Match me such a marvel save in eastern clime / a rose red city half as old as time. Petra is astonishing. What more, indeed, can be said? I found a car and driver to take me there and arrived at about 8:30 this morning. Al- Siq, the entrance, a 1.2 km walk through a fissure in sandstone rock; up to 200 metres high in places and only a few across; streaked with shades of pink and red and yellow and brown is a sight to behold in itself, but the anticipation of glimpsing the treasury, as you approach it; mounts, until finally there she is bathed in the golden morning sun. Apparently carved in the 1st century BC as a tomb for a Nabataean king, it is awe inspiring and at the end of a
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