Petra

Trip Start Mar 21, 2005
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Flag of Jordan  ,
Monday, April 7, 2008

For three days, Petra was a place to roam and explore, a place full of twists and turns and ever-changing colors as the sun arced in the sky. This was one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, thanks to multiple votes from almost every Jordanian with access to the internet, but one perhaps well deserved because of its beauty, history, and archaeology all intertwined.

Descending into the massive sandstone Jabals surrounding Petra every morning was my first step and showed just how impenetrable the city would have been, just because of its natural location. From my Petra Gate Hotel room to the Siq was about forty minutes downhill, passing many other hotels and hundreds of tourists on the way. Petra was so big, however, that it was easy to get away from the crowds if you wanted.

Traders would have come here from either side of the north-south King's Highway, with frankincense and myrrh as two of the primary trade goods, coming from south Arabian trees. Petra's Nabataean people controlled this trade as well as the major routes between Egypt and places to the north. Petra had it: location, location, location...and built its fortune protecting the caravan traders from India, China, Arabia, Egypt, Rome, Greece, and more.

The Siq was a narrow canyon, with wind and water carved sandstone cliffs. Tombs on the way were a preview of what lay ahead, yet were still impressive, symbolic of the importance of the afterlife to the Nabataeans, who came from ancient Arab tribes. The Siq slowly revealed different color rocks as the sun shone; each time I walked it, the colors were different hues, depending on the hour of the day.

The Siq also showed the importance of water, as Petra was in the heart of the desert. A Peak at the Treasury
A Peak at the Treasury
 Water harvesting and diversion systems brought the sacred fluid to homes and to agricultural production. Along the Siq's Roman road were several of these systems, along with terracotta piping in places.

In the end was the immense Treasury, the symbol of Petra, amazingly preserved with its floral patterns and columns and statues carved directly from the rock.

After the Treasury, which was more likely a tomb of a king, Petra opened into a wider canyonland of Wadi Musa, surrounded by High Places of sacrifice and worship for the polytheistic pagan gods from around the Middle East. Tombs were everywhere and in the center was a collonaded street with freestanding temples, most of which fell from centuries of earthquakes. Trails led to the High Places, monasteries, oases, a rock quarry, and tombs. I took many of these trails.

Every evening, I returned exhausted after a day in the desert sun, walking many miles. The Petra Gate Hotel had an excellent buffet dinner to end the night, though.

About the time when the three wise men brought frankincense, myrrh, and gold to Jesus, Petra would have been the hub for this trade. Along with trade came ideas and thoughts and cultures exchanging their wisdom and it was inevitable that gods from India to Egypt and philosophy from China were known in Petra to one degree or another.

Petra today is a eye-opening look into this 2,000 year-old culture, now long abandoned but still easily imagined while dwarfed by the Siq, the Treasury, or the Monastery.
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