Petra

I spent 3 days and 2 nights in Petra. It was a great place. The the magnitude of the buildings and the size of the site was a bit overwhelming. I certainly got a fair amount of hiking in.

The first day I arrived at about noon after a 3.5 hour bus ride from Amman. I walked down the Siq (the narrow canyon) in relative quiet (the following days in the morning there were more people, though certainly not crowded). The arrival at the first building is wonderful. The Siq is about 6 feet wide and winding, you can see parts of the huge Treasury as you approach, then you enter an opening and can see the huge building carved out of the rock. Each time I saw it I just stopped and admired it for several minutes. In reality it was a tomb as were many of the carved buildings in Petra. So while they are huge elaborate facades, they actually are very small inside and rather bare.

The first day I walked on from the Treasury through the valley floor. As I looked at the high cliffs I could see endless buildings carved into the cliffs, hundreds of them. On the valley floor was a huge city that is now of course just ruins.

I was tired from a short night and a long bus ride so I checked out the valley then headed back out of the valley. Probably about 6 miles round trip (this place is huge). I returned to my hotel at around 5:00. All buildings in Jordan look old and a bit run down. They are made of white cinder blocks. The hotel was no different. It is run by a lady from New Zealand that is always looking a bit frazzled. The great thing about this place is it is up on the hill looking down over the town (Wadi Musa – Valley of Moses) and desert. The top floor is a big room decorated like a Bedouin tent with a balcony looking over the magnificent view. I enjoyed the sunset and went down to my room for a rest. I signed up for the dinner meal (single option served upstairs). At 7:30 I headed up, walked in to an empty room. I was the only guest. I had a great meal of three salads, lentil soup, Kofta (meat balls) and rice. It was delicious.

After a great sleep I returned to Petra in the morning. I walked back down the Siq, enjoyed the Treasury then headed out for a new hike. This hike climbed up a side canyon back to the top to a high altar with amazing views. Then the hike went down the other side through many more tombs. Like so many places once off the main road there are no people. and I mean no people. The hike came back to the valley floor at the end of the valley. From here I took another hike up back up to the Monestary (another tomb) that is huge and beautiful. This hike was a bit more crowded. At the end was a little shop selling drinks. I had a coke and sat watching the view. I hiked back down, up the valley, up the Siq to catch the shuttle home. a 15 mile day. I had the dinner again (only person) and headed to bed.

On day 3, I checked out of my motel and left my bags. I returned for another hike. This one up a side canyon then scrambled across the desert to a point where I could look down on the Treasury. There was a small tent setup on the side of the cliff. A young bedouin boy offered me tea. I sat and watched the people below. Again I saw no one on the hike. I gave the boy a couple of dinar and headed back. After seeing a few other buildings I took the final walk out the park. It was a beautiful place. It was hard to imagine how such massive structures could have been carved out of solid rock over 2000 years ago.

Pictures of the Treasury