Amazing Petra

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Day 223 - Steps 24586
After a sleep in we had breaky and moved from Sunset Motel to Cleopetra further from Petra but closer to the town of Wadi Musa. Then to the Visitors information centre and bought a couple two days passes (26 pounds each) a bare minimum to the sights of Petra.
After a short walk along the Siq (An impressive 1200m long and up to 80m deep corridor) we arrived at the famous 'Treasury' aka Al- Khazneh. Once we had overcome the hayfever induced by the horses, camels carts and needless to say dust we stood in awe of the sheer size ( 30m wide and 43m high) and detail of the ' Treasury' famed Petra's most beautiful monument. According to the locals was built in the 1st century BC as a tomb for the Nabataean king.
From here we made our way to the 'High Place of Sacrifice' a former sacrificial plate looking over much of Petra. Here found a baby sleep in a cut of the rock and were quickly warned to be quiet by her young mother so not to wake her. Keen to climb up behind the treasury we followed some ambiquosis instructions from one of the many jewellary ladies before turning back fifteen minutes later for some more precise instructions. After a quick refuel with snickers and coke (Nutricious I know) we wandered past the huge theatre which could occupy7000 people and along Colonnaded street and past Qasr Al-Bint the only free standing building to have survived the earthquakes formally a temple.
Next we set off for Al -Deir (The Monastry) up a flight of 800 steps cut into the mountain. In our opinion the "Monastry" was perhaps even more impressive then the "Treasury" (or maybe is was just the climb). From here we made our way to the view point for a few photo's but with the daylight diminishing by the second we decided it was time to make the long trek back to the entrance in the dark resisting numerous offers for "airconditioned taxi" aka donkey and " you want Ferrairi" aka camel.
After a shower to rinse off some of the dust we has accumulated in Petra we headed to Al-Arabi restaurant for dinner as recommended by our host for a fantastic traditional meal of falafals, arabic salad and chicken and beef kebabs.
We crashed early with all of the 16km of walking taking its toll on us and the pedometre which couldn't handle the distance and died.

Day 224
We set off bright and early in hope to beat the crowds of tourists, arriving at the Visitors Centre/ Petra entrance at 7am. We wandered along the Siq alone (completely opposite to yesterdays crush of dust with the other couple hundred tourists, camels and horses we had shared it with). After gathering some more detailed instructions then the day before from a fellow Aussie we set out for the view overlooking the "Treasury" . With only a slight detour off track (but worth it for the magnificant views) we arrived at the view point overlooking the treasury. After Carly overcome her new discovered fear of heights and had resisted the urge to tell stangers to step back from the edge we enjoyed the amazing views and waved to the herds of tourists now flooding through the Siq.
We made our way down past the Royal Tombs; Urn Tomb, Palace Tomb and Sexious Florentinus Tomb followed by a stop for lunch and some people watching (One of Jez's favourite pass times).
We finished our tour of Petra climbing up through the "Temple" currently undergoing restoration work by an American University, past the now closed museum of Petra and through the amazing church with beautiful mosaics which strangely doesn't make it to the brochure but was well worth a look.

We headed back into Wadi Musa to Al Arabi for another fastastic meal and some net time for catching up on emails burning a copy of our photos before the long awaited "Petra by Night".
We headed back to Petra at 8.30pm which was lit by hundreds of candles, as a large convoy we made our way along the Siq for the 5th time to the base of Treasury. Here we sat a traditional music ceremony, some local story telling and hot tea.

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Photos

Entry to the Siq
Which is the entrence to petra

Camel Pimps
You want to ride the camel????, Cheap price for you.

The monastry
Worth the 800 steps climb

The treasury...
Prior to the onslaught of tour groups