Stacey’s Mini-Extravaganza to the Middle East

The Monastery

On Day 2 in Petra I got up bright and early to miss the massive tour groups and even though I didn’t begin my climb to the Monastery until 9 am I was one of only about five people at the top which was fantastic.  At the bottom of the hill the local Bedouins will try to rent you an “air-conditioned taxi” (or a donkey to the rest of us) saying that the donkey will get you there in 20 minutes and walking is 1 hour.  I suspect that’s a bit of salesmanship on their part as it only took me 25 minutes to walk to the top.  Admittedly it’s about 900 steps and straight up the mountain but it wasn’t too bad as Petra isn’t nearly as hot as Egypt is in May.

 An air-conditioned taxi

Views on the hike up to the Monastery

 Close-up of the Monastery

 The urn on top of the Monastery

 More close-ups of the Monastery: the doorway is about 2 stories high

 And again…

After finally reaching the top, the Monastery spreads out before you surrounded by amazing scenery.  The Monastery is considered to be the most awe-inspiring monument in Petra and while it is not as well preserved as the Treasury, it is much larger though less ornate.  The Monastery (a misnomer for sure) was likely a temple and the original complex probably had walls around the front yard to contain the crowds who would gather there.  If you walk past the Monastery a bit you’ll find some amazing views of Petra, Wadi Musa, Wadi Araba (the desert) and of Israel.  I’ve included some of those views here.

 Temple of some variety

 Views over the Wadi Araba Desert and Israel is in the distance

 Some cute goats across the valley…

 …who arrived to attack me 10 minutes later as I was eating an apple.

On the way down I ran into my new friend Celestino taking a mule to the Monastery with a Bedouin guide.  Sami, the guide would ultimately be my guide into the desert of Wadi Araba the next day but more on this later.  Here are Celestino and Sami:

 En route to the Monastery: Celestino and Sami

 Near the Monastery

I headed back up towards the theater to do the walk up the mountain to the High Place of Sacrifice.  The walk was steep but short and you are rewarded with more views over  the valleys.  I’ve included pictures here of the sacrificial area as well as the views over the rest of Petra.  Descending down the other side of the mountain you come upon quite a few interesting sites including more tombs and caves…some of the caves are still occupied by local Bedouins.  Of interest here is the one tomb in all of Petra to have ornate carvings on the inside…all the rest of the tombs simply have flat walls and no columns.  Also, a recent excavation yielded about a dozen graves in one of the tombs.  All of the graves had been previously looted but they did find bone fragments and other assorted items you might find in a grave.

 Views of the Royal Tombs from above at the High Place of Sacrifice

 More caves: just in case anyone is wondering, the caves and the buildings of Petra universally smell of urine.

 Place of sacrifice at the top of the mountain

 Steps down from the High Place of Sacrifice

 More examples of the rock coloring

 Soldier’s Tomb

 Inside the Soldier’s Tomb looking out

 The only building in Petra with carvings on the inside

 Tomb with graves found inside

After the climb to the High Place of Sacrifice I was considering if I should do the last climb of the day…one that is up to the mountain across from the Treasury so you get to see the Treasury from above.  As I was walking back towards the the Petra gate I ran into Sami again and he offered to take me up to the view of the Treasury.  As it turns out, his cave is on the hike to the Treasury overlook so I got to see where he lives and take some good pictures of the Treasury from a different angle.  On our way down the mountain we ran into a couple of other Bedouin guides who said they were taking a Belgian woman on a desert tour the next day and if I was interested I could join them.  This was fortuitous as I had at this point given up the idea of spending the night in the desert of Wadi Rum as it is prohibitively expensive when traveling alone.  More on all of this in tomorrow’s post.  After today’s third Petra post I have two more to share:  my trip to the desert of Wadi Araba as well as an assortment of items from northern Jordan including a float in the Dead Sea and a visit to the castle of Ajloun and the Roman ruins of Jerash so stay tuned for those as we wrap things up here at the Mini-Extravaganza.

 View of the Treasury from above

 Sami giving Stacey a mild cardiac episode on the edge of the cliff

The Treasury

The Siq

 Now that we have a little history on the origins of Petra let’s talk about the specifics of the lost city and surrounding area.  After having been recently voted to the 7 New Wonders of the World, the fortunes of locals and those in charge of Petra have increased immensely.  To be sure, the fees into Petra are exorbitant and changing on a quarterly basis throughout 2010.  The fees are designed to sting cruise ship passengers and day-trippers and to encourage people to stay (and spend more money) in the local modern village of Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses).  For my 2-day pass it was roughly 53 US$ and will increase to US$75 by the end of the year.  Still, people flock to this amazing place…the “rose-red city” named for the colored sandstone from which the buildings and monuments are carved.

