was last in Syria for Christmas, and already am trying to think of ways to get back there soon... Those three countries are easily my three favourite countries I've ever been to.

well, to be fair, the three weeks i was there (of which a week was spent in Beirut) was not sufficient for an in depth exploration of the place. Luckily, I work for an airline, so the cost to do this round trip from Arizona (about $300) was not the problem: it was the amount of vacation time I had. Having said that, I AM returning this April to "finish up" what I could not do in Syria. So, upon reflection, I have to agree with the above, that 1 month in Syria would be about right; minimum 10 days in Lebanon ... and as for Jordan, aside from Petra and Aqaba, I was not overly impressed with what the country had to offer (I live in Arizona; Wadi Rum is nothing special for someone who lives in the American version of Wadi Rum! :-). To me, however, what was most impressive about the region was Syrians' friendliness and hospitality. This made a huge difference to me in where I wanted to be. The Beirutis seemed to be more concerned with proving that they're French than being hospitable (though they were certainly polite and welcoming) and the Jordanians (Palestinians?) always look angry (but were also very helpful). But the Syrians are perhaps the friendliest and most hospitable people in the region and that has been the biggest factor in my opting for a return and seeing places I did not get a chance to see on this last trip.