Petra

Saturday 11 April
Travel from Medeba to Petra. Accommodation at the Petra

Fiona Arafat trying to blend in with the locals

After a long trip through the hill country of Moab (Modern day Amman), we arrived at Petra. Booked our rooms and walked down to the entrance of the ancient entry in to Petra with thousands of other tourists. It is quite an awesome experience walking through the Siq. (This is the long narrow crevice that takes you into the old city of Petra). All the pictures you have seen cannot adequately prepare you when you walk out into the valley and stand in front of ‘The Treasury’ (the famous building carved out of the sheer rock that is on all the travel brochures). Amazing with all the tourists, Bedouins stalls, donkeys, camels, horses with carriages quite an experience!

'The Treasury' giving you the perspective of the size

The ancient city is huge. It is several kilometers walk from one end to the other, and has many layers of history. The main ruins are Nabataean (starting around 500BC). The next major civilization that has overlaid its mark on the ruins is the distinctive Iron stamp of Rome. There is the typical Colonnaded street with several temples at right angles with steps leading off the promenade up to the temple to give them distinct prominence. The ruins are just colossal.

After several hours of viewing and reading, the sisters needed a rest. After lively negotiation with the young Bedouin boys and their donkeys most went back to the Hotel. Steve, Simon, Amy and myself ended up staying behind and quite by accident ended up on the path up to an the old Crusader Castle. The ruins are situated on a huge knoll overlooking the city, and is perfect for defense. The view was fantastic. A 360° panorama of Petra about 400m off the floor of the valley. We just sat there and soaked up the history, it was just a sensational experience. We also yelled a few Australian Cooo-eeeees.. that bounced back and forth across the ravines for several seconds. Not sure what the native Arabs thought, but we noticed a few Australian Eucalypts growing near one if the temples so we thought it wouldn’t seem too out of place.

One of the temples in the City of Petra,
giving you a perspective of the size of the entryway

Steve about 3/4 of the way up to the Crusader Fortress.
His foot is pointing at the back of the same temple that is hidden behind the mountain.
You may also be able to make out the people walking on the road in front of the temple, giving you some perspective of the view from the top.

Arrived back at the Petra Palace hotel for a scrumptious smorgasbord and talked about everyone’s highlights of the day. Had a memorial meeting with Amy listening to Bro Dennis Gillett. A very encouraging day

Simon making a fast get away!

The non-cloven foot of the Camel designates it unclean under the Law

Camel Pad print with no division,
making it difficult to walk on Rock like the goat or sheep

Fiona and Pris - Princesses of the desert.