After entering the Petra grounds, included in your ticket is a horse ride to the entrance of the Siq (which naturally I declined due to my aversion to riding on the backs of beasts of burden).  The Siq is a long, dramatic gorge cut into the sandstone which is the principal (and the only official) entrance into the city of Petra.  The Siq was formed when tectonic forces split the mountain in two.  As you walk, you don’t really notice the slow descent but ultimately the altitude drops roughly 500 feet from the entrance to the city center…equivalent to a 45-story skyscraper.  The Siq is cool and often dark with water gutters running alongside the original cobblestone road (see pictures of both from Part 1).  Finally, just when you think it can’t go on any longer…the Siq opens up to one of the most impressive monuments in the entire city…the Treasury.

 A close-up of the Treasury

 Another close-up of the detail

 It turns out the Treasury was built on top of ruins of old tombs

 The notches on the left are likely footholds for the carvers of the Treasury

The Treasury was designed to impress and as it is positioned opposite the main route to Petra the effect was very successful.  The Treasury enjoys a protected position from the elements so is the best preserved of the edifices in Petra.  Legend has it that the local bedouins named the monument as such because a pharaoh was believed to have been slowed down on his journey by having to carry all his treasure so he created this monument to deposit his riches in the urn at the very top.  For centuries afterwards marksman would shoot the urn trying to break and release the treasure but to no avail…they ultimately ended up only blasting chunks off the urn.  The Treasury dates to the 1st century BC and demonstrates how the Nabatean culture was an amalgam of the elements of Hellenistic (Greek) and Middle Eastern worlds.  One of the columns is obviously new, a brick-and-plaster replacement for the original which fell in antiquity.  This quite handily demonstrates an extraordinary feature of Nabatean architecture…these columns support nothing as they were sculpted in place and offered no real support to the structure.

Moving on down the road one comes to the massive theater of Petra.  It is clearly classical in design and though it was built before the Roman occupation it clearly demonstrates links between Nabatea and Rome.  As many as 8500 people could be accommodated and aside from the stage and backdrop, the entire structure was carved out of the mountainside.  Much renovation has been done here and much of the damage is attributed to the fateful earthquake of 363 AD.

 The Theater

 Some more examples of the rock’s coloring

Next up:  the Royal Tombs.  The first tomb on the cliff is the Urn Tomb which is reached by the modern steps leading from below.  The whole structure is thought to be a tomb of someone extremely important…probably a Nabatean king though who isn’t exactly known.  Set into the facade between the columns are spaces for three bodies which is a unique configuration for Petra where normally bodies were placed inside the tombs.  Later converted into a major church (perhaps a cathedral?) the large interior room features a Greek inscription in red paint recording the dedication of the church by Bishop Jason in 447 AD.  Further down the way are several other Royal Tombs of lesser importance and while we didn’t explore all of them they are all very impressive with similar features to the Urn Tomb.

 One of the Royal Tombs: the Urn Tomb

 The Silk Tomb…unremarkable except for the brilliant coloring

 A rain gutter

 More Royal Tombs

 The Urn Tomb again (note the 3 spaces for bodies between the columns)

 Inside the Urn Tomb

 The ceiling of the tomb…the black stuff is from burning fires inside

 The Greek dedication by Bishop Jason

 From the inside of Urn Tomb looking out

As you enter the city center you find yourself walking along the Colonnaded Street that stretches out ahead towards the mountains.  This area is largely ruinous although it its heyday all the land on either side would have been covered in buildings, houses, markets, temples, etc.  In fact, many archaeologists theorize that much of Petra is still hidden beneath the dusty soil and that what has been exposed so far is just the tip of the iceberg.  The road continues downhill until you end a the swanky restaurant run by the Marriot.  Beyond the restaurant one begins the uphill climb to the most impressive monument of all…the Monastery…which we will visit in the next post.

 The Colonnaded Street

 Colonnaded Street looking back at Royal Tombs

 Tenemos Gate

 The Great Temple

 Some toppled columns at the Great Temple

 The Great Temple was formerly covered in colorful stucco…this is all that remains

Another example of the colorful stucco

Caves and building from Little Petra