Petra - The Jewel of Jordan

After the exciting experience in the desert of Wadi Rum we are bussed back up the country to Petra.

Most photos always lead you to perceive Petra as only the place of the famous Treasury. What these photos don’t show you is that Petra is actually massive complete city and you actually need 2 days to see it properly. Only 10% of the site is actually uncovered. The rest with its hidden treasures remains buried awaiting time, money and enthusiasm.

Petra was established as early as 312BC by the Nabataeans as a hidden holy city. Over time the city fell under the control of the Greeks and eventually the Romans. After an earthquake in 363AD the city was largely abandoned and finally in 663AD when the Arabs conquered the region the city was left completely vacant. It was not rediscovered by the western world until 1812 by a Swiss explorer.

On our first day at Petra Usama takes us on a 4 hour tour that went a lot longer. At the 5.5 hour mark most of the group departed as it was just too much to take in when it’s stupid hot outside. The information was great but attention spans are short when you’re baking in the sun.

The entrance to Petra is a 1.3km stretch that winds through a deep and narrow canyon. This was about keeping Petra hidden. The canyon is breath taking, and the immediate temperature difference makes a welcome change. The cliffs rise up above and around you majestically urging you onward.

There are horses and carts ferrying people up and back from the Treasury, and a basic horse ride is even included in the cost of ticket – they all tell us “it’s free, except for the tip”. The horses are mistreated, skinny and tired, as are the donkeys that people jump on. There is a constant flow of tourists in and out, and many horses and carts that don’t stop for you so our guide tells us when you hear them “just get out of the way”. 

All along the way down to the Treasury are the tombs of the Nabataeans, either carved into the cliff faces or into large standalone stones. The standalone stones are called genie houses because the old civilisations believed them to be the homes of the magical beings. There are many impressive carved tombs in the cliff faces themselves showing the importance the Nabataeans placed on their final resting place.

You get your first glimpse of the Treasury from back in the canyon and it stops you in your tracks but as you emerge into the opening the full façade reveals itself as a magnificent towering edifice to one of Petras greatest kings. It is bigger than you imagine it and how it looks in the pictures. As one of the wonders of the world Petra is well worth the $80 p.p. AUD entry fee.

 

The Treasury is called the Treasury because the Bedouins who found Petra in the 19^th century thought it was where the pharaohs of Egypt hid their treasure. It is a shame because in the search to find the ‘treasure’ they shot at the Treasury and have damaged a lot of the sandstone facades. 

The mix of native Nabataean, Greek, Roman architecture in the façade shows the influence of conquering empires.

 

The city was home to approximately 20,000 people at its peak size. The city’s arena of Roman design was carved directly from the sandstone rock.

Returning to our rooms utterly tired we get ready for dinner at our guides local friend’s house. We arrive at a ‘typical’ Jordanian home, the guest room is immaculate. It is the culture to always have the guest room ready for visitors. We had a traditional meal of baked chicken and rice while we sat on the floor to eat and drank tea. 

We rose early the next day and returned to the Treasury early in the morning with Nicole from our group to beat the hordes, and we had the whole place nearly to ourselves. The atmosphere is completely different without the bustle and noise and you can really soak in the magic of the place.

 

There are super cute donkeys everywhere with men offering rides to various places around the Petra site. Jump on “Jordan Ferrari” and we’ll be there no time. We decline as we are really appalled at the conditions of the animals. 

The entire city is carved from the sandstone, and the more you wander further the more impressive it becomes.

 

We are not feeling well after breakfast but after checking out the sights around the corner from the amphitheatre we didn’t see yesterday we decide to scale the 900 steps to the Monastery, a carved tomb that was converted to the church by the Byzantines. The view is meant to be spectacular and the monastery itself is almost as good as the Treasury. On the way we walk along the old market street and through a gate guarded by some 'authentic' soldiers.

We begin out ascent and are constantly overtaken by smug tourists on donkeys. There is donkey droppings everywhere making the climb that little bit more adventuresome. The views on the way up are sensational we but we are feeling increasingly less so. Maybe we should have taken a camel.

We finally get to the top of the stairs and both of us are promptly ill, first Amy then Simon needed to duck around a corner and have a subtle chunder, but we keep it together with the help of Nicole to enjoy the Monastery and even climb inside to an underwhelming empty stone room. The façade of the Monastery is magnificent and very impressive – yes it does look like the Treasury.

After a little explore and recuperate at the top we begin our descent. The walk down the mountain and back to the hotel is some kind of hellish death march facing an uphill battle against literally hordes of bussed in tourists wearing stickers and matching hats. Urgh. Somehow we make it back to the hotel where we promptly collapse onto the bed and hardly move for the next 16 hours. Simon makes a trip up the road to get drugs from the pharmacy that help us operate the next day. We would have loved to see the high place of sacrifice, but our stomachs didn’t really allow for this!

The next day we learn that 6 of the 8 of us have come down with the sickness to varying degrees of awfulness. We are on the mend but others are not faring so well, Craig especially is brutally ill still making the day on the road pretty terrible for him. We take all necessary tablets to stop any incidents and keep up the electrolytes!

Lessons Learnt

• Don’t trust the breakfast drink that’s made of cordial, where is the water from??? That’s our best guess where we all got sick from.
• Apparently you can sleep for roughly 16 hours and wake feeling like absolute rubbish.
• Don’t come to the Middle East without anti-nausea and anti squirts medicine, and be sure to pack heaps of electrolytes.
• The convenience of transport and organisation of a package tour is becoming clear, we are stress free and happily going place to place to see incredible things without any of the headache of organising logistics.

Parting Thoughts

Our group is getting along really well and everyone is friendly and good fun, there are some great perks to travelling in an organised small group and we are loving the company.

Petra is magnificent and deserves to be on the must see list before you die. We wish we could have explored more but given our circumstances we were forced to retire early. 

It is a shame about the treatment and condition of the animals there. Apparently there are ongoing efforts to educate the owners and ensure better care but they seem to have a ways to go.

Simon and Amy xoxo