Petra

We arrived late last night at the Petra Panorama Hotel, so only in the morning did get to see this view! If you can see the little white thing on the far peak, you are looking at Aaron’s tomb. The Jordanians are proud of these biblical sites. They will point you to Wadi Mousa (“WADdy MOOSE-uh”) which means Moses’ Valley. And they still collect water at the Spring of Moses where he struck the rock. This is almost positively NOT the site of either of Moses’ miracles, but they believe it and are proud of it even though Moses is not a progenitor of their nation.

After another great breakfast of stewed tomatoes, hummus, etc. we took a short bus ride to the trail head into ancient Petra which has been declared one of the Seven Wonders of the World. A 2 km hike downhill takes you into the ancient ruin via a siq (“seek”) which is a pretty impressive slot canyon. You have a choice of walking, riding a horse, donkey, camel, or taking a buggy.

This horse looks a bit too spirited. Even his experienced Bedouin cowboy ended up jumping off and trying to tempt the horse into a better mood.

The donkey… quaint, but a bit mangy-looking.

Camels are cool, but costly. (That's Tom Osborn in the blue T-shirt.)

The buggy was way out my price range. Late in the day I saw two buggy drivers come to some wrestling, shoving, name-calling, shouting match that was quite vigorous over some disagreement unknown to me. The single, white, female rider was looking quite nervous.

I’m breaking out of the “genie box” a stone that’s been specially chiseled to house a dead guy. Not my time yet.

This is another tomb sporting four Egyptian obelisks, and it is likely for four sons and a father.

Here we are at the mouth of the siq.

Pretty impressive, huh!

Twist after turn new photogenic formations appear.

Here we catch our first glimpse of the grandest façade known as the Treasury.

The Treasury is huge! 120 feet tall! Locals thought that tons of gold and silver were stockpiled here by Rome. They were wrong, but they did much damage trying to find the fabled gold. The whole town of Petra was built by the ancient Nabateans a wealthy and talented race who drew from the art, business, and technology of the Greeks, Egyptians, Arabs, and other.

We are dwarfed in its presence.

In case you want a short camel ride for only $4 these happen to be lounging nearby. Your money will buy about a 60-seond ride. Don’t worry about the Romans; we’ll meet their brothers in a few slides.

Ginger buys 10 full-color post cards for $1.00 under the jealous eye of a sister who had not been so lucky getting “Madame” to buy her jewelry.

Most of the numerous façades are burial sites, but after the Nabateans disappeared, Bedouins moved into the collection of natural and manmade caves. Only recently did the government build concrete high-rises for the Bedouins and clear them out of the siq.

This is inside one of them looking out a rather tricky double window.

The Flintstone’s front room looking towards the street.

Some of the sandstone is beautifully colored.

These guards look pretty serious… serious about collecting cash from whomever foolishly takes a picture of them.

I took a strenuous 800-step climb to this monastery, the second-most amazing façade in the preserve. It’s actually got a huge room in it so I guess it’s not actually a façade. In fact the building is nearly freestanding; carved from a solid cliff.

Ooo! That’s scary. Kinda takes you by surprise, doesn’t it. This shot was taken by a Bedouin kid who was selling trinkets at the high place of sacrifice. It was at the end of another 500-step climb with a splendid 360 view of everywhere. The little business woman showed interest in my camera so I told her to go ahead and take a shot. I had my telephoto on and this is what she “shot.” (Notice the dried sweat on my face.) I got the camera back from her and shot back. She’s in the next and final frame.