Petra rocks
natural rock "painting"Our first stop in Jordan was the ancient city of Petra, where we spent two days exploring the ruins.
Situated in a valley whose only road in is through a steep-walled gorge called the Siq, Petra was a critical juncture on the ancient caravan route out of Arabia that supplied frankincense and myrrh. Though people had lived in the area for thousands of years, it was the Nabateans, a tribe of Bedouin who made the revelation that they could profit more from providing safe passage and taxing caravans than by raiding them, who built the monuments that can be seen today. The Nabateans became fabulously wealthy, drawing the attention of the Greeks and later the Romans (the latter eventually made it a vassal state). As a result, Petra's art and architecture has strong Hellenistic and Roman influences.
female deityWhat really makes Petra unique is that the majority of its monuments are literally cut out of the rock, rather than erected. Everything from tombs and temples to obelisks and a large Greek-style theatre are hewn from the beautifully striated red sandstone. Time has left its mark, and the soft stone has eroded so that the carvings have a soft edge to them, many of them almost melting into the rock. Even without the carvings, the natural beauty of the place is remarkable. Neither of us has been to Zion National Park in Utah, but Petra reminded us of photos we have seen of it.
approach through the SiqWe first made the approach through the Siq in the early morning, before the tour buses arrived and it was still relatively quiet. For me, this was the most atmospheric part of the whole place. The gorge contains several small shrines carved into the rock, as well as irrigation channels that funneled water from a dam at the entrance to the Siq that kept the gorge from flooding.
approach to the TreasuryIt takes about fifteen minutes to walk through the Siq, before you come across the first, most famous, and best preserved of Petra's monuments: a tomb erroneously called the "Treasury". If you have seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Treasury (and the approach to it) will seem very familiar. It is, however, but one of hundreds of tombs with similar facades that can be found throughout the valley, in various states of decay.
We spent our first day exploring Petra's "main street", a route that follows the valley floor past the theatre into what would have been the city centre. By mid-afternoon, however, the heat was getting to us badly, and throngs of tourists suddenly appeared, transforming the place into a circus. So we bailed out and headed for the Movenpick hotel outside the gates for air conditioning and real Swiss ice cream.
obelisksThe next day we were better prepared with lots of water and food, and we trundled off to some of the more off-the-beaten-path sights. We climbed to one of Petra's many "high places of sacrifice", where obelisks were carved out of the top of the mountain (the mountaintop was literally hacked away around them), and where one could see out across the entire valley. We took the back way down, descending through some of the less visited tombs, seeing almost no-one, and taking in some incredible views.
the "Monastery"We also made the arduous climb to another high place with an enormous temple, this one misnamed the "Monastery". Similar to the Treasury, but less ornate, its scale was awesome. (To get an idea, click on the photo to see the full-sized image and then look for the tiny people in the doorway.) A few hundred meters higher up and we looked out over ranges of volcanic mountains stretching for miles.
Overall, though we found Petra to be physically taxing -- we ended up walking miles each day, often with no shade whatsoever -- we thought it was well worth the effort.