A Trip to Jordan: Petra

Petra was a place I had never heard of. Never mind that it was recently named one of the new wonders of the world and is the most visit place in Jordan, I just wasn't aware such a place existed. Wow. My bad!

To get there, we drove through a couple of little towns.

There were ridiculously large amounts of cars, without the infrastructure to get around.

Our guide remarked that people just had a tendency to park their car wherever they are, like this green car double-parked in front of the store.

When I saw women dressed like this, I just wanted to ask if they weren't just dying of heat in their dark clothes from head to toe. This isn't even the hottest time of year and I'm feeling pretty overheated.

 The local mosque.

Some of the places we passed were packed with buildings. This area seems to be mostly housing.

Our bus driver had a gift for squeezing down streets too narrow for a skinny dog.  I couldn't believe we never sideswiped a car.

 Our adventure today is going to be a doozy.

 Despite what our ticket said, we were not spending the night.

We had barely gotten beyond the stuff that you need to buy because you can't live without one more scarf/snack/do-dad 

before I had a little incident.

While heading down the trail, admiring the view while simultaneously trying to dig my camera out of my purse, I caught my toe on a rock. The SMART thing to do at this point would have been to fall over and plop on my face. Unfortunately, I didn't choose that option. Instead, I launched myself into the air, flew forward about 160 feet in a graceful arc, landed and slid another 50 feet before finally coming to a stop. At least I like to think it was graceful.

I tried to clean myself up with the water bottle I brought. Immediately, people hauled me off the ground, and supplied me with water, sympathy, and bandaids, which didn't stick to sand and blood. For the rest of the day, I felt blood slowly trickling down my arm and leg (I banged up my knee, too). 

So. Embarrassing. 

Who's a klutz? That lady raising her bloody hand.

Here's my arm after a good cleaning later that night. Someone in our extended group had an extensive medical kit and supplied me with enough bandages to get me home without bleeding all over people. My hand hurt the worst and bled the most, and I spent the next month picking Jordanian gravel out of it. Not exactly the souvenir I wanted to bring home.....

 The show must go on, and I ignored the throbbing, bleeding pain and soldiered onward.

Petra is an ancient place, established around 312 BC. 

Up to now, we've visited ruins built by ancient people who brought stone from other locations and formed them into bricks, columns, and statues. The builders of Petra were smarter. They just carved their city right into the rose-colored rock.

This is known as Bab el-Sig Triclinium. The top layer is a tomb. In the center of those elongated pyramids is a niche with a worn figure of the family patriarch. There were five tombs here. The lower level is the funerary dining hall to hold banquets in to honor the dead.

 This tunnel was built between 35 BC-1 BC to divert flood water. It's 288+ feet long-quite the engineering feat.

 If you pause for a second to admire the view, someone will pull up and offer you a ride for a healthy fee. If you don't need a ride, be prepared to jump out of the way as donkeys and carriages come thundering down the narrow pathway. 

 This road is the Siq, a natural sandstone gorge that meanders for a little more than 1.2 miles on the way to the city. This is not an opening created by water or erosion, but by a geographical fault which split the sandstone.

 I took a quadrillion pictures here, entranced by the beautiful stone walls. 

Don't worry, I only posted a million of them.  

 You can see various ancient carvings in the rocks, like this thing that looks like a cross,

and various niches created as homages to Gods, intended to protect travelers.

Along the base of the gorge on either side are carved channels, aqueducts for the city, like the ones on the left side.

Petra was unknown to the western world until 1812 when it was discovered by Swedish explorer, Johann Burckhardt. 

Burckhardt, who became fluent in Arabic, disguised himself as a Muslim in order to gain access and better understand the people and places he uncovered. I love that technique.

 It was comfortably cool walking through the gorge, and much warmer in the open areas.

There were millions of crevices, cravings, and detours along the way.

One could spend days here, never seeing everything there is to see.

 In some places the original road (and aqueduct) is visible, 

believed to have been built around 30 BC. 

More of the original paved road.

 There is such a variety of rocks.

 The cone-shaped object in the right niche is a baetyle, a sacred stone made in the 2nd or 3rd century AD to honor deity.  Baetyles had great significance in this society, and were believed to have been endowed with life.

 Petra is technically owned by Bedouins, but they were all moved out of Petra about 20 years ago in order to prevent wear and tear on ancient treasures. 

Petra has several claims to fame: it is the place Arabs believe Moses struck the rock and water poured forth. Parts of the movie the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were filmed here.

