Jordan: Petra

Petra is on every list I have ever seen of 'places you must see before you die'. When Ben and I were planning my trip to Jordan he asked, 'Do you want to see Jerusalem or Petra?' my response was, 'both'. Although it would have been more fun to go to Petra with Ben, I wasn't going to miss out  on Petra because he had to work, so we decided that I could go to Petra by myself and then we would go to Jerusalem over the weekend. 

Petra is about a three hour drive from the hotel we were staying at by the Dead Sea. I had a very nice driver who was very willing to talk to me about the history of Jordan, and how it is living there. All the Jordanians I met were very nice people who love living in Jordan. Compared to the surrounding countries is is fairly safe, and they are a people who like peace. 

This is just a taster picture of what it to come, but first, the very scenic drive to Petra. 

The road to Petra goes the entire length of the  Dead Sea. Then you turn and drive up a mountain on the Kings Road, which is the same as the Silk Road, but in Jordan they call it the Kings Road. 

The Dead Sea. 

Apparently these are ancient (2000+) rock statues on the top of this hill.  Neat.

A view driving along the Kings Road. This is looking out towards Israel. 

These are the ruins of a crusaders castle. One of two crusaders castles that I saw that day. 

And Finally...Petra. Once you purchase your ticket you walk about a mile to get to the first canyon. Along this first path there are lots of unfinished buildings and carvings.  

Then you enter the main canyon. It is this path that lets out at The Treasury. 

July is not peak tourist season in Jordan, so it wasn't crowded...but it was really hot. Also as it was Ramadan all the locals visitors wen't there as they were fasting during the day and you defiantly want to be able to drink water when you are hiking around Petra. 

This canyon was formed by the tectonic plates beneath the rock shifting, not from water erosion like many canyons in Utah and Arizona.  

The city  had an advanced water conduit system which can partially be seen in the photo above. Look at the rock on the bottom left of the picture. That is where fresh water was supplied to the city. The entire system was enclosed so as to also keep the water clean. 

The city was the capital of the Nabataen's when it was built around 300bc. It was conquered by the Romans in the 100 ad's and fell into ruin after earthquaked damaged many buildings along with their water supply in the mid 300's. 

There is a Roman inscription underneath this carving. 

Peek a boo, I see you. This is the first view you see of the Treasury. It just peaks out as you are walking through the canyon. It is quite a sight to behold. 

There has been a lots of damage to the facade since the 1800's, locals for some reason thought it would be a good idea to shoot at the statues. So they did and now most of them are severely  damaged. To carve these large building, they had to start at the top and work their way down. You can see on either side of  the Treasury sets of square holes in the rock that were used to hold up scaffolding. 

I am going to be honest, all I really knew about Petra was the Treasury. I had no idea how big the site really was. You would need several days to see everything there, and there is still a lot that needs to be excavated.  Here is a view of a lot of tombs just around the corner from the Treasury. 

The color of the rocks were incredible. 

All the building that were carved into the rocks were mostly burial sites or used for religious worship. Most of them are little more than a facade that goes back into a small room. 

If there is a sign that says 'The Best View' you better believe I am going to follow it. 

The view did not disappoint. This is called the Monastery. It is probably the second most famous site at Petra.  It is about 900 steps to get up here from the main trail (50 steps from the sign that says 'The Best View', but the view is incredible.  

Walking back to the entrance. It was a very warm day so it was nice to see this welcoming shade. 

Here is the town that Petra is located it. It looks just like your typical Jordanian town. 

A nice view on the drive back to the hotel. 

Upon arriving back at the hotel I was tired and lets just say I probably didn't smell so good, but I had to get ready to head to Karak for a Ramadan break the fast party that Ben and his co-workers had been invited to. Here is the view from the place we had dinner at. We had a beautiful view of another Crusaders castle. 

Here are Ben and I eating mansif. Probably don't google it and don't look to closely at the picture. 

There were many desserts served. I can't remember what this was called but it was basically like a mozzarella cheese that has a crunchy phyllo dough topping, drenched in honey and topped with pistachios. Yup. I had approximately two bites. 

These are little pancakes that are filled with either cheese (again like a mozzarella) or pistachios. Thankfully the one I tried had pistachios. Again it was soaked in honey. 

And that was my very long, but very cultural day.