April 10, 2019 – Aqaba, Jordan
We arrived in Jordan at 7am and were able to meet our driver, Murad at 8 am.
Our first stop today is Petra. The drive was about 1 1/2 hrs. We met our guide outside the entrance. Mahmoud will describe the sites along the way.
Petra was built by the Nabateans and later it was occupied by Romans. These caves we saw along the way are tombs carved out of the surrounding walls. Petra is believed to be settled as early as 9,000 BC but flourished in the 1st Century AD when many of these structures were built.
The further we walked, the narrower the path, and the lower we descended. The path below our feet is not the original path. It is about 15 ft higher. Sediment that was deposited and improvements made in the last few years are responsible for this. On both sides of the path are walls that have water troughs carved. Ceramic pipes were placed in these troughs and then were covered with rock. These troughs provided fresh water to the community of about 20,000 that lived here.
This is the entrance to the Siq. This is a natural splitting of the mountain that resulted in this 1.2 km path.
The original floor look like this.
This photo shows the wall. Chisel marks show where it was carved out. The flat stones cover the water trough that lined the entire length of the pathway to the center of Petra.
This photo shows one of the many damns built recently to keep the Siq dry.
This photo shows the first glimpse of the lowest point of the Siq.
The Treasury or Al Khazna. About 40 m high. The Treasury is crowned by a funerary urn, which according to local legend conceal’s a pharaoh’s treasure. The Treasury was probably constructed in 1st century BC.
The Siq continues past the Treasury and we begin to go back uphill. This tomb represents many we saw. The upper tomb shows the “Stairway to Heaven” that was part of the many tombs found here.
This photo shows the Theater.Carved into the side of the mountain. This can accommodate 4,000 spectators.
This photo shows the crumbled stage in front of the fence. The back wall of the theater was rebuilt by the Romans as is evident by the columns.
These photos show the Royal Tombs which are across from the theater.
After two hours, Mahmoud’s tour was over. We thanked him and he continued to his home at the other end of Petra. We decided to go up to an area that had more tombs and showed a view of the area below.
Inside one of the tombs shows the carbon left by torches used by people who lived here years after the Nabateans.
The ceiling.
I snapped this photo up at the tomb to show an example of all the vendors that we saw along the way. There are hundreds. They are all peddling the same junk they purchased from China.
The Siq was getting very crowded. There were two other ships in the Port of Aqaba. When a ship arrives for only a day, Petra is usually the stop most of the people make. We knew it was going to be very crowded. The walk back was about an hour with no stops. It was noon and we needed to meet our driver at 2. We decided to start back and possibly take some side walks. When we got back to the Treasury, we realized it was much too crowded to do much of anything and decided to walk back out and not do any of the side trips. We sat at the Cave Bar next to the Petra Guest House Hotel at the entrance of Petra and waited for Murad. We were early so we had a drink and waited. Murad showed up and took us to lunch at the Petra Moon Hotel. We enjoyed a buffet of traditional Jordanian food.
The food was delicious. We saw quite a few people from the ship on different tours here. We spent about an hour sampling all of the food and then headed out to our camp in Wadi Rum.
Unfortunately there aren’t many roads in this part of Jordan and we had to go back to Aqaba and then out to Wadi Rum. Along the way we stopped at and old steam powered locomotive. The locomotive still runs and used for tourists.
Our camp was in the middle of the desert. Terri waits outside of the camp as we get our room.
Our “tent” at the Bedouin camp.
We stowed our gear and then met Khalid who took us out on his jeep for a tour of Wadi Rum. It was 5 pm and our two hour tour would end with the view of the sunsetting.
This photo shows where the movie the Martian was filmed. The area at our feet was red sand. Perfect for a movie about the red planet.
Thomas Edward Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia 1917
It was time for the sun to set and we found this private place to view it.
…and so did these folks….
Dinner was served at 8 pm and it was cooked Bedouin style. In the ground. BBQ chicken and lamb and all sorts of great food was served.
This photo shows the dining tent.
We finished our dinner and headed back to our tent. We needed rest for tomorrow. Breakfast at 6:30 am and then a ride to the Dead Sea at 7 am.…