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Published: March 21st 2006
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Petra…a place where you instantly feel like a kid again. It was what you always dreamed about, being an explorer and finding a lost ancient city (I’m sure Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade doesn’t help this either!). That is exactly what Petra is, a lost ancient city carved out of rock. There is not much historical information on Petra. Only that it was created by the Nabateans around the 7th century BC. What happened to their large civilization is also unknown. They know there was a big earthquake around 500 AD that may have destroyed the civilization.
We started our morning early (7am) and made our way down the As-Siq. This is the 1km “corridor” that leads to the famous treasury in Petra. It is a huge gorge that has been carved out with water over the years (much like the canyons in Zion), sometimes very narrow, sometimes wide. Although we have seen many pictures of the treasury from the As-Siq, nothing really prepares you for the moment when you round the corner and see it peeking out from behind the rock. It is an amazing sight..so incredibly beautiful! Surprisingly, although it looks like a huge building
from the outside, the inside only contains one 50’x50’ room with 3 13’x13’ rooms on the three walls (unfortunately there isn’t a deep chasm with invisible steps or a room with a Crusader and the Holy Grail). You can definitely see the strong Roman influence in the city’s architecture as well.
As you begin walking away from the treasury you can see all of the dwellings in the hills. They have a southwestern look as far as the outside design goes. You find yourself following the explorer in yourself and wanting to look in each one, hoping there is some treasure that has been left behind. Next is the theatre which was built to hold 7000 people. You can still see the bleachers carved out of rock and the stairs between the “sections” leading up. We made our way up to the Royal Tombs which is slightly elevated from the main “street,” More neat facades (but small rooms inside). We saw a small trail and some stairs and decided there must be more tombs that way. We starting climbing which led to more stairs, which led to more stairs..oh look! More stairs! After a snack break half
way up, we realized we had already gone this far-why stop now? (Would Indiana Jones have stopped? Hell No!) So one hour of hiking later, we made it to the top of the mountain and could look down upon the city of Petra (as I type this, I am still do damn proud of myself!!). All I can say is look at the pictures from the ground to get an idea of how far we hiked….way the heck up there!!
Surprising, we had a great lunch at the restaurant inside. Traditional Middle Eastern food consisting of a Saffron rice dish with lamb, falafel (the best we had the whole trip), hummus, tabbuleah, pita bread, and yummy salads! Since we had already hiked like 5 miles and climbed to an elevation of 1300 feet, we decided we didn’t have it in us to make the climb to the famous monastery. It is over 800 steps to get there. Lucky for us, you can hire donkeys for a roundtrip “lift” to the top. Although this was far better than hiking, it is still an upper body workout as you try to hold on while the donkey is walking up/down
Indiana Jones
There were no Holy Grails for sale here :( incredibly steep inclines and broken stairs. I had to hold onto the back of my saddle the entire trip down because my donkey liked to go fast and was going to launch me right off as he “jumped” down the stairs. The monastery is as breathtaking as the treasury. It is much larger, just not as detailed. There is a small café there where you can sit and enjoy its magnificence!
We made our way back to the treasury and Matt made a small climb to get some great pictures. You can see from the one picture of me at the bottom the incredible size of these facades! That ended our day for Petra, we were slightly tired and dirty and it was nice to go back to the hotel for a bath before dinner. We ate at a local restaurant and had a couple of traditional Jordanian dishes and Mezze…very good. (Lechele, but not as good as the Shish Keboh House)
Petra is amazing, there’s nothing more you can say. It is sad that too many people stay away from the country of Jordan because they are scared of the Middle East. What
you will find here is a much cleaner country and wonderful people. They are SO excited to see Americans and constantly say, “Americans in Jordan is very good!”
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Sue Rigos
non-member comment
Jordan
Wow, those photos of those ancient buildings were awesome. I'm glad the Jordanians were friendly and your meals sounded delicious.