Petra Silk Road Hotel Wadi Musa

... that all the pictures make you think with Petra is that it is close together, at least to me it does. I always had a view point that the Monastery and Treasury are close together, well, they're not. They call this place the rose red city for a reason. Upon arrival there is a 700 meter hike down a hill [remember you come back the way you go] in which an optional horse ride is included. What the itinerary doesn't tell you is that although the cost of the horse ...

... a natural gorge in the rocks. Our group made the walk three times (once by night, and two day visits), each time to explore a different part of the city. The city itself (or what remains) is entirely carved out of the rocks, something made possible by the sandstone cliffs throughout Petra. Because it is sandstone all the buildings have a natural swirl of colours ...

... and the carved facade was golden and brilliantly contrasted against the mountain. Feeling rewarded for our trek we sat and gazed at it while taking on more water and resting. There were fewer tourists up here as it was later in the day and hard work to get to. By this time it was after 5pm and we headed down again which was a lot easier than coming up but having walked miles today we were getting very tired and made the slow trek back up through the ruins we had walked ...

... I went out exploring over Petra, I got a 3 day ticket and saw some of Petras most amazing sights, the Treasury, the Siq, The sacrificial hill right on top of the area and then a bunch of tombes on the waydown. Then Nathan and I climbed back up the monumental hill in the middle of the day back to bed for a siesta!

After a siesta disturbed by the most anoyibng flys in the world (Jordan is full of them) Nathan and I walked down for round two. BUT Nathan got to the gate ...

... carved into the stone, and many other archeological features/sites as well. Basically, you are walking the entire day, though a very hot and dusty area, going from site to site. While I haven't painted this with a very attractive sounding brush, believe me, it is something worth seeing. In fact, it's considered one of the 8 wonders of the modern world. The people who built this were a highly creative and intelligent bunch, especially given the time it was constructed, and the ...

... that we would walk (well that should be hike) up to the high alter of sacrifice. So the awesome foursome were off after walking the few kms to get to the bottom of the trail to the alter we all took a big breath and then we started up. The first few km wasn't so bad but after a while of just trudging up the dusty trail in the beating sun it gets hard. Luckly we were able to cross over to the other side of the gorge and be out of the sun.....ahhh thats better. Next thing we know ...

... of steps up to a spot located 200 m above the Treasury for a fantastic view away from the crowds. After climbing back down we walked a little further and then made our way up 800 more steps to the monastary. Also originally a tomb but later used as a byzantine church. The monastary is also fairly well preserved, very impressive and somewhat less crowded than the Treasury. At the end of the day I managed to convince Dave to ...

... are stunning at sun set. A couple of days are enough to visit the former capital of the Nabatenean people. Most of the people do it in one day, but that means rushing from one place to the other, and as I am in no rush, I have decided to make my visit in two days, the first to go through the main tombs and monuments of the site, and the second to wander around less travelled routes: going through the Wadi Muthlim gorge to enjoy its peaceful atmosphere and climbing the Jebel Jumm ...

... J'ai pris un rythme modeste pourtant, confiant envers les vertus du temps (celui qui avait si bien redressé le bilan de Louxor) ; je n'ai jamais fait qu'errer entre d'impressionnantes masses rocheuses dont l'absence criante de vie annihilait tout possibilité d'émouvoir (c'est un peu lourd). Ma visite fut tout de même élevée par quelques longs moments paisibles ; le ...