Journey to Jordan: Pt 3, Petra

Without doubt, the UNESCO World Heritage site of Petra is the jewel in Jordan’s crown. It is on the list of the ‘new seven wonders of the world’ – well deserved, in my opinion, but not actually all that new! It is well over 2000 years old, having been built and settled in large parts by the Nabataeans from the 3^rd or 4^th century BC onwards. There are remains of even earlier settlements here, possibly dating back as far as the seventh millennium BC.

The name ‘Petra’, as I now know, comes from the Greek word for ‘rock’. It is an appropriate name, as rock formations and, more particularly, rock carvings are what it is all about.

Our hotel had superb views of the mountains in which Petra is located and from a viewpoint just down the road you could actually catch a glimpse of one or two of its monuments.

What you see in the photo are the so-called Djinn Blocks, which are located on the access route from the visitor centre. The latter is in Wadi Musa, an unremarkable (but not unpleasant) little town. Our hotel was a couple of kilometres away from the entrance to Petra, but there are several which are much closer (- although they do not offer such good views). The next photo shows you the Djinn Blocks again, but this time from a position at ground level.

There is a place near the entrance where you can organise horses and horse-drawn carts to take you down into the centre of the site, but unless you have difficulties walking I would not suggest it. You will miss many interesting things along the way, such as the Obelisk Tomb (below).

Having walked down some 700 metres from the entrance, you reach what is known as ‘The Siq’ (below). I believe it simply means ‘gorge’, and that is what it is – a rather narrow one at that.

The Siq is around 1.2km long and there are various interesting sights along the way, not least the water channels which run all the way along the sides. In places you can even see the remains of ceramic pipes. There is also quite a bit of the original stone paving still in place.

Finally, you approach the end of the gorge and catch the first glimpse of the iconic ‘Treasury’ building, which quite suddenly appears in front of you through the gap in the rocks.

I have put ‘Treasury’ in quotes, because nobody really knows what the building was used for. One thing, however, is pretty certain: it never held treasure.

To fully appreciate the awe-inspiring nature of the building and the effort that must have gone into carving it out of the rock, you have to see it in its overall setting – as in the photo at the beginning of this piece. (If you are wondering where you have seen similar shots before, it might have been in ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, parts of which were filmed in Petra.)

What appears to be a two-storey building actually has three levels; there is also a ‘basement’. You can see the basement façade very clearly if you peer down through the metal grid/mesh which has been spread in front of the building. It appears that the soil has only relatively recently been removed from it.

As you walk further, you start to appreciate the scale of the site. It covers a huge area and there are interesting sights around every corner.

The photo above shows parts of what is known as the ‘Streets of Façades’. The main path takes you on to an area of dozens of small caves that have been carved out of the sandstone and, finally, to an amphitheatre (just visible on the far right of the shot below).

The caves here and elsewhere are generally referred to as ‘tombs’. However, in truth nobody really seems to know what the various caves (and buildings) were used for. Some of them must simply have been dwellings.

Various civilizations have left their mark on Petra. The Romans arrived at the beginning of the second century AD and their legacy can be seen in an area known as the Central City ruins. If you follow the main path down past the amphitheatre, you will see the pillars emerging into view. The two photos below show this area from different angles.

You will also find the remains of a Byzantine church here (with well-preserved mosaics) and the crusaders have left the ruins of one of their castles nearby.

There are various places inside Petra where you can buy a bottle of water or sit down for a cup of tea. One of largest is the Basin Restaurant, which is located on the main trail just beyond the Central City. The photo below was taken near there – it is one of my favourite ones.

From here the path goes up steeply to what is referred to as the ‘Monastery’ (- again, the name is pretty arbitrary). We were told various tales about the difficulty of the ascent, with estimates of the time needed generally ranging from one to two hours. In practice it took just under 45 minutes – and that was during the mid-day heat (not an ideal time, but some people are fools). It certainly was worth the climb.

The setting is absolutely superb, with fabulous views across the surrounding mountains, especially from the viewpoints that lie a small distance further up from the Monastery.

I personally found the Monastery even more impressive than the Treasury. It actually is somewhat bigger. There are several small cafes up here where you can rest for a while. We made the most of the opportunity to just sit there opposite the Monastery and stare.

As I said, there is plenty to see in Petra. The Royal Tombs certainly should be on everyone’s list. You can explore these on your return to the visitor centre. The photo below shows the panorama and the one after that is a close-up of the Palace Tomb, one of the largest of the Royal Tombs.

There does not appear to be any evidence that these tombs had connections to any kind of royalty. However, many of them are very large indeed. Next to the Palace Tomb is the Corinthian Tomb. As the photo below shows, the sandstone has weathered quite badly, giving the building a Daliesque appearance of melting stone.

The row of Royal Tombs also includes some slightly smaller ones, such as those in the picture below.

The next photo was taken further along, from the Urn Tomb – perhaps the most impressive one in terms of size. As I came up the stairs I actually mistook the Jordanian soldier standing there for a drinks seller – some of them did dress in a vaguely similar fashion – but I quickly realised my mistake. He seemed quite happy, though, about me taking the photo.

The shot below shows the impressive size of the Urn Tomb and the one following it is of a further row of tombs just around the corner from it. We tried to find their name(s) on the various maps we had, but drew a blank. Anyway, it would probably be another rather arbitrary label.

From the Royal Tombs it takes around 40 minutes to get back to the visitor centre, past the Streets of Façades (below) again.

We could certainly feel our feet by the time we returned to our starting point again, but nevertheless decided to come back a couple of hours later for a ‘Petra by Night’ experience. For this, they line the access path, the Siq, and the area in front of the Treasury with candles. This is well worth seeing, but we thought the musical performance involved was very disappointing. At least it was short.