One of Jordan's most famous attractions is the world renowned ancient city of Petra and we couldn't wait to see it. Petra literally means rock and considering the city is literally carved into the pink sandstone hills and canyons of the Wadi Musa (aka Valley of Moses), it's a fitting name. Petra is dated to 2000 years ago and was the capital city of the Nabataeans, an Arab tribe who were in the area after the 6th century BC and whose kingdom flourished from the 2nd century BC. Petra prospered as the center of the spice trade, but fell to the Romans in 106 AD. It was later captured by Muslims in the 7th century and then crusaders in the 12th century.
After doing a bit of research, we learned that there were two ways we could get there - either via public transportation on the unexciting Dessert Highway or by hiring a driver & car and taking the scenic King's Highway. Although it cost us more and took longer, we opted for the King's Highway. It was totally worth it. We passed through wadis (valleys that remain desert-dry except during the rainy season), by Roman ruins, and got to take a lunch break at a castle!
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| One of the many beautiful vistas. |
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Our driver had a little too much fun playing photographer.
He insisted that this was the perfect pose. |
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It's a long way down from Karak Castle.
Probably why it was built up here. |
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| The black blob is volcanic sand! |
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| A Bedouin camp. |
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| Brian and our driver-turned-photographer. |
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| We made it! |
When we arrived at our hostel, Gale, the manager, asked us if we were going to Petra by Night. Intrigued, we asked what it was and she explained that the Bedouins who live in Petra light everything with candles, play some traditional music, and serve tea. We figured it would either be really cheesy or really cool, but memorable either way so we bought our tickets and showed up at the park gates at 8:00pm. Once it was dark enough, one of the Bedouin men came to get us and we started the long walk to the Treasury, the most well known building in Petra and the one featured in the Indiana Jones movie.
As we followed the path of the luminarias, I lost all sense of time and space. I didn't know how long we'd been walking and I hadn't the faintest idea what was to our left or right, behind or in front of us, above or below us. Every now and again I'd catch a glimpse of the stars and the evening sky, but then it would disappear. And then all of a sudden the path opened up to a yard filled with rows and rows of luminarias and we were face to face with the Treasury. As the Bedouin men proceeded with their performances, we just stared at the dimly-lit burnt orange Treasury and tried to soak it all in.
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| Even the sign was lit up! |
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We refrained from posting a ton of pictures during Petra by
Night in case any of you ever decide to see it for yourselves
(in other words, our night shots didn't turn out too well), but
here's one of the luminarias to help fuel your imaginations. |
The walk back to our hostel wasn't nearly as magical (especially because Brian was starting to feel under the weather), but when we retraced our steps two days later at 7:00am, we were in total awe of what we'd passed through the night before.
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Steph playing tour guide. Thank goodness for
being able to save webpages to reading view! |
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| Heading into the Sikh! |
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| In the Sikh! |
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Forty-five minutes later we caught our
first glimpse of the famed Treasury. |
We spent three days discovering as much of Petra as we could and still felt as if we only scratched the surface of this legendary place. Each trail that we followed piqued our curiosity rather than satiating it.
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In case you're wondering, you cannot walk
around inside the Treasury ... but you are able
to see inside. Indiana Jones got it wrong. |
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Word on the street is that people used to think
the urn atop the Treasury held actual treasure
so they shot at it to try to break it open.
If you look closely, you can see bullet holes. |
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| Brian walking around the "newer" part of Petra, the Roman Road. |
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| That's a pretty bold claim... |
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| ... but probably true. The building behind Brian is the Monastery. |
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| The Royal Tombs are up ahead. |
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Atop this mountain is where Aaron, Moses' brother,
is buried. The trek there takes a couple days,
so we're saving it for next time ;-) |
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| Here's a fuzzy close-up of the tomb. |
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This cat cuddled up to Steph at the High Place
of Sacrifice. Luckily for the cat,
Steph wasn't making any sacrifices that day. |
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Another fantastic vista in Petra. The rocks
behind Brian are covered with caves! |
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The lion fountain. One of the biggest surprises
about Petra was discovering its
extensive system of water supply channels. |
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| To give some perspective, I am standing in the doorway. |
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