Journal day 7 - ancient city of Petra.

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It proved to be easy to get up at 5am as planned because prayer chanting erupted from the speakers of nearby mosques like a hypnotic religious alarm-clock echoing through the city streets below.
So Gary, his friend Rana and I set off on a 3 hour drive south to Petra.

As we drove south through Jordan the weather was shocking and half the journey was spent in the middle of thick rainclouds and fog which left literally about 5 metres visibility going through the mountains. It looked like i might've picked the worst day ever to visit a wonder of the world.
But as we descended through the entrance gate we broke below the clouds and entered into the Siq leaving the thick fog behind us. Now we were in the city of Petra.

Petra was carved out of the sandstone rock by the Nabataean people 2000 years ago. At it's height the Nabatean kingdom extended over most of Jordan and part of Syria and the Sinai. Petra was it's capital and there they left many incredible tombs, funerary chambers, homes and other buildings that sprawl across a vast area where the surrounding mountains create the natural city walls. The Nabateans got their wealth through trade and control of the trade routes of what is now south east Jordan. They traded frankincense,yrrh and eastern spices all over the Meditteranean.
They placed a great importance on how they treated their deceased which became pretty apparent during the day as we explored around.

We approached the only way you can through a twisting sandstone canyon called the Siq which leads to reveal the most famous tomb, the beautiful Khazneh or treasury which most people seem to recognise from the indiana jones movie and many seem to think this all there is to Petra. Due to it's sheltered location it has weathered less than most of the caves but is by no means the biggest or most impressive.
Continuing past the treasury there must be hundreds more structures cut out of the rock containing real eclectic architectural forms. It turns out that many of the architects who designed these may have been trained in Alexandria. So the architects were Greek, Egyptian and even Nabataeans themselves and must have been well trained in the various classical styles.

I dont think I'm able to express properly how it feels to wander around Petea so I'm not going even try! I'd simply recommend anyone to experience and explore the place for themselves as it's pretty unbelievable... The reason why I'm going back tomorrow for more.

Had a great day with great company but as Gary and Rana had to head back to Amman for their work tomorrow I decided to book into a hotel about 200m from the entrance gate.

I've just returned to my hotel room after getting some food and a bit of a wander and Ive just put on the tv to discover that Mubarack has stood down in Egypt. So I'm watching the masses celebrating with a huge fireworks display and rejoicing in Cairo. It's a huge change from the horrific street fighting from last week. It looks like the revolt of the people has payed off. Nice one.

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