Petra the Rose City

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Geo: 30.1451, 35.3979

Yesterday was a travelling day. We left Jerusalem at 8am and crossed in to Jordan via the Allenby bridge border. We were met by our guide and driver and then commenced the long drive to Petra. We stopped for lunch at a roadhouse where we had tast Jordanian food, the Hommus was to die for, then continued through mostly desert landscape to our hotel at Petra.They have WiFi available in the lobby(including the bar) for only $5 for our entire stay so I am making the most of it.

Today we left the hotel at 8am to go to see what is one of the wonders of the world and a place I have dreamed of seeing for a very long time.We rugged up as warmly as we could. It is very cold here and we have been told it could snow tonight! To get to Petra there is a long walk through the Siq. This is a narrow pass through towering rocks. Our guide, James, advised us to walk in and get a horse and carriage ride back so we could see everything along the way and he could explain it all.
The colours of the rocks are amazing. There are bands of colour naturally which are stunning. As we walked in we saw the many small shrines carved by the Nabateans for their gods scattered along the way. The other amazing thing is the way they managed water. They built a sophisticated water channel system complete with ceramic pipes to direct springs from up on the hillsides to their settlement deep within the valley. They also had dams and channels to capture the rainwater. Very ingenious.There were also the remains of some large statues depicting camel trains which brought the goods that they traded.
Nothing though can prepare you for the first sight of the Treasury through the narrow pass in the rocks. James tricked us by asking us to look for an inscription in the rock and suddenly turning us around to catch sight of it. I must admit as we came into full view I was overwhelmed. To see some thing o amaszing as this that I had been wishing to see for so long was rather emotional The detail on this building is startling. They have rebuilt one of the six columns that support the pediment. The lower part of the treasury is like a Gecian temple with Corinthian columns and a Pediment beautifully decorated. Above this are 12 more columns with a Tholos in the centre. These are decorated with statues which have eroded but are still visible.(see phots). I had to sit and admire it for sometime. but this is only the start of this amazing complex. At its height 26,000 people lived in the caves and worshipped at the temples carved from the rock. These temples also served to be the tombs of the Kings and Nobles. In 106 AD the Romans took over and there are remains of a large Roman temple and remnants of the Roman Road built throughout.
From the Treasury we walked another 3 kilometres viewing all the other buildings carved high in the rocks. We climbed up to investigate another huge temple in which the natural colour of the rocks is a decoration in itself.Unfortunately the weather was not kind. It remained extremely cold with a bitter wind that stirred up the sand. Fletcher bought himself a bedouin headress to keep warm and I had sand in my hair eyes and ears.
We had lunch in a lovely restaurant run by the Crowne Plaza hotel and after that inspected the small museum. Then we set about walking back. James had left us to ourselves and we meandered along, partly because Fletcher's knees are not good and we needed to stop several times for him.I also bought a couple of lovely bangles with designs based on local flowers.
Back at the Treasury I had to sit and just look for another 15 minutes before I could tear myself away to return to the entrance. We hired a horse carriage to take us back to the entrance. This was a very bumpy ride but turned what had been a two hour walk into a 20 minute drive.
This has cetainly been the highlight of our trip so far. Though we have seen the vastness of the Pyramids, the splendour of Karnak and the Valley of the Kings, the religious sites of Israel, nothing matches the magnificence of Petra!

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Photos

Remains of statue of camel train
Look for the feet of the man and the outline of the camel

Fletcher the Bedouin with our guide James
Thiswas in a souvenir shop where we had Sage tea to warm us up sitting round the fire.