Amazing Petra - so much more than Indiana Jones!

We're in Petra!

Petra! Recently voted one of the "New Wonders of the World", visiting this amazing site was on Steph's and my "must-do" list in Jordan.

We started the day early at 7:00am, wanting to fit in a full couple of days in Petra, with just a one night stay - considering we had such fine accommodations in Amman to come back to (and Marc's fish needed feeding)!

We took a cab to get to the bus station and in true bastard taxi-cab style, after once again fighting for him to use the meter, he then dropped us off on a main road in the outskirts of Amman without a bus station in sight! Relying on the kindness of strangers, a shop owner pointed us on to a local bus, the bus driver gave us a free lift for about 3kms or so, and then another stranger gave us a free lift from the corner, 1km down the road, to the actual bus station.

We then had to wait about an hour and a half for the bus to fill up with passengers, before we commenced the 3 hour bus ride to Wadi Musa, the village next to the Petra site.

By the time we had lunch, and caught a cab from the village down to the ticket gate at Petra, it was about 2:00pm and we were half a day behind schedule. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were getting past the hottest part of the day (and boy was it hot - 40+ degrees Celsius or 110+ degrees Fahrenheit for our American viewers) as well as the bonus of many tour groups already heading back to their hotels and buses, meaning that Petra would be less crowded than it usually was in the morning.

The approach to Petra, in itself, is an experience - the entrance to the city is made through a narrow ravine called "The Siq", an enormous crack in the rock formed by an earthquake (as opposed to water). After about one and a half k's through the windy, steep sided ravine, a glimpse of an ancient, carved facade appears between the rock walls.

The entrance to "the Siq" - the pathway to Petra!

The pathway through the Siq


Our first glimpse of the Treasury

The walls of the Siq abruptly end and the path opens up to the magnificent facade of "The Treasury", Petra's most iconic image.

The "Treasury" - and the obligatory tourist camel ride

The Treasury was featured and made famous by "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (not the movie "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation", which it also appeared in), where it is depicted as the entrance to the ancient temple that housed the Holy Grail. This was a fact that Steph did NOT previously know about, as the only film from the Indy series she's seen is "Temple of Doom" (I still cannot comprehend that out of all of them, she's only seen THAT one).

The Treasury remains the best preserved building in Petra as it is somewhat sheltered from the elements by the gorge that it has been built in.

Inside the Treasury - the colours in the rock are amazing!

It is truly an amazing site, however just a scratch of what Petra has to offer. To see all of the monuments in Petra, built by the Nabataeans around 2,000 years ago, would take well over a week...by helicopter. There are ruins strewn out across the surrounding peaks and valleys for many kilometers. However, the most impressive are contained within a compact area that comprises the "City of Petra".

View along Petra's "main drag"

After walking past the Treasury we rounded the corner of the valley and were confronted with the rest of Petra. The buildings, amphitheater, houses and funery temples in the city have for the most part been carved out of the sandstone of the valley walls, the rock in itself being layered with whorls and swirls of the most amazing colours. The effect, overall, is absolutely stunning and, considering we had just seen so many ruins and temples in Egypt, I was doubly amazed that Petra could still leave me speechless.

The amphitheater in the City of Petra

The Royal Tombs - built into the rock face

The "Urn" tomb - cos there's an urn on top of it

More of the amazing colours in the rock

We decided to take a late afternoon walk up to "The Monastery", Petra's biggest monument, situated an hour's walk up the mountain from Petra's center. The walk was a little bit taxing, given that it was still very hot, however when we arrived it was definitely worth it.

This sign is not designed to inspire confidence - more to get tourists to spend money on a guide!




"The Monastery"

We got to the top around 6:30pm and, with the sun in the west, the monument was bathed in light. Due to the hour of our visit, we ended up being the only people there! Steph and I basked in the peace and joy of being able to gaze upon this structure without the ever-present hordes of tourists that have surrounded all of the ancient sites we've visited so far.

The view out over the Monastery and into the valley

The cairn at the top - we added ours on top!

We took the long walk back to town, grabbed some pizza for dinner and headed back to our more-dingy-than-usual hotel for the night.

The sunset over Wadi Musa

The next morning we got up early, checked-out and headed down the hill to Petra again, however we were presented with the challenge of what to do with our enormous packs - there was no way we could take them into the site for the day.

We then had the brilliant idea of having breakfast at the Movenpick Resort, situated right next to the entrance of the site. The added bonus was, by having brekkie there, we looked like semi-legitimate guests and the concierge did us a huge favour by checking our bags for us in the hotel storage! Sweet!

We spent our second day seeing the Treasury in the morning (best light for it) and then exploring more of the other buildings, including the Royal tombs, Qasr al-Bint (Petra's only free-standing monument that's still standing - sort of) as well as the recently dug up Great Temple, being unearthed and restored by a team from Brown University in the US.

The first glimpse of the Treasury in the morning


The Treasury, bathed in full morning light

The original "City Gate"

The columns at the Great Temple


One of the columns, prior to restoration!


The beautiful design in the pillar heads - note the elephant carving

Around midday, we hiked up to a place known as the "High Place of Sacrifice", where the Nabataeans made sacrifices of animals to the gods. There were a couple of obelisks up here, however the main reason for making the hike is the amazing view back down on to the royal tombs in the City of Petra.

The obelisks - the first things you see when you reach the High Place

The altar, where the Nabataeans made sacrifices to the gods


On top of the world!

The view of the tombs, on our way back to the main city complex

We finished up our tour in the middle of the afternoon and headed back to the Movenpick to clean up in their spotless bathrooms and partake of their world-renowned ice cream, helping us cool down from the unrelenting heat of Petra in June. We then picked up our bags and caught the 5:00pm bus back to Amman, thankfully with a lot less trouble than we had getting there! A great couple of days, exploring this amazing, ancient city!