Petra-Glyphs
Our first day in Jordan was a monster transport day:
A long wait for the bus from Bosra to Der’a, Syria. A shared taxi from Der’a across the border to Ramtha, Jordan. Another shared taxi from Ramtha to Amman. A city bus from the north Amman bus terminal to the southern one and, finally, a minibus from Amman down to Wadi Musa. Including all our waiting time, the trip took us about seven hours and took us from southern Syria to northern Jordan, then almost all the way down to Jordan’s southern edge as well.
A (relatively successful, judging by his tidy dress) souvenier salesman near one of Petra’s tombs
Downtown Amman. The landscape of Jordan was, unsurprisingly, desert-dominated (we travelled almost the whole length of the country and saw nothing BUT desert.) Like Amman, much of the rest of the country was quite hilly, which did come as a bit of a surprise.
But all this trouble was worth it, as Wadi Musa is a special place. It’s situated right next to the ancient city of Petra, a place I’d been told that all other ancient sites pale beside.
Wadi Musa was a shockingly touristy town… Or at least so it seemed after three weeks in Syria and Lebanon. This made things more expensive, and meant that we were overcharged for just about everything (including the bus there) but it also meant that there were a few comforts about, which, given that we spent three days walking and climbing in the blazing heat of the desert mountains, wasn’t at all a bad thing.
Crowds of tourists near the entrance to Petra. This was a big change from Syria, where even the most touristy sites had only a few foreigners around.(Parts of the third Indiana Jones film were shot in Petra, thus the name of the shops.)
Petra is expensive to visit (about $40/person for a three day ticket) but the site is truly wonderful, and I barely grumbled about the admission fee at all. The ruins themselves are good. The free-standing buildings are nice (though not up to Palmyrene standards) but the tombs carved into the mountainsides are truly spectacular. When you add to this the setting, which was some of the most beautiful desert I’ve ever visited, you get a truly wonderful place. A place where one could happily spend days hauling onesself up the mountainsides to ruins tucked away in astonishingly remote places; clambering about through the incredibly tall, narrow valleys; exploring the interior of over 100 tombs that dot the hillsides; or just finding a nice shady, breezy spot to relax and admire the views.
All of which are things we did during our three days in Petra.
As with Palmyra, there’s not TOO much more to say about the place, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking from here on in:
Sarah in Wadi Muthlim. This tiny canyon (in places it was less than 2m across and perhaps 50m high) was the alternative entrance to Petra. We went in this way on our first day there, which was a great idea as it allowed us to experience some of the wonder of the place BEFORE we started having to deal with the crowds of tourists and souvenier salespeople.
Mountains above Petra
Petra’s Siq, the only entrance to the city (except for even tinier Wadi Muthlim) that doesn’t involve going up and over the mountians (siq is the Arabic word for a tall, narrow, steep sided canyon carved out of solid rock.)
As dry and inhospitable as much of Petra seemed, there was a surprising amount of interesting life around, including bright blue lizards like this guy.
This odd little fellow was abother example of the fascinating plants and animals around Petra: A species of caterpillar that had adapted to use this one portion of this one type of plant as a mobile home. The caterpillar fit neatly inside and dragged its home around with it, retreating completely inside if disturbed.
Petra’s famous Treasury from above. The walk up was probably the very best part of our three day stay in Petra, especially as it separated us from the throngs of ant-like tourists 200m below.
While none of the local Bedouin people selling goods and services in Petra were particularly pushy, the camel/donkey/horse cart drivers were clearly the most persistant. At least they were entertaining, many of them offering spiels about the merits of their mounts (”Air conditioned taxi! New model, low kilometres! Ride in a Ferarri?” etc.)
Petra’s monastary, despite its very similar design larger size, and great location (over 800 steps up from the city proper!), the monastary still couldn’t quite out-do the Treasury for sheer spectacle.
Fiercely competing drink stands, each with its own “view point,” pathway and multitude of signs pointing to is, just above the Monastery
A tired donkey resting its chin on a bridge after a long day of ferrying tourists up to the monastary and back.
The Royal Tombs, perhaps the most impressive of the dozens around Petra. Interestingly, when (re)discovered people thought Petra was just one vast necropolis, as virtually every building found there was a tomb or temple. Eventually it was realized that its builders the Nabataens, just lived in tents.
The mountains around Petra seen from Jebel Haroun (Mount Aaron, the final resting place of Moses’ brother, Aaron.)
Another view from Jebel Haroun
We met these guys on our walk down from Jebel Haroun (it was a very hot and sweaty 9km up.) They were cheerful (if heavily armed) guys, and it took us a long time to realize they were police, and we were only fully convinced when they phoned to have a marked police land rover come and give us a ride back to town.
The Treasury from down below, much nearer the horse carts, souvenier stalls, tour groups, and drink stands (with noisy generators to keep the drinks cold, of course.) It was nicer from above.
The spectacular colours of the sandstone that Petra was carved out of were some of the most beautiful features of the tombs (and the mountains surrounding them.)
Me, above Petra
The old city of Petra. As mentioned before, the (formerly) free-standing buildings of Petra were interesting, but not the REAL highlight of the place.
Part of the beautiful mosaic that formed the floor of Petra’s Byzantine church. Constructed in the 6th century, the church was considerably newer than much of the city.
So there you have it. Three days in Petra, nutshellized. It was a beautiful place, and one I was delighted to have visited. The tourist hordes took away some of its charm, but it was so incredibly easy to leave them behind (a few hundred metres off the beaten track and you’d scarcely know you weren’t alone) that it was hard to really mind.
Looking up at the Siq as we left Petra for the final time
Tags: Jordan, Llew Bardecki, Petra, Wadi Musa