The crowning jewel of Petra is cleverly placed so that travelers spot it in a dramatic and impressive moment. You catch a glimpse through the rocks, and a few steps later

you see it in all its glory. This is Al Khazneh, or The Treasury. It boasts Greek-influenced architecture, carved into sandstone.  Al Khazneh was built as a mausoleum and crypt. Still impressive, it has suffered over the years from weather erosion. 

The urn on the center top was rumored to have been used by pirates or bandits to store their treasure, and is damaged by local Bedouins who shot at it to spill that treasure. Unfortunately for them, it's solid sandstone. 

 There are numerous tombs at Petra. Archaeologists say only 15% of Petra is visible. The rest is still underground, covered by centuries of dirt.

The view along Street of Facades, dating from 50 BC - 50 AD.

 Waiting for a rider. Or maybe hoping he doesn't have to give rides today.

 Street of Facades looking back.

Walking the Siq

 A high tomb. At one point in the 1800's, a well known mountain climber was hired to check out tombs like this, but found they had been looted.

 Bedouins are allowed to sell their wares at Petra. This guy was playing music on an unusual instrument.

Look how tiny that person is in comparison to the carvings.

Tourist and camels.

This area is the tombs for poor folks. 

Wind and weather has warped some of the doorways to these tombs.

This amphitheater was originally thought to have been built by Romans, but it is too old and is now known to have been built by the Nabataean civilization. Old tombs were destroyed to make room for it. It has been heavily damaged by flooding.

Waiting at the amphitheater for the next show.

 I paused to take a picture of this colorful group, and two of the women spotted my bleeding, scrapped up arm, and rushed over to give me water and tiny band-aids they dung out of their purses. I love the goodness and kindness of people.

Cause you never know when you might need to check facebook.

Or buy more stuff.

These are the royal tombs and there is a pretty good climb up several flights of stairs to get to them.

 We have now arrived at Colonnaded Street. 

Built by the Romans sometime between 100-200 AD, it replaced the earlier Nabataean road.

This road would have been the center of town, and likely had houses and shops lining either side. It was badly damaged by the 363 AD earthquake, as well as flooding over the years. Nine columns were rebuilt, using pieces found on the ground. They had a couple of scary guys, dressed as Roman sentinels, to give us that old Rome feeling.

I'm astonished I had never heard of Petra before this visit.

Clearly, I need to get out more.

This may be the world's most unique garage.

There is a place you can climb to, a fairly good hike up the mountain. Stan was still recovering from food poisoning, and he had developed a nasty cough, especially when he exerted himself. We decided to turn back when he couldn't stop coughing. 

I saw lots of things on the way down I'd missed on the way up.

 I'm not sure I'd trust a donkey to haul me up this narrow mountain path.

Too bad no one can stop the forces of nature from wearing away at these carved rocks.

Who knew rocks could be so beautiful and colorful?

Old, old steps.

Man-made holes.

Nature-made holes.

I saw this pile of rocks, which puzzled me. Later I passed a little girl who sold me one for a dollar and realized the reason for the pile. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to take Petra home, so I returned the rock to Petra after I was out of sight of the girl.

It would be fun to explore every nook and cranny.

It's just incredible to see these 2000+ year old cravings.

This could be the model for the Flintstone's abode.

Even Bedouins need to do laundry.

I'm kind of feeling like a bird with a clipped wing.

 This little guy was so comfortable on a donkey, I think he must spend his days on the back of this animal.

 More new views on the way down: leftover pillar parts.

 Minister of weed control.

We passed a group of school girls. I believe every single one of them introduced herself to me and asked me my name. Cute, cute cute.

An ancient figure, melting into the rock after centuries of erosion.

Just to clarify, I mean the figure on the left.

Years ago, there were groups of Bedouins here. This area is considered Bedouin property. Wishing to protect the nature of this place and prevent future damage, the government enticed them away with housing and schooling. They are allowed to sell here, and benefit from tourist activity.  We were reminded not to buy from children because their parents pull them out of school to sell things to tourists like me who can't resist a child's plea for baksheesh. 

 A sign at the bottom reminded us not to encourage kids to miss school by buying souvenirs (or rocks-oops), not to take pieces of Petra home (sorry, I took some embedded gravel and sand), and not to put our overweight selves onto the scrawny animals (check!).  

Petra was a fantastic experience. There were many parts we didn't have time to see in one day. Maybe some other time.....

One of the days in Jordan we ate super at the hotel restaurant. I was shocked (no I wasn't) when Bob ordered sheep brains. I had a small bite, and found them to be not too bad. They had the texture of humus, and were rather bland. The most distasteful thing about eating them knowing what they were.