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Published: August 2nd 2008
I walked the 7 continents the last 6 months...and today, I'm visiting my last 7th Wonder of the World. I've been
waiting a lot to come here. This is a pilgrimage to one of my dearest dreams...today was simply an amazing visit
of human architecture in an astonishing natural site.
I departed yesterday morning from Cairo to Aman on Royal Jordanian. In front of the plane for some style, and I
must admit I've been very surprised by the brand new aircraft, big seats for a small aircraft...and great service.
Once in Queen Alia airport in Aman, jump on a taxi for what is supposed to be the 3 hours drive...that we did in
2 hours and 10 minutes! Sand, sand, stones and rocks...this is the 230km to Petra. Arrived in the middle of the
afternoon in Petra and stay at the Movenpick right in front of the entrance. It was too late for a first glimpse at
the site, so I went to the swimming pool.
This morning...wake up early. 6.15 wake up, 6.30 breakfast, 7am at the gate. The sites open at 6am....but the
breakfast at 6.30am...and I thought a good breakfast would help for a long
walk.
The tuff part is the planing. I mean the time planing for your visit. I've been told that to reach the Monastery,
you need four hours walk...did it in 85 minutes with all the needed photo stops. Was told that to go from the
Temple of Winged Lions to the Monastery, you need between 1 hour and 90 minutes, did it in 25 minutes...
So I found out quite fast that if you want to enjoy the site...the best way is a fit walker...with regular stops.
But where I really ended up happy...is that when I reached the Monastery by 8.30am...I had see less than 10 tourists.
Trust me, around 10am, it all turn to another kind of story!
For a little of history now...the all sites where re-discovered in 1812 after having been "lost" since the 14th
Century. The main sites are all dated around the 1st century BC. The tribe running the show where the Nabateans,
with a lot of influences...Egyptian, Graeco-Roman and Hellenistic.
The pictures are mainly in a chronologic order. So the way down (and up to the Monastery) from 7.00 to 8.30. And the
way back from around 9am to
11.30 am. This will explain the change of lights. Early morning the heat was not even
there, and by 11am, with all the shadows still around, it was still a very nice and not so hot day. Not sure I
would have aprreciated to start the all visit around 11am!
Enjoy the pics...
Later this afternoon I make my way back to Aman for another Royal Jordanian flight followed by...more flights...
to reach my next entry...which shall be there in 3 days, in another amazing place of this planet.
What a great way to spend a week-end! Enjoy, because I do!
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Paul de Boer
non-member comment
Cool pictures you took in Petra
Nice pictures! And nice to see you went early, so you were almost alone. We went there with an organised tour, so we arrived around 10 o'clock, but in the afternoon all the visitors will leave as they need to catch their busses. My sister and I, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel, so we were alone near the monastary around 5 o'clock, and the treasury around 18:00 hrs. Good luck with travelling.