Dead Sea to Petra

Trip Start Dec 16, 2005

Trip End Jan 08, 2006

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Flag of Jordan Petra, Jordan
Monday, December 19, 2005

Bathing in the dead sea is a very strange experience.... like no other in water at least. You float further up in the water with almost your entire torso above it bobbing like a cork. God help you if you have any cuts or recently shaved ... the salt in the wounds does sting some !! ... and listen to the guide when she recommends not to sallow the water.

Then there's the mud ... you coat your body in it and wash it off to reveal the new you! ... seriously! ........ your skin makes love to you after using it!!! ... and it lies all along the coast line, everywhere ... so why then are they trying to sell it to me in 500g bags ????!!!

Driving along the Dead Sea had some interesting moments too .. not least the smiling soldier with the incredibly large machine gun mounted on the HumV making joke ratta tatta motions after one of us asked if a photo was cool

Dead Sea Monsters ...

. Guess it was not !!!

After this we take a four hour drive over sharp jagged peaks to Petra. Arriving by night to our hotel the dark shapes of the mountains around us only barely hint at the wonders they hold. As we check into the hotel there are two movie choices (and no bar!!) ... Lawrence of Arabia or Indiana Jones and the last crusade. Never realised this before but these are in fact tourist guides for Jordan!!

Petra is a hidden ancient city carved into the living rock some time around the 6th century BC by the Nabatean people. Made famous in the west in the Indiana Jones movies for the scene with the ravine and the temple ... but the movie does not even scratch the surface ... the site is enormous and it would take many days to get around all of the magical ruins these amazing people made into their homes, places of entertianment (including a sizeable theatre), places of worship, etc .

Just like the movie you approach through a narrow canyon (the Siq) of red rock faces to find the Treasury, the building made famous in the movie ... it reveals itself slowly to you, via narrow openings in the canyon ... making the experience all the more impressive

Petra 1

. The siq is the only easy way to get into the vast expanse of the city ... very clever defensive thinking ... You could defend it against a far larger force as long as your water supply held out. But therin was the flaw ... this is a dry place so you need to store a lot of water against the assaults of a determined enemy.

The ingenuity of the Nabataeans people is all around you as you walk down the Siq ... For example - They must have been expert hydraulic engineers. The walls of the Siq are lined with channels (originally fitted with clay pipes) to carry drinking water to the city, while a dam to the right of the entrance diverted an adjoining stream through a tunnel to prevent it flooding the Siq.

Thankfully Steven Spielberg did not in fact destroy this wonderful building, and it still stands today a testament to a great people. The rest of the city is on the same lines but each part is impressive in its own right ... You climb high into the surrounding mountain to find an even bigger and more impressive building the Monastery (El Dier) ... or for atop the sacrificial altar on another peak you can get a real feel for the sheer vastness of the amazing city ...