World cruise 38M

From Margaret
Aqaba, Jordan
Petra, the Rose Red City

Petra, the Rose Red City – the very name sounds mysterious and exotic. We left Aqaba, Jordan early in the morning, driving through the outskirts of the city which is tucked between the Red Sea and the Jordanian mountains. It is a mixture of older buildings and new, modern Middle-Eastern style buildings. Like UAE and Oman, the Jordanians appreciate greenery. We passed several parks, mostly small.

Once out of town we wended our way through what the tour guide called semi-desert. Close to Aqaba it looked pretty much like full desert to me, but once we got up into the hill lands there were shrubby trees and grasses which had been planted by the nomadic herders for their livestock. Can't say that the grass was lush and dense, it wasn't. But you could tell that it was grass and that it had been planted.

We made a "toilet" stop about 20 minutes from Petra. The location has a view of the mountains that was awe-inspiring. How ancient peoples lived and thrived in these craggy, rough, dry, and barren mountains is mind-boggling. Petra is hidden in these mountains and you can not see the slightest trace that they contain a deep crevice and valley hiding an ancient city.

The Wadi Musa (place of Moses) village at the entrance to Petra is built on steep hillsides and is home to our tour guide. Roads wind like snakes across the hills. Olive oil being one of Wadi Musa's exports, olive trees are everywhere – yards, hillsides, anywhere a bit of soil can be found.

The modern entrance to Petra contains plenty of security measures. Just behind the gates is a large area for groups to gather plus a museum and a variety of souvenir shops. Behind this area is the pathway that leads to the real entrance to Petra.

At this point you have to decide whether you want to walk, ride a horse, or take a horse drawn carriage down to Petra. The horses all appeared to be Arabs and for the most part were led by their owners. When the owners (esp. the young men) were riding there was a good bit of showing off.

I walked. It was easier to follow the tour guide that way and the horse-ride only went as far as the actual entrance of the Siq. The carriages went all the way to the bottom to Petra itself. They were a bit of a hazard to walkers as they went a lot faster and claimed right of way. We had to jump out of the way of these carriages during most of our walk through the Siq.

Petra and its mile long entranceway, called the Siq, are almost impossible to describe in a way that does justice to the place. There are Nabataean structures and carvings, many of which are of the Nabataean Goddess, all along this narrow gorge. The colors and shapes of the rock of the gorge walls are amazing. Grand Canyon (USA) more than meets its match.

The Nabataeans enhanced their canyon with carvings and religious shrines.

Unfortunately, time, weather, and in some cases vandals, have damaged many of the carvings. Close to the city itself there is a carving of an entire camel caravan. Today only the feet of some of the camels and the lower half of one of the men leading the camels are left. This carving was done as a sign of welcome to the traders who came to Petra. Petra was apparently a major meeting point and place of business for trade caravans from all across the larger Middle East.

The Siq is relatively narrow, no doubt a serious advantage when it came to defending Petra, but it also creates a profound impact upon first sight. As you walk along the Siq, you don't have any concept of what you are coming to until the very end.

As you move around a bend in the canyon floor, through the narrow slit of the gorge you can see the red stone of the magnificent structure called the Treasury. Very recent excavations have determined that this building was in fact a tomb of one of the Nabataean kings and several of the royal family. It was not the location of the treasury. However the building still goes by the old name for the moment.

The large area in front of the Treasury is a cacaphony of sights and sounds. The carriage drivers come flying in, drop off their passengers, and look around for more passengers to take back up to the top. Camel drivers have their camels kneeling down ready for anyone who would like a camel ride along the Petran "main road."

Donkey handlers are also looking for those who don't want to walk any farther. Our friend Mike got this photo of our Captain on a donkey.

There are a few souvenir hawkers and two policemen mounted on gorgeous Arab horses.

But mostly it is people staring at and photographing the buildings; tour leaders explaining what you are seeing; and school children on an outing. Totally wonderful chaos.

Along all of the walls surrounding this bit of valley area are more structures carved into the wall. To one's right as one comes out of the entranceway is another channel through the rocks. This seems to serve as the roadway to other parts of the Petran complex. It also has multiple structures carved into its walls. This opens out into an area containing many, many tombs.

It seems that the Nabataeans were more concerned about the afterlife than the here and now life. Their tombs are massive and intricately carved structures. The stair-step carvings at the tops of the tombs show how many generations are buried in that particular tomb.

Their daily living quarters seem to have been whatever hole in the rock wall they could set up housekeeping in. They don't seem to have put much energy into beautifying their living quarters.

I got as far as the natural rock amphitheatre which was maybe a third of the way through the entire complex. However, our guide said it was all we had time for. The amphitheatre is located in a large open area to the right of the Treasury building. It is the only amphitheatre carved into the native rock. It holds 3000+ people and has the same good acoustics as the Greek and Roman amphitheatres.

The walls of this valley are all carved with tomb entrances. Our guide says that the archaeologists estimate that there is another 30 meters of excavation that needs to be done on the floor of this valley. Up the left hand wall of the valley is a flight of steps (well over 200 of them) to the top of the mountain. Up there was a sacrificial platform. Apparently, the sacrificial animals were taken up all of these stairs to meet their maker.

The Nabataeans were superior engineers and it shows in the remains that they left. At the entrance to the Siq is a tunnel dug through the mountain to a reservoir, which I think was at least partially underground. Water was channeled from the surrounding hillsides and sent through this tunnel to the reservoir. In the Siq itself, the Nabataeans paved the floor and built water channels on both sides. These drains channel the water away from the walking area. In the past, this water was probably captured and stored.

Y

From others, I have heard that the rest of the Petra site is equally amazing. It is one of those places in which one could spend several days and still not see it all.