Petra, Jordan.....lost City everyone should find once in their life

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Hey guys,

Well our travels into the Middle East had us cross over from Egypt into Jordan. We ended up getting a transfer from Aqaba to Wadi Moussa otherwise known as Petra.

After checking into our hostel we headed to the lost city of Petra, this site is so spectactular that we dedicated two full days to discover all it has to offer. When you first arrive you walk for close to half an hour through a large sandstone valley. When you finally reach the last turn you are offered your first peak at the Treasury Building, easily the most recognisable and most impressive building found at Petra. When you do finally breach the valley and enter the courtyard in front of the Treasury and take in all its beauty you know you are looking at one of the greatest building fascades ever. After taking way too many pictures we opted to climb to the High Sacrifice area which offers some great views of Petra and is even better since only a few people venture up there. After enjoying our lunch while enjoying the views we headed down to take in the rest of the sights. We checked out the main temple, the Soldiers tomb as well as the Royal Tombs. The whole site is amazing as all the building fascades are carved right into the Sandstone Mountain walls and everywhere you look you can see sections of buildings across sprawling desert valleys.

The next day we decided to head straight to the Monestary which is about an hour hike and worth every step! The Monestary is probably only visited by about 10% of all visitors to Petra and it should not be missed. Sitting on top of a mountain range it is every bit as impressive as the Treasury even without the Treasury's added details. The sheer size of this building is so impressive as are the views of the mountains that surround this great Fascade. After climbing back down we visited the remaining buildings, while all the buildings are bare inside the colors left by the sandstone are really something to see as many of the building ceilings offer some amazing patterns.

We loved our time spent at Petra and while we were overloaded with amazing architectural sights from Egypt we still ended up finding Petra to be breathtaking. Again another site we recommend everyone see at least once in their lifetime. There's a reason it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World!

We took a transfer from Wadi Moussa to Madaba (a suburb of Amman). On our trip we got to enjoy some panoramic views of Dana National Park and a float in the Dead Sea. Which again is something everyone should do once for the novelty of it. The actual amount of salt in this sea is potent, we both ended up getting a small amount of sea spray on our lips and eyes and it freakin burns!! Otherwise pretty fun floating effortlessly. As for Madaba we didn't end up doing too much just waited for our flight and celebrated another b-day for old man Matt😞


So until the next blog: Turkey makes me sleepy!

Cheers

Matt & Tyne

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Photos

Treasure with Camels
Unlike Egypt you don't have to pay to include camels in your pictures in Jordan.

View from the High Sacrifice
After our grueling hike

Monestary
Just to give you an idea of the size the small white dot in the bottom right corner of the door is Tyne.
I couldn't even get up into the doorway!

Madaba Street
Click to enlarge this picture and check out the plant I'm sitting next to growing out of the sidewalk!