Petra ~ Jordan

In front of the Treasury in Petra

    One of the most remarkable places in Jordan and also holding the prestige of one of the wonders of the world (on many lists:), the ancient rose-red city of Petra truly does take your breath away. The massive and elaborate rock-cut architecture is even more impressive standing next to than it is on the big screen with Indiana Jones (parts of 'The Last Crusade' were filmed here). Although it has become a popular tourist destination, the ancient city still holds local charm and wonder - without the artificial feel of other popular sites.  With an early start to the day it was easy to beat the crowds and wander silently through the canyons and winding pathways as the sun began to paint the rock with shades of red.

The majestic Treasury

A peak through the Siq to the Treasury

    The Siq is a narrow gorge that serves as the main entrance to Petra.  Besides the natural geologic beauty of this area, I was also amazed by the extensive water conduit system that ran along the inside of the Siq into the ancient city.  Considering the harsh desert that surrounds Petra is was an amazing feat to create an artificial oasis through the water system and effectively build up Petra to flourish and be one of the most important cities for the spice and silk routes from Asia over 2,000 years ago!

The Siq

A channel of the water system

Transportation through the Siq

* this was the cheesiest tourist thing but they actually did stop us...

The tombs set the background for the travelers on camels

   Petra has served as a sanctuary since ancient times ~ with the Nabataeans staking claim in the third century BC. The great ancient city was supposedly abandoned after several earthquakes destroyed infrastructure around AD 555, leaving the caves and ancient architecture to become the homes of the local Bedouin.  Currently the majority of the Bedouin live just outside Petra in a community the government made to draw them out of the caves in the newly deemed 'World Heritage Site'.  Besides the traditional pastoral lifestyle - the Bedouins now serve as the guides, craftsmen and shopkeepers of Petra.

Looking down on the caves that used to be home to hundreds

   I didn't know what to expect from Petra, but I was definitely happy to see that the red-rose city was not just one strip of historic architecture, but rather an entire landscape of hidden caves, towering cliffs and humbling desert.  You could easily spend a few days exploring the surrounding area, but unfortunately we had to squeeze every last drop out of one full hot day.

The 'High Place of Sacrifice'

A view of the stadium and more caves

The natural beauty of the rock mixed with the man-made entrance

Looking down on the tombs carved into the side of the canyon walls (you really have to enlarge this one to see it)

A picturesque resting place

Our Petra Group- We met a fun couple from Belgium at the place we were staying

The Monastery

    One of the longest hikes and best rewards was to the Monastery of Petra. At close to 50m high it towers above you, and really makes you wonder how on earth they were able to carve out such a spectacular piece of architecture over 2,000 years ago.  The Monastery and it's backdrop seemed very surreal, like someone had sketched it onto the desert landscape.

View from above the Monastery

A view of the harsh yet stunning Jordan landscape

Bedouin women sweeping in front of her shop

Ancient temple area

    So I thought I would start out with Petra because it was the most spectacular and the most memorable part of Jordan....... but there was also the element of getting there in the first place.  First of all we had over five hours of travel by bus from Jerusalem to Aqaba - and once we arrived in Aqaba we were officially ready for the weekend.  We dropped our bags and went out to dinner - sampling some of Jordan's finest beer.  I ordered the Petra beer thinking it would be a nice micro-brew, little did I know that I was in for a stiff malt liquor in a tall can that looked oddly close to the Coors can.  Although seemingly worlds apart, 'a taste of the red-rose city' was not too much unlike 'a taste of the Rockies'.  After that strong start we ended up having a fun night out on the town full of darts, billiards and beer.  

The local cans:)

       The next morning was not as early as we had hoped - and once we stepped out of the door it was already extremely hot.  We did not exactly have a set plan so we decided it would be a good idea to go find some water to play in.  We had heard of Wadi Mujib nature reserve before and somehow had the idea that it was only a few hours north, so we hopped in a shared cab headed in that direction.  Our destination was a small town called Karak where we were supposed to find another ride to the nature reserve.  The further we went north, the less tourists there were which also equaled less people speaking English.  Although the people in our cab spoke limited English, we pointed out where we wanted to go on a map and they wrote down the remainder of our itinerary and destination in Arabic (for us to show people).  We wandered around a bit in Karak where we were dropped off - trying to tell people we wanted to go to Wadi Mujib and showing them the Arabic writing we were given.  People were extremely friendly and it seemed like everyone tried to get together to help us.  Soon we were on a small mini-bus headed for Wadi Mujib.  The mini-bus was initially full of people, but then after about 45 min we found that we were the only ones on the bus and it was no longer picking people up.  There was one bus driver, a fare collector and a friend up front and then Dan & I in the back surrounded by empty seats.  

      Not really having a clue where we were, we just kept on repeating Wadi Mujib and they repeated it back and smiled.  Before we knew it we had traversed down a steep and windy road and had arrived at a major dam..... the dam of Wadi Mujib.  After trying to use charades to show that I wanted to hike and go swimming at a nature reserve, it was pretty obvious that there had been some miscommunication.  We walked into the dam authority building to try and find someone who spoke English and ended up finding out that we were on the opposite side of where we wanted to be.  The miscommunication was because Wadi Mujib to them is the entire valley - whereas we wanted the Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve.  Our slightly lazy minds from the night before were not the most proactive that day and unfortunately we had relied on what our first ride had wrote in Arabic.... thinking that after pointing it out on a map it would be our easy ticket to successful travel.  So in the end we spent pretty much the whole day traveling - jumping from bus to taxi to bus, sweating from the extreme heat and playing charades to make up for our language barriers.  It was a bit frustrating and more costly than we had hoped - but it also held many good lessons and gave us a glimpse of the everyday life of the locals off the beaten track.  Their efforts to try and help were warm and always friendly - and I only wish we had more time in the country..... to get lost without counting the hours:) 

View of the reservoir at Wadi Mujib