September 26
Today was the highlight of the extension and largely the reason we opted to add on the Jordan trip. Though to be fair we, and all of our fellow guests from the Osiris have been amazed at just HOW much Jordan has to offer - it's been great. But Petra is why we are here.
Carved into the sandstone cliffs, the prehistoric city of Petra remained "lost" to the rest of the world for centuries. Between 400 B.C. and 106 A.D. the Nabataean empire city was the center of trade for the ancient world. Mysteriously abandoned (at least our best guess is that) it remained unknown to the world until discovered in the early 1800's - and this was done only when that early explorer disguised himself as a traveling Bedouin trader to be led through the Siq (canyon/gorge) to see the once mighty city. Most people today would recognize this from the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie where the climatic final scenes were filmed here. The city had it's own water system including porcelain pipes that had valves that allowed fresh water (collected from the rain storms) to flow into the city. And it had a water control system to prevent flooding. Evidence visible today shows that alot of the carvings and buildings were massive "billboards" to advertise to visitors about how effective they were as merchants to visitors from around the world. What's really as remarkable as the stunning and breath taking scenery - especially in The Siq - is that archeologists estimate that they've only uncovered about 15% of the site! MUCH more to learn about the Nabataean people!
Looking at the map above, our tour (known as the classical tour - taken by most tourists) started in the lower left corner and took us to the Treasury, the Street of Facades, the Royal Tombs, past the Theatre, down the Colonnade Street and finally to the Qasar al-Bint (a huge temple). Many trails were available for more exploring but ALL including multiple-hundred steps (yes, hundreds) that were in poor shape. And the walk to the end of our tour was over three miles, so by the time we returned to the exit (right across the street from our hotel) we'd covered 6.85 miles. And I must say - which I'm sure would disappoint our guide Rain, that the "tourist version" of Petra, and what made my day was the walk through the massive & colorful canyons and then the National Treasury. Everything else we saw was like a double layer of icing on carrot cake! And so that's where most of my journal will focus as I try to whittle down the 114 images I shot today over the four and a half hours we explored the ancient site.
The Journey Through The Siq
Certainly a highlight for everyone was the long trek down the incline through the walls of the canyon. I cannot begin to capture what that was like (best I can do is the 1:45 video below that gives a better idea than these pics). The walls are MASSIVE and so colorful. And it was a good 20-30 minutes of this before......
Our guide Rain was so clever.....along the Siq he pointed out many carvings and told many stories and then he gathered us close by and said he'd offer a banana split to the first person who could identify what he was going to point out. And he told us not to turn around, not to look.....finally got to a curve in the wall, had us look back and pointed up to the wall and said, "What do you see?" - dramatic pause, then, "Turn around and look" and there through the darkness, emerging in the light was the iconic National Treasury which was greeted by a chorus of "OOOOO's" and "AAAHHHHH's" :)
We then entered the open plaza to all the wonder of the National Treasury.......Look at our photos below then Google "Petra" and you'll see the exact same thing. Two-thousand years old - and we are here, looking at it. We had about fifteen minutes of free time before heading further down into the city to explore the rest of the complex.
To be honest, even though I'd researched with a lot of reading, watched several videos and a documentary on Petra and the civilization that was once here, I honestly thought once you exited the Siz and made the dramatic entrance into the open you'd see the National Treasury building carved into the walls of the cliff and then the city would be in this canyon. Oh no my friends. At this point we'd only traveled a little under two miles of our nearly four mile trek through the city complex. The highlights of the remainder of the tour are pictured below. Once we reached Qasar al-Bint the tour itself was over. So Kim and I joined Larry & Lisa for lunch. Then those two headed off on a rugged hike to the Royal Tombs on their journey back, while we retraced our steps back to the National Treasury, through the Siq, and exited the complex. As a reward for making the return trip in just over an hour we enjoyed ice cream at our resort!
Later, at 6:45 we met our guide Rain for the optional tour to enjoy dinner at the local home of a Jordanian family. Interestingly Kim and I were the only two signed up for this adventure! Had a pre-dinner drink and for only the second time on the trip I got a legitimate frozen mud-slide. Then our guide rode along on our drive with the hired driver to the family's house. There we met two other couples (one with a teenage son) who were doing the home visit from another tour. We were entertained and learned about the average life in Jordan by the host, a Mom, her three daughters, and her oldest son. It was a wonderful evening and further enhanced our opinion that Jordan is one of the friendliest and safest countries we've visited in all our travels.
Tomorrow we are on the bus for the final day at 7:30 am and have a 4 1/2 hour bus ride back to Amman where we will have one last excursion. Then it's on to our hotel for a Farewell Dinner and at a little after midnight Kim and I will be taken to the airport to begin our journey home.
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