Our Taxi driver turned out to be a gem. He spent 7 hours driving us from Amman to Petra along the Kings highway. He stopped at all the points of interest and let us take photos. This land is full of history (as we anticipate Israel will be). Characters from the old testament walked this land. We were in awe.
The Petra palace hotel was a great haven and included free internet access which had been difficult to find. Our schedule was getting so short that we decided that we would need to spent only one day exploring the Petra city so decided to get up early the next morning and beat the yourist hoards to the site. At 7:00am we were walking into the city. What an adventure. I'm going to struggle to find the words to describe it. You walk into the city through a narrow rock passage called the SIG. This is around 1200 metres long. When you come out of it your first view is of one of the temples - it is inspiring.
We walked through the city marvelling at what it once was. Sadly earthquakes and the lack of good ongoing preservation has reduced much of the city to ruin. It costs around 25 euros to visit and there are thousands of visitors every day - but sadly little of the money collected goes towards site preservation. I was dismayed to see around 2 cubic metres of broken pottery pieces in a rubbish heap. The whole site is commercialised. But it is still awesome. We tramped to the top monastery. Interestingly the bedouin people live in this area. We met one bedouin man who had set up a camp/ tourist area at the highest point. He lived there or in a nearby cave when it rained. These people have a very generous spirit. He composes music using a folklore instrument called an OUDE.
What more can I say - see the photos More thumbnails ...
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