Petra, Jordan

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On Monday, after eating breakfast, we left the Dead Sea and headed to southern Jordan for Petra - the number one tourist site in Jordan and one of the seven modern wonders of the world. It took a little over three hours to reach our destination. Petra was built by the Nabataeans in the 3rd to 1st century BC who made it the centre of a vast trading empire. In 106 AD, Petra was annexed by Rome. Christianity arrived in the 4th century, the Muslims in the 7th and the Crusaders briefly in the 12th. Thereafter, Petra was forgotten until 1812 when rediscovered by JL Burckhardt. It’s located next to the small Jordanian town of Wadi Musa. After checking in to our hotel - the Moevenpick Petra, we headed off to see the sites. After walking for a half mile, we came to the Siq. This half mile long narrow gorge is one of the most beautiful works of nature that I have ever seen. As the Siq descends, almost imperceptibly, it becomes deeper and narrower. At its narrowest point, the walls are only one meter apart and must be 150 feet high. Each step along the way, the Siq has a different look. The walls are curved from the water that flowed through here thousands of years ago. The rock formations and colors change as you progress through. As the Siq descends, it closes in and at its deepest, darkest point unexpectedly opens out on Petra’s most thrilling monument - the Treasury (an architecturally beautiful building carved into the side of sheer rock). Today, we realized there is very little flat ground in Petra. It’s either a lot of uphill or a lot of downhill. And boy is there a lot of walking that can be done.

Being late in the day, we headed back to the hotel. Not feeling well, I stayed in the room while Erin and Janet went down to dinner. The next day, after breakfast, we headed out to Petra again. We took the same route as the day before: through the Siq, past the Treasury and then to the rest of Petra: the Theatre, the Royal Tombs, the old city of Petra. At the end of the old city, we started the steep ascent to one of Petra’s most awe-inspiring and best-preserved monuments - the Monastery. The walk, stopping periodically for pictures, took us about 45 minutes. It’s straight uphill (no flat, no downhill) and covers more than 800 rock-cut steps. At the start of the climb, people are smiling and chatting but as you get closer to the top, people are taking their stops more often with very little chatting and looking a little tired and winded. If you don’t want to walk up to the Monastery, you can pay for a donkey ride. There is a constant stream of donkeys going up and down the mountain with their handlers. You need to make sure you don’t catch them coming against you at a narrow part of the path. Since you are going up the side of a mountain, one side of the trail usually has a little (or in some places a large) drop. When you get to the top, you actually come out from behind and then onto the side of the Monastery so you don’t see it at first. As soon as you step out into the open and look back you see the incredible Monastery. To me it is similar to the Treasury in that it’s an awesome-looking building carved out of the rock. It’s really impressive. We hiked a little further to come to the edge of the mountain to enjoy an incredible view of the surrounding area and the desert and all of its terrain. You can walk out to the edge of the rock which drops off severely on three sides. I got a little nervous when Erin was out there taking a picture only a few feet from the edge.

At that point, we started back down the mountain. When we got to the bottom of the Monastery climb, Erin took off on another long climb called the Walk to the High Place of Sacrifice. Still not feeling well, I was pretty tired at this point and told Erin I would wait for her at the Treasury. In a few minutes, I came upon Janet who was wandering through the old city of Petra. We walked slowly back to the Treasury where we took some pictures. Janet then headed back and I waited for Erin. Being a father, I didn’t feel comfortable with my daughter doing this climb by herself. There weren’t a lot of people on this trail. This is the main reason I decided to wait for her. Almost two hours had gone by when I spotted Erin coming towards me. When she arrived she told me “I got lost”. The climb starts at the old city of Petra and ends near the Treasury. Most of the people start near the Treasury. Erin had started at the other end and there was no one starting the trail at that end. After hiking for awhile, being alone, and thinking she was not going in the right direction she came upon a young Bedouin boy (maybe ten years old) who lives in the mountains there. He spoke broken English. She found out that she was way off course and heading out into the desert towards another site. He took her by the hand and guided her back on course. She gave him all of the money she had (four Jordanian Dinars: a little over 5 USD) and thanked him for being so helpful. He asked her if he could use the camera. Since she had my expensive camera, she let him take some pictures but kept the strap around her neck. One of the things we noticed is that there is not a lot of signage guiding you around the area. Erin indicated that most of the people climbing to the High Place go up and down via the same route and do not cover the area that she got lost on. I was glad to see my girl coming down the trail.

Beat from all of the hiking miles, we headed back to the hotel. From the Treasury, it was a little over a mile (all uphill) back to the hotel. If you don’t want to walk, you can pay for a horse-pulled buggy ride or a ride on a camel. We cleaned up and headed to dinner. I was feeling a little better by this point and joined the two ladies for dinner.

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Photos

Walking thru the Siq
A horse and carriage going through the Siq in Petra, Jordan

Approaching the Treasury
At the end of the Siq is Petra's incredible Treasury

The Treasury
The Treasury was built over 2K years ago

Heading up to the Monastery
A long uphill climb, on mostly rock steps, leads to the Monastery

The Monastery
At the top of the long uphill climb is the Monastery