Thursday - April 07, 2005

Jordon: Petra

The rose-red walls of Petra, half as old as time...

These words describe the ancient city of Petra perfectly. There is nothing in the world that compares with this magical place. Its ornate tombs, temples, and houses were carved from the rose-colored sandstone cliffs by the Nabateans over 2,000 years ago, and lay hidden beneath desert sands until the early 1800s.

On April 2, Mike and I were up early. We had stayed up to watch a DVD of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade', which contains scenes of Petra, and we were primed. We were anxious to get started on what for us was going to be the highlight of the World Cruise. After years of talking about visiting it, we were finally going to see the ancient city of Petra. Getting there was not going to be easy. We docked in the southern port of Aquba and then had a two-hour drive across the desert to reach the new city. Then we had to walk about a mile along a sandy path, past a succession of rock tombs, the most monumental being the Obelisk tomb with four large pyramid-shaped obelisks, approximately 20 feet high.

Suddenly the path becomes more narrow and you enter the Siq, a narrow path hewn through solid rock with towering walls on either side. The Siq is a spectacular fissure created by tectonic motion and then worn smooth by the waters of Wadi Mousa. So close are the walls that in parts they block out the view of the sky. The rock walls are a kaleidescope of color, the basic red background being shot through with shades of orange, yellow, and green. The one and a half mile walk through the Siq passes quickly, seeing as you are walking downhill and have so many gorgeous views to enjoy along the way, all of them up! You can ride a donkey down through the Siq or take a bone-rattling ride down in a cart, but we chose to walk, taking in all the sights as we followed along in our guide book.

From the moment that we rounded the last bend in the Siq, and got a first glimpse of columns and cornices appearing like a mirage between the narrow cleft at the end, I could feel my excitement rising, as though I was the first one to discover this lost city. I felt that we were about to penetrate a time barrier, and fully expected to see a trading caravan arrive in a cloud of swirling dust.

As we stepped through the natural cleft in the rock, the building standing before us literally took my breath away. I don't think I have felt as in touch with history as I did at that moment, and it was quite overwhelming. The perfection of what lay before us seemed of another world. The Treasury, with its Corinthian-columned facade standing 130 feet high, absolutely glows in the sun. The color is such a dark orange-red that it is quite remarkable. I think all the effort was put into making the exterior as beautiful as possible, because the interior was very plain. After we finally tore ourselves away from the Treasury, we walked another mile across uneven and undeveloped desert ground to see the 2,000 year old theatre, painstakingly cut from a steep hillside, and the Royal Tombs nestling along the inside face of Petra's eastern mountains.

We were supposed to meet the rest of our tour group back at the new city for lunch, but there was so much to see that we decided to forego lunch and spend all our time at the site. One aspect of Petra that we were gratified to see is that it hasn't been overrun with tourist shops and restaurants. Yes, there were a few hawkers selling their jewellry and postcards and there were a couple of places cut into the rocks where you could get a cool drink or have a bite to eat, but they weren't in your face and didn't interfere with one's enjoyment of the atmosphere. We spent about 5 hours at the site, and still didn't get to the upper areas in the mountains where there was much more to see. Our waiter, Marius, who is younger and more athletic than us, made the climb to the most upper temple and back in an hour, but I barely had the energy to make the long 3+ mile back to the bus meeting point. The walk down was a lot easier than the trek back out and all that kept me going was the thought of missing the bus back to Aquba. Mike and I vowed that we will be back. We were very impressed with what we saw of Jordan, and we are sure we will come back to see more of Petra when we can extend our stay over a few days.