"You Are Named After the Dog?!"

Petra, for those of you who were asleep during 2007 (or who has, shamefully, never watched the action classic Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) is a series of temples and tombs--a city really--carved into the side of a canyon in the mountains in southern Jordan.  It was nominated in 2007 for one of the new seven wonders of the world (the previous seven having been mostly destroyed/disappeared), and it won one of the seven spots.

Personally, seeing Petra is on my bucket list (along with the remaining seven wonders and a mixture of other lofty (and some mundane) life goals).  Our trip to Jordan this winter was largely to see this one site, all though we did see some other attractions Jordan had to offer, the tale of which can be found here.

Without further ado, Petra.

Getting to Petra is an adventure in and of itself.  From Amman, it's about a 3 hour drive through some fairly fantastic countryside.  Mountainous and lovely and green it was a startling--and much appreciated--contrast from the largely flat and sand-colored Bahrain.  The greenery eventually gave way to the browns and reds of of the mountains.

Once arriving in Ma'An Jordan, the site is simply a few curvy, crowded roads away.  We stopped and got some shawarma's (sort of like a lamb, french fry, veggie taco) and a ton of water.  We were dropped off by our wonderful driver, Mr. Ramadan, at the ticket office (50 JD, which is roughly 70USD per person).  What we were unaware of at this time was how far the ticket office is from Petra proper.

We exited the visitors center and began about a half mile trek leading to the canyon.   The first thing that hits you after leaving the visitors center is the smell (and overwhelming presence) of donkey/camel/horse poo.  Throughout the tip, you have the option to ride a camel or donkey through parts of Petra (even up stairs!!) for about 5JD (or so they say).  We opted to walk, although it was not due to a lack of offers from some very persistent camel chauffeurs.

The path leading to the canyon

So many options for transpo...and so many sources of poop. 

Along the way to the canyon are caves and some carvings--a teaser for what is to come.  After that initial trek down a well marked path you enter a canyon.  You are in this canyon for about another half mile, give or take--the canyon is gorgeous and we spent far too long meandering through, admiring the colors and shapes of the canyon--and again the occasional hint-carving at what would be coming at the end of the canyon.

The canyon

Hints...

The canyon opens out into the stunning and highly memorable (again, you gotta watch Indian Jones) view of the treasury.  From here, you continue downward, where the canyon opens up.  Here you have some options, as there is so much to explore.  You actually could spend a couple of days here at Petra and I think that if you were to come visit it, spending an overnight in Petra, or Ma'An and getting a multiday pass is probably your best bet.  There is literally so much to see.

The Temple of the Crescent Mood...erm, the Treasury. 

We had heard from an Petra veteran that the place you want to get to, besides the treasury, is the monastery.  The monastery is located almost at the end of the park. Since the park is so big (according to an iphone, we walked 10 miles that day), we headed towards that monastery almost immediately, photographing the views along the way.  To get to the monastery, you must not only walk to the end of the park, but you must also climb up the mountain.  And as it was in China, climbing a mountain in Jordan means stairs.  Lot's and lot's of stairs.  Which some of you may know, are my arch-nemeses.

The stairs...so much stairs. 

Eight hundred stairs later, we reached the top (actually, you could continue for what I am told is a pretty spectacular view of the mountains) and rounded a bend and saw the monastery, which is just as spectacular as the treasury.  We had arrived in Petra around noon and at this point it was almost 2:30.  We decided we had better start back in the direction of our driver, a he was supposed to pick us up to take us back to Amman at about 4:30.

The Monastery

We made our way back down the stairs, surrounded by some truly amazing views of the mountains--and better able to appreciate them now that we were gong down the stairs instead of the much-more-arduous-up.  We paused along some sites on the way back to the entrance, including the tombs, albeit from a distance.

We also purchased some souvenirs along the way, including these bottles with designs inside made from sand--they use ground up rocks from the region for the colors.  A simple thing to remember Petra by, especially with the camel detail, as we passed several camels and their very vocal riders. I had read about these before leaving for Jordan, and was warned to get the ones with the natural colors as the dyed sands fade over time.

Again, you could easily spend several full days in this park, exploring every one of the numerous nooks and crannies, and if Petra is the only thing you wish to see in Jordan, I highly recommend you do--the city of Ma'An has several options for boarding, although it may be difficult to do on a budget as Petra is Jordan's biggest tourist attraction in a country whose economy is dependent on tourism (plus the U.S dollar does not win against the Jordanian Dinar).

"I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds and the sky."

Despite the stairs (and the persistent camel-ride pushers), there is nothing disappointing about Petra. We definitely did not choose poorly.