Last night we had an epic experience. We went to Petra by
night. Petra is in the South of Jordan and consists of incredible scenery and
ruins from 3rd century BC. There are spectacular sites in amongst
mountains of barren rock. These spectacular sites are actually all tombs and it
is hard to believe that they made such masterpieces for their dead and how did
they create them? I am very curious about the tools they used, but have not
been able to find anything out about this in any museums or literature. I guess
it will be a future Google search, but not now, time is too precious.
The epic Petra by night … it was amazing. We walked into the
site (Petra is 387 square kilometers) down a siq (a narrow passage) with rock
formations all the way down that are 100m’s high. The path was lit by candle light, it was
spectacular. It was about a 2 km walk down this narrow candle lit passage under
a star lit night. The stars were incredible and then we made it to the
Treasury, one of the main sites of Petra. In front of it there were 1000’s of
candles in paper bags set up and a couple of Arabic musicians playing
instruments. We sat down and laid out looking at the façade and the sky. It is
one of the best things I have ever seen.
Now today was also great. It wasn’t as hot and I expected it
to be. I thought it would be a scorcher in the sun, but it was only 36 degrees (it
was 42, the other day) and there were shaded parts do to such high rocks. So
our probably 20 km hike through the rock formations and up the mountains was a
great workout, we hiked up, down, around and over mountain passes for 10 hours.
The views were amazing. There are hundreds of tombs and I now understand how
people can hide out in caves or tombs over here. It is so dry, not a spec of
grass or water and there are people, donkeys, horses, goats and sheep to feed
in these mountains.
I had no idea what to expect when going to Petra, but wow is
it ever huge and are there ever a lot of tombs chiseled out of the rock and the
colours. The rocks are multiple colours and have many layers of colouring.
Yesterday we had a driver, as you do here, you get a driver
and car to take you places as busses are few and far between. The driver thing
is set up really nicely by the hotels and they are efficient and on time. So we
had a driver yesterday take us down the King’s Highway which was also great and
followed the Dead Sea. Keating’s it reminded me of the Great Ocean Road in
Australia. We stopped at Castles along the way. Our one toothed driver was a
very knowledgeable man and gave us tons of history and info about the culture.
I got some great people shots too. I also saw a dessert scorpion, but someone
had put it in a plastic bottle so no need for concern.
Over the last two days we have seen many weddings parade
through the vast lands for the Bedouin (the people who live out in the hills, a
very hard life) and town’s people. They parade around with tons of people
hanging out of vehicles honking their horns, but unlike home there is a truck
in the line up with the dowry, cows, goats, camels, etc. I don’t know how the
bride knows who she is marrying as she is sometimes covered with a solid white
veil (no eye holes) that she has no hope of seeing out of. During their wedding
celebrations the women are together at one location and the men at another.
They do not mix.
Again there are many pictures for you to check out. Click on
the following link for pictures from Petra and the King’s Highway trip.
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