Chapter 29 Wed May 18th Petra Jordan

It's a 15 minute drive to the border crossing with Jordan. Our Jordanian guide collected all our passports and disappeared into a building not to be seen again for another 30 nerve wracking minutes. He then distributed our passports and off we went down a paved path with razor wire on both signs and signs proclaiming that there were mine fields to the left and right of us. A comforting thought. When we are all on the bus, we are joined by an armed Tourist Police guard who travels with us. All tourist buses carry armed guards with them. We travel along the port city of Aqaba with a population of 6 million and it looks like you would expect an industrialized port city to look. Once we're on the highway, we pass many bedouin towns made up of nice block houses that look reasonably well maintained. The bedouins use these houses from fall through spring but, as a general rule, inhabit tents during the heat of the summer.

There were several instances where we passed shepherds herding goats and sheep, sometimes across the highway.

We continue on towards Petra but are stopped by a police car which waves the buss to the side of the road. Now what? Apparently the bus driver was exceeding the speed limit so our Jordanian guide Kusai and the tourist police officer get off and try to smooth thing over. I didn't see a ticket written but really don't know what the outcome was - maybe a warning.

The town of Petra is built on hillsides and the houses look to be in reasonably good shape and well maintained.

Before we actually enter the ruins, there is the obligatory stop at the gift shop. Hilarious.

Petra was used as a backdrop for part of one of the Indiana Jones movies, I think #3.

We did make a 20 minute stop at a cafe/gift shop that was pretty nice.

We reached Petra around 11:30 am and begin our long walking trip down into the canyon. The walk starts out easy enough but we'll soon be glad we wore comfortable shoes.

We are told that the Nabateans, who came from Egypt, built this temple and other artifacts at this location which was a crossroads of the spice and perfume trade from the orient. They didn't keep a written history so not much is known about them besides what others, such as the Greeks who conquered them in 312 BC, wrote about them.  Nabataeans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We pass many caves which were used to bury the dead. The architectural style of the structures found are similar to what is found in Egypt since that is where they came from. The striations in the sandstone are breathtaking and the pictures don't do them justice (much the same as trying to take good pictures of the Grand Canyon).

Bedouins were living in the caves till 1984 when the Jordanian government drove them out to create this tourist attraction.

The striations in the rock are indicative of the various metals they contain.

We continue walking through ever narrowing trails and ever increasing height of the cliffs.

The temperature is pretty moderate compared to what you get in the summer but we are still appreciative of shade from time to time.

I discover that trees will grow in anything, even sandstone.

Kusai uses the shady areas to lecture us about why this temple was built and the history of the region. He is a very knowledgeable and agreeable fellow with a quick wit who keeps us entertained during our hike which is about 1.5 miles over increasingly treacherous terrain. There were rocks placed in the path for paving eons ago and these have become well worn and uneven. Even the horses are slipping. Horse drawn carriages rumble by and bounce down the road and I'm apprehensive what the ride back up the hill will feel like on my aching back. We finally get our first look at the Treasury which is a building carved into the sandstone that stands more than 100 yds. high.

It is a truly breathtaking site and we are soon in the main plaza in front of this structure trying to take in the enormity of this engineering project.

This edifice is not constructed of blocks but carved into the sandstone starting at the top to remove some weight before continuing to carve down to the bottom. If you go into the doorway, there are rooms carved out inside this sandstone mountain. The attention to detail is incredible and this is truly a wonder of the world.

The graphic below contains a timeline as well as the design of the Treasury. Unfortunately, all the rooms had been looted years ago so they are just empty spaces.

My wife has been talking about taking a camel ride in Petra for the last 6 months so when some sun tanned good looking young men offer her the chance, she can't turn them dow. The next few pictures are Andrea, her cousin Ruth and friend Terri taking the obligatory camel ride.

Once the excitement of the camel ride is over, we continue down the trail to the amphitheater which is also cut into the sandstone and not fabricated with blocks.

We do not have time to go all the way to the end of the ruins but I did want to include a picture of the temple structure so I found one on-line.

Our adventure in Petra is winding down, we're all exhausted and some of us decide to take the bone jarring carriage ride back to where we started our descent while the rest of us hiked back.

There was still time enough to hit the gift shop so Ken bought hats for all the camel jockeys.

We ate a very late lunch around 4 PM in Wadi Musa (the wadi of Moses) where, it is believed, Moses drew water from a rock. Food was delicious and the waiters were extremely friendly and entertaining.
Wadi Musa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Then back to the border crossing and the hotel.