Petra, Jordan
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008Today, we woke up at a ridiculous hour to go to Petra. Petra is an ancient city built by the Nabateans, an ancient Arab tribe who came from the Arabian Peninsula. The city is filled with enormous carved monuments, and is a 6 or 7 hour round trip hike. The hike begins through As-Siq, an incredible 1200 meter long, deep narrow gorge. It has crazy geological formations, colourful rocks, water channels cut into cliffs, and dams. Through As-Siq brings you to Al-Khazneh (the Treasury) – this is where one of the Indiana Jones movies was filmed. Words can’t describe how enormous all of the monuments are, and, unfortunately, I still can’t upload pictures to show it..
I’ll skip the rest of the monuments except for the final one; Ad-Deir, the Monastery. It’s set on top of 800 stairs cut into the rock, with incredible views on the way up. It’s huge in size and is beautifully awesome.
Okay, so throughout the entire hike, all of the Bedoins and children are offering “Donkey Ferraris” , or Taxis (horses or camels). It’s really cute, and exhausting.
That said, that is my installment. I’m leaving on the public bus tomorrow morning for Amman, which should be ridiculously hot, and hopefully provide me with an internet connection strong enough for me to upload pictures.
swarjam