South to Petra

Jordan sits in a precarious position geographically in the middle east. This was evident as our bus pulled out of Amman on the way to Petra. The roadside signs pointed out directions and distances to Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

We arrived in Wadi Musa, the city where Petra is located. One of the residual benefits of working as a consultant the past 4 years are the hotel and airline points you build up. We knew given the city and country we were in that we would be spending most of our evenings indoors so we figured we would use points and treat ourselves to a stay at the local Marriott. We had originally planned two nights but changed it to three after our flight out of Jordan was pushed back. As our taxi drew up to the front door of the Marriott we knew we were in for a treat! The hotel is perched high on a hillside/cliff over looking the city and the valley that contains Petra, making for some great scenery and photos. Given our point status they placed us in the corner room on the top floor and then sent us a cheese plate and a half bottle of wine, definitely a nice welcome. Turns out after a week into our travels in Jordan, that half bottle of wine is all the alcohol we have consumed and we still have not seen any beer in any of the stores. We have enjoyed our stay in the Marriott: free buffet breakfast each morning, catching up on laundry in our large bathroom, and enjoying the comforts of a nice bed and clean sheets!

After awaking the first morning we grabbed breakfast and caught the first shuttle bus into Petra. We purchased a two day pass which cost $72 USD total for the two of us. For those who are not familiar, Petra is ancient ruins built in a remote part of Jordan. It was constructed by the native Nabataean people from around 200 BC to 100AD. The Romans then took over and added on some buildings of their own and at one point the area was occupied by the Christian Crusaders. Eventually all left the area and from 1200AD until the early 19th century, Petra was a forgotten outpost until it was once again 're-discovered'. Most of the excavation and reconstruction did not actually begin until the 1950's and continues today as they estimate only %5 of the total ruins has been unearthed.

Enough with the history lesson for this post. The entrance to Petra is grand as you walk down a 1 mile path that narrows down to 10 feet in some places will 200 meter high walls and shooting straight up. 'The Siq' as they call it is not a gorge (formed by water) as most people think but was actually created by a tectonic shift and one side of The Siq matches the opposite wall like a puzzle. We descended The Siq alone as one of the first people in that day, taking pictures along the way. Towards the end of The Siq you begin to catch glimpses of an opening and you get flashes of something that you can feel is grand but can't quite make out exactly what it is. They there is a bright flash of light from the sun and you are in a large opening and in front of you sits the Treasury of Petra. The Treasury cannot properly be described so we will post a picture and you can view the slide show in the sidebar for more pictures. The site literally freezes you in your steps and locks in your eyes. Simply amazing!

From the Treasury we moved onto the explore the other sites of Petra: the Monastery, the Theatre, temples, places of sacrifice, churches and numerous tombs. Tombs are actually some of the most common and grandest of the unearthed ruins to date. The original dwellers of Petra, the Nabateae people, actually lived in tents. Therefore the ruins are explicitly places of business or worship and then tombs. We covered most all of the sites over our two day ticket and even took some side hikes to high overlooks and up narrow canyons where we did not see another person for hours. By our estimates we did about 15 hours and 25+ miles of hiking during our time in Petra. Petra is truly amazing. Take a minute to look at our slideshow, we are so incredibly lucky to have seen this in person.

We leave in a few hours to head south to Jordan's only port city, Aqaba, on the Red Sea. We hope to head up to the desert from there, and maybe do some camel riding and camping.