Petra, Jordan
We have been in Petra, Jordan the past two days and it’s fantastic. Our feet are so sore; we walked for like 6 hours today.
Petra is AWESOME. While it reeks of horse, donkey, camel and even goat shit. And, if you go, don’t wear nice sneakers/shoes because they will be permanently pink. And expect to throw out your socks afterwards. Wear good hiking shoes if possible.
In Petra, you first walk through the long Siq, which is (according to wikipedia) “a dark and narrow gorge (in places only 3–4 metres wide) called the Siq (the shaft), a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks and serving as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa. At the end of the narrow gorge stands Petra’s most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh (“the Treasury”) hewn directly out of the sandstone cliff.”
So you walk a long time thu the Siq and finally the Treasury comes into view. It’s awesome.
First view of the Siq
You keep going and you pass more ruins, then a big amphitheatre that anywhere else, would be a main attraction. But here, it’s just so-so. From there we climbed up to the Royal Tombs. After that, we continued on and walked through Colonnade Street. You can walk for hours in Petra!
Jim sitting among columnular ruins
Click for larger
Then it was on to Al-Deir, to see the Monastery. It took us about 3 hours from beginning to finish – walking up and walking down. It was a very, very long and hard climb for me. I wonder if it’s the highest I’ve ever climbed?
There were touts stationed all along the climb which was annoying.
We were so relieved to reach the top and the Monastery looked a bit similar to the Treasury. I think it was more about the accomplishment of climbing than actually seeing it, although it was very cool.
Amazing view of the Monastery, after an hour’s climb. Look at the tiny people!
(Click pics for larger view)
There was a concession stand there and we were so glad to get more water. As we were getting ready to head down, I noticed many people continuing to climb UP! I remember Jim proclaiming “son of a b–” when we saw signs directing people to come look at the view, which was another 10 minute walk farther up. He didn’t want to go but I told him we had to, since we were so close! The views from there were pretty fantastic.
Pictures of me on the edge of cliffs
We walked down and that was our big accomplishment. I think if you only had 1 day to do Petra you could skip it and still see a lot. I am glad we did it.
So we spent a total of 2 days there which was enough to see as much as we wanted.
We are trying to figure out what we are doing next. We are trying to get to Jerusalem but it is very difficult with the border crossings. We’ll see!!
Jordan is SO much more expensive than Egypt. It seems a bit cooler though, which is great. I still sweat buckets today.
I am sad the trip is ending soon because I am finally getting into it. We are having dinner with Anja and Sayed for the second night in a row tonight.
Here a pic of Jim next to a camel. At first, Jim tried to sneak up on the camel and pretend to kiss it. The camel just sat there like he didn’t know anything was going on, then suddenly he snapped his jaws at Jim. It was funny. You can see the camel smiled right as I took this picture.
Tags: Egypt, Petra, Jerusalem 2007, Travel
Kelly
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