Jordan - Day 5

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Boy was Day 5 a big day. This was the Petra day and our tour guide got us up rather nice and early so that we could get into Petra before all the crowds arrived. I have to say that if we were getting there before all the crowds I would hate to see what it would be like with crowds.

We were staying in the Petra Palace hotel (yes that is right it was actually called the Petra Palace) which is just up the road from Petra. So bright and early in the morning we all got up and walked on down to the entrance to Petra. The walk to the beginning of Petra is approximatley 2km and it is possible to ride a horse or to even site behind a horse in a trap. However our guide advised us that the best way to get there was to walk. This turned out to be good advice and we soon found out that all of the horses and traps were actually the most annoying things in the world. The horses are so used to the trip that they just trot off and are not going to stop for anything and will quite happily bowl out of the way any silly tourists who are stopping to take a look at the view.

The walk through the siq to petra is really quite amazing. The siq is a natural, rather narrow gorge that meanders its way for approx 2 kms until it opens up into a valley, which is the start of petra. As we walked through the siq our guide stopped to show us the aquaduct that the nabbeateans used to gather fresh water that meanders it way through the siq. By the way Petra was built by the nabbeateans BC.

The moment that you come to the end of the siq and you see the treasury is really quite special. It is amazing to actually see it in person. Although the atmosphere is somewhat ruined by all the people and the noise and the people hassling you for camel rides etc.

Our guide gave us a wee talk about the treasury and how it was carved etc and what it was used for and then we moved off to look at the rest of Petra. I must say that throughout our day at petra I think we walked up and down in excess of 3200 steps and that is not even counting the horizontal distance that we walked. Our guide walked us up and off another hill and showed us some lovely burial caves that we carved out of the most amazing coloured stone.

After lunch (at the crown plaza buffet which was just fab and I can totally recommend - the best falafel ever!) Dave and I decided to walk up to the Deir. This is a walk of some 800 steps as well as some long distances. The walk itself actually wasn't all that bad, although we did pass some particularly unfit people on the way up and we rather wondered if they were going to make it all the way to the top. There were even some grannies attempting it with their walking sticks. And good on them I say. The one thing that we were staggered about was the number of spanish, french and italian tourists that we encountered on the trip. They were everywhere, and hardly a brit in sight.

Anyway once we reached the top of the hill we turned a wee corner and came face to face with the Deir. I personally perferred this to the treasury as it was a whole lot quieter at the top of the hill. From the deir you can then do another little side walk to look at the view and I must say that this is totally worthwhile. The view from the top is amazing and you can see out for miles, all the way to israel I think.

After clambering all the way down the stairs we decided to do another walk up a hill. But this time to the sacrifical hill. The walk seemed a little tougher but that could just be because of all the other walking that we had already done. This time it was only abouut 600 steps up and another 600 down, but we struggled a little bit on this one. Again though the view from the top was worth it. And it was most interesting to see the sacrifice altars.

What we couldn't get over however was the little tourist stalls that you had to pass practically every 500m. Even at the very top of the mountain there were these stalls!

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Photos

The end of the Siq
with a glimpse of the treasury